Electronic Medical Records - Term Paper Example

 Electronic Health Record Health has been important to people so they can go on with their lives without worries. They can perform their day-to-day tasks without complications if they are well and healthy. They can think clearly when they feel good. It really pays a lot to take care of their own health because they become productive if they are not weak and sickly. Sometimes getting sick is unavoidable because of many factors such as weather, stress, workload, lack of food and many more. In that case, the assistance of health practitioners are needed especially the expertise of medical doctors. Those doctors are the ones who can cure different forms of diseases through their years of experience and studies. They know how the physical body works and how it becomes weak and sickly. They try to trace the cause of the disease or ailment and prescribe medicine to bring back the healthy condition of their patients. It only shows that without the doctors, people may not have the higher chance of survival. Those health practitioners usually work in hospitals although they are not limited to those spaces in professing their careers. They may practice in health centers, small clinics, slum areas and even on ships and other places. Despite of the other places where those professionals can practice their careers, they are still commonly seen in hospitals. In hospitals, systems are used to make the facilitation organized and more productive than without any systems at all. Those offices perform various functions just like any other businesses do. They have billing, records, administration, front desk, clinics, canteens and many more. Those departments and office functions are very vital to make hospitals work. They also operate with the help of trained professionals which may not be limited to nurses, nutritionists, therapists and medical doctors. In certain circumstances like billing and check-ups, medical records prove to be useful. Those are the documents saved in a hospital that contains the health information and background of the patients. They are always accessed every time the patients visit the hospital for check-ups, diagnosis and other health-related concerns. Those documents make the process easier for the hospital staffs so they can attend to the needs of the patients. They can focus on the real health problems instead of wasting time in letting the patients fill-up another forms just to check their health background. Normally those records are printed on papers and kept on envelopes or folders and stored in shelves of hospital offices. Since such practice can be time-consuming and space-consuming, people have created some innovations with the system and integrate information technology with the use of those records. The product becomes the electronic health record. With the use of electronic gadgets and information technology, the system of storing, retrieving and collecting the data of patients have become faster and easier than the normal health record. It has revolutionized the way hospitals keep the patient data. With the use of sophisticated tools and gadgets, the records are saved digitally and can be shared in various health care locations. They can be transmitted using different channels like private wired networks, enterprise-wide connections or secured wireless connections. In sharing that information, healthcare practitioners get to check the detailed health status and background of their patients which include various diagnoses, drug intake, vital signs and physical status like weight and height. The data may also contain the transactions that the patients have done within the healthcare setting (Carter, 2008). Electronic health record has been given with such a name because of the systematic way of collecting, storing and retrieving the digital files of the patients which contain their health status and background. Despite of its popular name, some experts call it differently like electronic medical record since it contains the medical information needed by doctors to assist their patients with their medical needs. Some even call the record as electronic patient record since it contains the information about the patients (Scarlat, 2012). Although they may pertain to the same thing, each of those terminologies has their own differences. An electronic medical record may serve as the basis for the electronic health record. The former is usually created within the walls of an established institution like a hospital while the latter provides a more general and detailed status of the patients. In particular, EMR or electronic medical records contain the treatments that the patients received from medical doctors. They may come in the form of charts saved digitally. Those files allow the doctors to see the effectiveness of the treatments in relation to time as those are shown through figures. They can also check if he patients need to undergo certain laboratory tests or follow checkups. The same records can also show the performance of the patients in particular parameters like their responses to vaccinations. Those records are also used as evaluations to develop the medical practice further (Carter, 2008). Despite of being digital, those EMRs cannot be distributed easily. They have to be placed on papers and mailed to the experts for verification. Such instance only shows that electronic medical records are almost as useful as paper records because of the failure of the EMRs to be sent easily (Carter, 2008). Electronic health records may seem different from EMRs because there are additional functions that the former can do in comparison to the capacity of the latter. EHRs provide a wider scope than EMRs. Basically, all of the functions of EMRs are seen in EHRs but electronic health records go beyond the standard data gathered from clinics. EHRs are distributed to other healthcare settings and providers and include all of the findings of the involved experts. In short, various healthcare organizations provide data and are responsible in managing the data of the patients placed in EHRs (Carter, 2008). The progress in the data in electronic health records goes on as the patients get other health assistance from various providers. It only means that the hospital, clinics, laboratories, individual healthcare practitioners and other staffs may contribute to the information placed in the EHRs. Those can even be delivered to other countries if the need for the further help across borders is necessary (Scarlat, 2012). Since healthcare is much broader than the medical practice, EHRs become more valuable through teamwork of various agencies and healthcare organizations. In addition, they send and deliver the records safely to be accessed only by the involved experts. The use of those records is facilitated in secured fashion as the experts use private communication tools (Scarlat, 2012). With the use of electronic health records, the healthcare professionals can coordinate and plan well for the benefit of their common patients. For example, the main responsible healthcare provider can inform the emergency experts about the conditions that may be fatal to the patients so they can adjust the treatment and help the patients survive. The patients can also access their own records and check their performance (Scarlat, 2012). Their records may serve as motivation to keep their efforts in improving their lifestyle based on the figures. The records may also reflect the results of the test that had been done to the patients so that repeating the same tests would be avoided. In addition, the advice of the doctors and the hospitals as to whether the patients can be discharged is also placed in the records (Scarlat, 2012). In the paper, one particular electronic health record product would be analyzed. All of the considerations would be discussed in the study and show whether the product is really worth it. The background, reviews, company and many more would be dealt with before a conclusion is done based on the information about that particular HER (Scarlat, 2012). The particular brand to be studied in the paper is the so-called Epic Electronic Health Records. That particular technology integrates various functionalities into one useable tool that any healthcare practitioners can use with ease. They do not need to worry about the ways on how to use it because it comes with instructions. According to Epic (2013), the tool is used to prevent the practitioners from using various tools in dealing with the patient records through the use of “one patient, one record approach.” It means that all of the needed data regarding the healthcare of a patient is fully integrated into powerful easy-to-access software. The Epic HRE can be used by physicians, hospitals or both. For medical doctors, ambulatory electronic medical records, practice management and useable apps are the ones that may be of importance to them while hospitals may need patient billing, inpatient electronic medical records and optional ambulatory electronic medical record to be integrated with the system (Epic, 2013). For those who want the features of the ones used by the hospitals and the doctors, Epic Electronic Health Record also has integrated them all into one powerful tool. It provides one database for inpatient records, billing in hospitals, ambulatory electronic records and mobile apps for ease of use. Through the combined features, any healthcare staffs will not have any difficulty in accessing the records because they only need one database to access everything about the health of the patients (Epic, 2013). The first feature of EPIC HRE that is being used by physicians is the ambulatory electronic medical records. For more than a decade, that feature has been graded as the top in the list of EMRs according to KLAS Enterprises. The said grade-giver is an independent body that provides grades and quality analysis on the systems being provided and used in the healthcare setting (KLAS Enterprises, 2011). The said body has found out that the ambulatory feature of the EPIC HRE has made the considerations in patient care easy-to-understand. As a result, doctors can focus on the problems of their patients and they become more responsive to the needs of the patients. Other than those above, the system also houses models that are already created for specific processes depending upon the specialties of the physicians. The models also provide cost-effective way of dealing with the needs of the patients. Instead of doing everything from nothing, those templates are made based on the contents provided by past clients. They are patterned after the parameters like orders, documentation, reports and decision assistance. The use of it makes the users save time, money and effort and it leads to higher productivity (Epic, 2013). Epic HRE is also ideal for enhancing the services in practice management. It enhances the process of registering patients in any healthcare services. It allows the users to actually register the patients without errors through its error management features. It facilitates the follow-ups and other necessary activities to be done by the staffs in checking the flow of patients (Epic, 2013). Next would be the scheduling feature that the Epic EHR can provide. All sorts of schedules can be fixed by the HER from the appointment of doctors to scheduled surgeries. It can also facilitate better patient experience by identifying the open slots for appointments and other healthcare services that can be provided. The scheduler is not limited to the time slots but also to the list of available healthcare professionals, rooms to be used and equipment needed to perform the necessary services. Those are all done to prevent any conflict in a healthcare organization (Epic, 2013). Another feature of the practice management software of Epic EHR is the professional billing. It makes the billing function in the healthcare setting become more efficient than before. The claims are accurate especially for the insurance being used by patients and the transactions do not use any paper. In addition, it records all transactions and each one can be monitored. Because of its efficient systematic processes, reimbursements become non-problematic. The output about the billing function is done using a suite of tools for creating reports. Those tools are already incorporated in the Epic HER (Epic, 2013). The Epic EHR can also help the staffs who handle the customer support services. Since customer service representatives need the information of the callers who are most probably patients, the database contains the necessary data about the patients and all of the histories and services that the particular patients have. In that way, it would be easy to track the specific needs of the calling patients and the healthcare provider can also use it as a source of feedback to improve the overall system. It is noteworthy to remember that customer support is about solving the queries and problems of the calling customers. In the case of healthcare providers, they can be the family member of the patients or the patients themselves. The representatives must be able to use the call management function of Epic electronic health record to systematically record, check, and solve the issues of the patients. Since it is integrated with the software Epic, it would be easy to generate reports that can show the details of the call support. It can also be used to evaluate the responsiveness to the needs of the patients across departments and how the staffs provide the services (Epic, 2013). Another set of features for the Epic electronic health records would be the applications that can be used to access the records. It has the so-called My Chart feature that allows the patients to see their detailed health reports and status in the same way their physicians access them. In addition, patients can check them using any internet browser and mobile applications like those seen in Android Operating System. Its functions may help the patients to alter their lifestyle to get better health and understanding. It may also reduce the need for customer service since the system already provides details that the patients need to know about their health. Patients can actually see the health appointments that they need to attend and even check their past appointments. The appointment check is important because they can track the pacing of their health indirectly and they are able to plan ahead. They can also check their medical and health transactions especially when they need to monitor their expenses for health needs. They can also check the results of their past laboratory tests to see if they get the necessary medications or advice based on the results. They may also update the needed medicines for their health and even schedule some appointments. The health records also include secured communication capabilities for instant support that the patients may get in case of any queries. They may also access the records using their gadgets at home and print the figures and other data in the records. In case of any chronic ailments, reminders can also be seen to alert the patients about the necessary steps to save their lives from painstaking conditions (Epic, 2013). For hospitals, there are features that Epic electronic health record can do. For instance, the so-called Epic Care Inpatient Clinical System removes the complexities in the information that the healthcare professionals need to see when they perform their tasks in the hospital. Some of the features that can help them are the outpatient support, hospital maps, intensive care unit assistance, care plans, communication pathways with other healthcare professionals, online portal, and many more. The interface is very user-friendly while maintaining the effectiveness that the system carries out to efficiently help the professionals with the needs of the inpatients (Epic, 2013). Certifications are also necessary to ensure the quality of the product. Epic Electronic Health Records has been awarded with both stage one and stage two accreditations. Stage one accreditation has been awarded by the Commission for Health Information Technology. Epic has been following the criteria set forth by the Secretary of Health and Human Services which allows the software vendor to provide services to hospitals and other healthcare setting. Its certification number is CC-1112-574355-1 for inpatient hospitals and CC-1112-574355-2 ambulatory setting. For level two compliance, the same body had actually awarded the certification to Epic HRE (Epic, 2013). The next part of the paper would deal with the reviews regarding Epic EHR software. Reviews may show the ups and downs in using the software for managing the health records. Those reviews are important especially in analyzing the performance of a product. Epic EHR software started to offer ambulatory assistance only and branched out to other technical support when it won the Kaiser award. When it reached the main market for healthcare support, it marketed a suite of tools for managing the health records. It has integrated various tools into a suite that is easy-to-use and accessible anywhere and anytime by subscribed people. The system operates in a sharing manner. The use of networks facilitates the access to the database and the information can be passed from one healthcare department to another. The uniqueness of the electronic health records brand has gained the company with a 40 percent market share in hospitals across United States of America. Its integration of the features in managing the health records has allowed it to overcome the competition in the market. Its demands grow as hospitals especially those with ambulatory functions allot budgets to subscribe for software access services of Epic. Those institutions believe that they can become more productive with the help of Epic. If it is not functional, it would not have reached the 40 percent market share. In addition, it has been recognized by KLAS Awards in 2011. Its years of existence have also proven to be useful since the company behind it was established in 1979 (Health Record, 2013). An issue arises regarding the limits of the electronic health records. They are not accessible across software platforms. To address the issue, Epic has partnered with Greenway Medical Technologies to create ways in the integration of the records across various platforms and EHR vendors (Moukheiber, 2012). Having the capability of cross-platforms, people may be able to access the records with different EHR brands. A different review may show different views on Epic Electronic Health Records. More than 21000 respondents within 25 specialties had participated in a study about electronic health records. It had been found out that 22 percent uses Epic which earned the most percentage across the brands in the study. Other brands include AllScripts, Cerner, NextGen, Medent and many more. In the same study, the brands were compared based on various parameters such as reliability, customer support, staff satisfaction, appearance, data entry function and more. Based on the average scores of the brands, Epic was only ranked sixth out of seventeen brands (Medscape, 2012). Overall, Epic Electronic Health Records had proven itself as good software to facilitate the transfer and use of health records in various healthcare settings. References Carter, J. (2008). Electronic health records: A guide for clinicians and administrators. USA: American College of Physicians. Epic. (2013). Epic electronic health record. Retrieved from http://www.epic.com/ Health Record. (2013). Epic EMR review. Retrieved from http://healthrecord.us/epic-emr- inpatient-and-outpatient-review/ KLAS Enterprises. (2011). 2011 annual best in KLAS awards released. Retrieved from http://www.klasresearch.com/news/pressroom/2011/BestinKLAS Medscape. EHR report 2012: Physicians rank top EHRs. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/EHR2012#1 Moukheiber, Z. (2012). Is it happening? Electronic health record vendors take steps toward interoperability. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/zinamoukheiber/ 2012/09/07/is-it-happening-electronic-health-record-vendors-take-steps-toward-interoperability Scarlat, A. (2012). Electronic health record: A systems analysis of the medications domain. USA: Taylor and Francis. Read More