The Use of Bedside EMR - Coursework Example

The Use of Bedside EMR Nursing has had a history of having problems when it comes to the quality of services offered as well as an equal history of trying to find solutions to these problems. In the recent years, the Centre for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) has invested a lot in order to improve the quality of nursing homes as well as Cooperate groups. One of the investments that has been successfully implemented in the clinical information system in the use of bedside electronic medical record (EMR). The clinical information system plays a significant role in the medical world in assisting, support, delivery, and management of the care given to patients. The department also concerns itself in assisting in financial and administrative matters and helping in self management of patients. These responsibilities make it necessary for this section of medical care to attain a certain sophistication level in nursing homes operations related to clinical information systems. The beside EMR applications in collecting of resident care daily measures and nursing facilities outcomes give it the potential to lead to an effective and efficient care for the nursing homes. The study conducted to examine the implementation and design of the bedside technology and how the technology has improved the residents care of nursing facilities proved the significance of this technology in nursing homes. INTRODUCTION/ASSESSMENT OF THE PROBLEM/ANALYSIS The bedside EMR technology was developed by EMR of Irvine and represents a shift to digital input from the ordinary manual. This technology has enabled the management as well as the nursing staff to have an instant access to information that is most current. The aim of the EMR is to ensure that clinical documentation of resident care is accurate and efficient. The technology makes use of a number of manual processes including data set minimal preparation forms. This element enables the EMR to save time while using the routine care data. In addition, EMR ensures accurate services reporting resulting in desirable reimbursement rates. Thus the use of bedside EMR facilitates the medical record fulfillment strengthening thus reducing potential penalties, fines and malpractice problems. Through the EMR system, radio frequency, microphones, PDA’s, infrared, and other wireless technology are easily integrated into the hospitals proprietary software. This ensures that the collection of data can be done at any part of the care point and later entered into a computer where it will be automatically populate all the relevant EMR sections as well as the MDS. This is very important to the clinical staff as the EMR provides a complete electronic charging system covering medication administration, physician orders and treatment records. This enables the staffs to streamline both the documentation and assessment procedures giving them features that ensure accuracy and efficiency during recording of the data collected and assessed. The system has been fitted with handheld PDAs which help the medical staff in collecting data and information at the bed side. The EMR system is also designed in such a way that it allows verification, accountability, and bidirectional messages and alerts by using the microchips located on the bracelet of each resident and on the ID badge of the caregiver. LESSONS LEARNED, ANALYZE FINDINGS IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOMES, and APPLICABILITY Through the several studies conducted on the usage and effectiveness of bedside EMR when applied on resident care have indicated that there are the technology has impacted the nursing field in so many positive ways. Looking at past studies, medical staffs were seen to go through major changes during the implication of this technology. A year down after the implementation of EMR, several benefits were witnessed after the staff had gained enough experience in using the technology. The licensing and administration staff alleged that the time of documentation greatly decreased while its accuracy increased, they were able to access information from the resident in a faster manner, the condition of trending resident information come out as being beneficial , while communication and assessment on residents improved remarkable. The EMR also benefited the medical staff by increasing the residents’ awareness in terms of their needs. However, some nursing staff came out strongly raising concerns about the documentation time-intensiveness. The data collected in the studies were also helpful in understanding the resident care aspects and how communication has been improved through bedside EMR. The device served as a basic reinforcement of the work done by nurses and nursing assistant. The medical staff enjoys using the EMR and this can be seen in the way the staff and the residents interact through charting prompts. Such interactions lead to the best care actions. The EMR system enables the nurses to have charting screens that are used in displaying practical information. Such screens provide timely information and set up expectations for the daily living activities as well as the rest of clinical practices outlined in the assessment tools used by nurses. Such assessment tools indicate the clinical problems like respiratory symptoms and goes ahead do provide appropriate interventions. The bedside EMR software has greatly reinforced clinical practices and still has the potential of leading to more improvements in care delivery to residents. The studies did not just realize the benefits of EMR technology but also a number of limitations. The implementation of this technology involves purposive recruitment which require interventions in order to locate nursing facilities with the rest of the Corporate staff and the administration who may or may not be willing to undertake this implementation and the costs related to it. There are both on-going and implementation costs associated with the use of bedside EMR and these costs have proved a major challenge to the recruiting facilities. There are other several factors that have to be considered before the technology is implemented including confounding factors like specific efforts to improve its care process and facility admission policies changes. PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS OR SOLUTIONS The studies have clearly indicated that there are several benefits associated with the usage and implementation bedside of EMR. The information obtained can be used by other nursing homes that are considering using bedside EMR. Any administrators willing to implement the bedside EMR has to undertake a number of preparations and major changes in their organization that will take a lot of time in order to successfully implement this technology. The medical staffs concerned with direct care require a lot of support before they learn how to use the device more so in the first twelve months. The organization also needs to come up with a careful plan that will ensure a continuous education opportunity for the staff so that they properly learn how to use the software the maximize the benefits associated with the technology. It is clear that when used proficiently, the technology ultimately lead to improved resident care. Although it takes time before all the staff members appreciate the efficiency of the technology with some even opposing it in the process, after a certain period of time, no one wishes to go back to the era of using paper charts. Read More