General and Electronic Medical Records - Term Paper Example

?Trending Topic: Electronic Medical Record by The ordinary American is en d to comprehensive quality healthcare delivery. It is in light of this that the Obama administration in 2009 signed the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) into law to make it possible to use Electronic Medical Record (EMR) by 2014. This paper therefore seeks to address some of the most current and prevailing discussions on the topic so as to come out with a decisive conclusion as to whether or not the law will be beneficial to the contemporary nursing officer. Introduction The Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) is just one way of making healthcare accessible to all American by ensuring that both patients and health practitioners have quick and easy access to data that pertains to the health needs of patients (quote). As it is now, the enactment of the law would be considered as most accomplishing if there become the creations of an electronic medical record from which health information will be referred to. For the nursing officer, the law comes with some level of dilemma because it is going to be a new phenomenon. As of now, there continues to be very sharp divided schools of thoughts as to how the nurse is going to fare with the enactment of the law. Whereas some look at the positives, there are others who have pessimistic feelings, holding the view that the electronic medical record would have negative implications to the nursing profession. In the light of these arguments, there is a very strong conviction that some detailed and further research as to how to make the proposed electronic medical record work better to the interest of all would eventually make the system a faultless phenomenon. To this end, key techniques such as the need to tighten accessibility to the record would really make the system highly beneficial. In order to ensure that nurses are not handicapped on the system also, it is recommended that training and enhancement programs for nursing students start right away even before the introduction of the law. Overview of the HITECH Act and what would accomplish this goal The Health Information Technology and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is part of a wider dispensation on the use and advancement of information technology. It would be noticed that since its inception, information technology has taken central stage in the running of the affairs of most industries in the world over and the United States to be specific. As the years went by therefore, there was the need to channel the many benefits of information technology into the health sector (Wujcik (2010). This therefore called for the introduction of a system “to promote the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology” (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). Wujcik (2010), therefore see the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as a legal provision that tries to bridge the gap between the patient and the healthcare provider in such a way that technology is integrated into the construction, storage, retrieval and usage of all data and information about the patient, that will be necessary for medical actions and attentions to be given. The Act has a number of key components, most of which seeks to protect the patient against the invasion of key information about health history. A typical section of the Act that ensures this is the Subtitle D of the HITECH Act, which caters for privacy and accessibility issues (Eisenberg, 2012). For the Act to be accomplished, there must be a legislative backing that sets to action the freedom for electronic medical records to be created for use by health providers and healthcare recipients. How the use of EMRs affect nurses including positive and negative effects Robles (2009), outlines some of the major effects of the electronic medical records on the work of the nurse in a contemporary healthcare facility. Among these effects includes the fact that the electronic medical records would bring about a new era of nursing practice where there is going to be “a single consolidated record for each person”. This means that the days whereby nurses had to handle several detached and haphazard files and folders for as many patients as were in their care is going to be a thing of the part. By the click of a button, all information about a given patient, which would be in a well structured and easy to use format, would be displayed. Consequently, the nurse is going to spend less than on access health records and thus get more time to spend on the patient. This is indeed also another way of saying that the physical demands on a nurse are going to be less tedious as compared to times past (Hertzum and Simonsen, 2008). What is more, the era of the electronic medical records is going to allow for capacity for data interfaces and alerts to be created (Robles, 2009). In effect, nurses are going to avoid the manual means of outlining various components of a patient’s information. Rather, there is even going to be an enhancement that would ensure that digital alerts are even created to suggest to the nurse where certain key data on the patient can be found. Finally, Robles (2009) opines that the electronic system is going to set forth a dispensation where there is going to be evidence based decision support in the sense that nurses are going to be privileged to store backups of patient information to ensure that when it matters most, nurses can make references to the backups of information as evidence and proof (Hertzum and Simonsen, 2008). Propose techniques of how to embrace the use of EMRs The introduction of every new system will come with its challenges and in some cases, flaws. However, if conscious efforts and strives are taken to minimize some of these challenges, the system would be highly beneficial and its total merits will be embraced by all. In light of this, Kunz (2010) proposes some key techniques that should accompany the introduction and use of the electronic medical record. For instance, it is very important that techniques that will deal with fragmentation are catered for. As a new system; and with the fact that technology keeps advancing among ordinary people (including crooks and imitators), there could be the tendency that if checks are not placed on limiting rates of fragmentation ns chances are that people are either going to invade the manufacturing and production of some of these devices or even genuinely built devices are not going to work properly. Nurses should therefore be equipped to handle such situations. As a new system, it is also recommended that in order to ensure that all nurses in the country embrace its use, there should be some motivational reinforcements associated with the use of the electronic medical records. For example in various health facilities, a small scheme could be designed to specially reward nurses who show high class with the technological use and manipulation of the devices. This will be a way of stiring up positive competition on the need to master the use of the electronic medical records. Incorporating BSN into curriculum Ornes and Gassert (2007) could not be wrong when they recommended that the entry point of the use of the electronic medical records should be at the training level of nurses. This is because once nurses will be made to graduate from schools before the training on the device would be made part of their task, it would mean they would have to learn on the job – a situation that can take away several productive hours from them. Again, they rate of perfection may be slowed down. This may affect the general output of work. Curriculum planners should therefore have a means of integrating the use and operation of the electronic medical record system into the training facility of nurses. As part of the BSN program, there could be a whole semester of training where students are going to have field practical work on the use of the technicalities of the system. Conclusion From the arguments and discussions so far, one thing stands out clearly on the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in general and the electronic medical records to be specific. This standing point has to do with the fact that the proposed era to come where electronic medical records will take over the current system has more advantages than disadvantages. For this reason, the implementation should be seconded without fail. As much s possible however, some of the key recommendations that have run through the paper must be considered critically. This is because if implemented, some of the criticisms that have even characterized debate on the merits of the system are going to be solved. Some of these include the need to start training on the electronic medical records right from the nursing training schools. REFERENCE LIST Eisenberg, S. (2010). Electronic Medical Records. ONS Connect, 25(10), 8-11. Hertzum, M., and Simonsen, J. (2008). Positive Effects of Electronic Patient Records on Three Clinical Activities. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 77(12), 809-817. Kunz, M. (2010). Embracing the electronic medical record: helping nurses overcome possible barriers. Nursing For Women’s Health, 14(4), 290-300. Doi:10.1111/j.1751-486X.2010.01559.x Robles, J. (2009). The effect of the electronic medical record on nurses' work. Creative Nursing, 15(1), 31-35. Ornes, L., & Gassert, C. (2007). Computer competencies in a BSN program. Journal Of Nursing Education, 46(2), 75-78. U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2012). HITECH Act Enforcement Interim Final Rule. Accessed August 5, 2012 from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/enforcementrule/hitechenforcementifr.html Wujcik, D. (2010). Can We Have an Electronic Medical Record for Every American by 2014?. ONS Connect, 25(10), 6. Read More