Nursing informatics - Essay Example

? NURSING INFORMATICS Nursing Informatics Affiliation Discuss how access to information is important to the delivery of nursing care, specifically how the EMR system will benefit nurses in their work with patients? The key aspect of integrated clinical systems is that they help health service providers gather and store health care related data as a part of the general workflow. In this scenario, an electronic health record system facilitates the health care service providers to get data for billing, the doctor to perceive developments in the efficiency of treatments, a medical researcher to examine the effectiveness of medicine in patients with co-morbidities and a nurse to report an unfavorable reaction. Additionally, an EHR system puts together data to deal with different requirements. The basic goal is to gather data once, then utilize it numerous times (TechTarget, 2011; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2012; National Institutes of Health, 2006). What is an electronic medical record (EMR)? The majority of commercial electronic health records join together data from the large subsidiary services or departments, such as laboratory, pharmacy and radiology, through a wide variety of health care actions (i.e. medication administration records [MAR], nursing plans and medical physician orders). In other words, the use of an EHR system is the next step in the continuous development of healthcare sector that can reinforce the link between healthcare service providers and patients, because the data, and the appropriate and timely accessibility of it, allow health service providers to provide better care and make better decisions (TechTarget, 2011; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2012; National Institutes of Health, 2006). What are some applications of EMRs In the past few years, Electronic Health Record systems are playing a significant role in our lives and offer a wide variety of tools for effectively managing healthcare services and operations. In fact, EHR systems are used to keep our personal information regarding healthcare aspects. In case of any medical and healthcare issue this information can be accessed quickly and accurately and an appropriate solution can be suggested. In this scenario, the personal information that is stored in EHRs can be: (TechTarget, 2011; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2012; National Institutes of Health, 2006) Family history Contact information Allergies Insurance information Information regarding visits to health care specialists Immunization position Information regarding some conditions or diseases A list of medications Records of hospitalization Information regarding some surgeries or procedures performed What are Advantages of EMRs? Healthcare firms can save space by reducing paper work desired for hospitals, medical offices or insurance businesses. One more benefit of electronic health records is that they enable health care groups to organize health care services. In addition, the use of electronic health record systems can save a lot of time. Although faxing and email helps one doctor to obtain data and information from another laboratory or doctor, but for this they had to wait for a long time. But with EHRs, healthcare professionals can have immediate access to a patient’s details and data, such as lab tests, x-rays and details of recommendations or allergies, in this way they will be authorized to act right away, as a result saving a lot of precious time (Ellis-Christensen, 2012; Ausmed Education Pty Ltd. , 2012; Outlook Associates, 2010). Given below are some of major advantages of EHRs: (Ausmed Education Pty Ltd. , 2012) Improve communication among healthcare professionals Reduce repetition of information Information is accessible to healthcare professionals remotely All healthcare professionals can access same latest information Improve loyalty and reliability of healthcare Information less likely to be lost or destroyed (as it can happen in case of paperwork) Can more correctly store financial data Advantages of EMRs TO Nurses in Their Work with Patients This section outlines some of the major advantages of EMR to nurses in their work: Effective management of medical data Easy and quick access to patients record Frequent patient record extraction Quick relief to patient in case of emergency Easy handling of records of medicine Patient records handling with system Rapid response to management queries Rapid response to patient queries Quick understanding to patient’s medical history How Personal Health Information (PHI) is more vulnerable to breaches in confidentiality? It is an admitted fact that medical service providers need to have immediate access to patients’ medical records and information wherever and whenever patients visit the doctor or healthcare firm. In this scenario, a system to regulate electronic medical records, for instance the National Health Information Infrastructure, can be helpful in providing immediate access to patient information and medical history (Dudley, 2004). On the other hand, a patient does not want their personal health information to share with others or distribute virally all the way through the Internet. However, it is an admitted fact that the data and information of millions of patients stored in the form of electronic medical records can be breached or misused in a matter of seconds. With the passage of time, industries are moving to the Internet and as the industry transforms from paper records or manual systems to electronic medical records, personal health information is turning out to be more vulnerable to exposure than ever before. Basically, the implementation of electronic medical records increases the chances of risks and challenges of data breaches in forms that paper based records and manual systems never did in the past. In fact, with the passage of time and advancement of technology there have emerged a large number of security challenges. In addition, information theft, hacking and loss of computing devices (such as laptops or iPads) holding personal health records or data, as well as the adoption of insecure mobile and computing devices all increase the chances of exposure of personal health information, putting in danger their financial and physical health (Savitz, 2012). Actually, personal health records can contain critical information or details regarding a person’s life. Though, these records contain information regarding patient’s mental and physical condition, however, in some cases they can contain data regarding personal relations, social behaviors, and financial condition (National Academy of Sciences, 2009). Moreover, personal health information is more vulnerable to breaches in confidentiality for the reason that personal health information is accessible and used by a large number of healthcare persons, comprising clerks carrying out registration, nursing, accounting, physicians, pharmacy, partner hospitals, technicians, IT professionals, partner physicians and doctors and many others. In this scenario, it is obvious that commonly access to patients’ personal information is approved to a wide range of healthcare staff who wants to use that information. As a result, there emerge a large number of security and privacy issues. In fact, this personal information can be misused and leaked by anyone of these personnel either intentionally or unintentionally. Though, electronic medical records are implemented by keeping in mind strict security and privacy measures, however, their extensive and wide-scale access can create serious security and privacy risks. In addition, due to various patient safety and technical reasons, healthcare firms find themselves powerless to reel in access to personal health information (Imprivata, 2010). What types of security measures are most important to ensure that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations are met? If a healthcare service provider wants to comply with it needs to meet a number of requirements. Basically, this regulation takes into consideration the way personal health information is managed and used inside a healthcare firm as well as among other organizations and other sheltered entities. In addition, this law applies to both paper and electronic records (Fischer, 2003). In order to go along with the HIPAA, the healthcare industry must put into practice suitable and sensible security strategies. Additionally, this security rule applies to both internal and external security vulnerabilities and threats. In order to meet this regulation an organization must ensure the security of workstations, computers and devices employed to access, distribute, and store patients’ personal data and related information (Fischer, 2003). Moreover, HIPAA focuses on ensuring data confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of personal identifiable health information. In addition, healthcare firms must use properly approved, standard practices to select and implement security measures. In this scenario, these security measures can comprise the posing strict measures and mechanisms for accessing patients’ information and distribution of this information to desired stakeholders only as well as the securing this information from those who are not authorized to view them. Additionally, healthcare organizations need to evaluate the conformity of data systems through a pre-established set of security requirements. There is need to implement a formal method for processing medical records, policies and procedures used for the information collection, management and distribution (Fischer, 2003). Describe ways that Quality Improvement (QI) data collected from the system can be used to identify the occurrence of problems and errors? What is quality? There is no standard definition of quality. In fact, quality can be defined in different ways in different disciplines. In the context of healthcare industry, quality can be defined as the level to which a health care organization creates or provides the desired results (The Victorian Quality Council, 2008). Data Collection Data can be extracted from system through automated system controls that will allow users to simply grab data through simple and easy ways. This will also allow them to simply extract data through patient monitoring devices. This will lead to a great deal of simple handling and management of system procedures. The data extracted through patient’s monitoring report will also offer a great deal of capability for digitalizing the patient’s record to system. Through this approach whole system of hospital will become digitalize and performance will improve. Identifying Problems and Errors The new QI data will reduce the chance of data issues and problems. The new system will improve the performance through digitization of data and minimize issues of data damage and human error. This new QI based data will offer a great deal of capability for the problem identification and removal. This system will also enhance the data quality through automated data processing and handling. This will lead to better results and improved reports. What is quality improvement? Quality improvement is a complete system which allows a health care firm to achieve better health outcomes by properly assessing and improving service delivery procedures (The Victorian Quality Council, 2008). In the past few years, quality improvement has turned out to be a driving force in health care industry as it is believed to be a vital element of service delivery at all stages. In addition, the process of quality improvement is heavily based on data, unless an organization measures, it cannot determine accurately what is going wrong or what needs to be improved. Hence, endeavors to develop or improve systems or procedures must be based on consistent and reliable data and data collection processes. In fact, a healthcare firm can utilize this data to correctly discover problems and errors. In addition, this data also helps healthcare firms to establish priorities for quality improvement initiatives. Basically, this collected data can help a healthcare firm in dealing with different problems. This data can be used by a healthcare firm to determine what is going wrong in the delivery of their health services. What factors are serious in the delivery and how they can control them to improve their services? One way is to use this data for decision making. In this scenario, a healthcare firm can implement a decision support system (DSS) that extracts useful information from this data to help the management derive useful decisions. In addition, healthcare service providers can also implement data warehouse based on this data. A data warehouse is a huge collection of data, which collects, stores and process data from a number of sources in order to support decision making (The Victorian Quality Council, 2008; Laudon & Laudon, 1999). Explain the roles of the implementation team, including your own as the super user? The implementation of an electronic medical record system is a team based activity in which a team comprising experts from different domains perform their roles to make this implementation a success. Some of the major roles in this team can be: Project Manager: Usually, a project manager is assigned to every project that is responsible for managing project plan and leading the project team. In the context of a project implementation, the project manager is responsible for leading the entire project team as well as is accountable for project resource and control coordination (Ledbury, 2013). Application Analyst/Administrator: The role of this person in the implementation is to manage the application functionality and security and offer initial response for application issues once the development is in progress (Ledbury, 2013). IT Support: This department is responsible for ensuring the availability of software and hardware systems (Ledbury, 2013). Reporting Analyst: A reporting analyst should take part in planning from the first step to make sure that required data items are collected and available before the reports are developed in the new system (Ledbury, 2013). Super user: I am being a super user responsible for providing backup resources. Being a super-user I am responsible for making sure that the system works effectively and efficiently and it provides the required functionality for all health center activities. Once the system is implemented successfully, I will provide training for new users and for system updates (Ledbury, 2013). References Ausmed Education Pty Ltd. . (2012, August 22). Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Health Records. Retrieved July 05, 2013, from http://www.ausmedonline.com/nursing-blog/education/Advantages-and-Disadvantages-of-Electronic-Health-Records.html Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2012). Overview: Electronic Health Records. Retrieved July 07, 2013, from https://www.cms.gov/EHealthRecords/ Dudley, G. (2004). Electronic Records, Patient Confidentiality, and the Impact of HIPAA. Retrieved July 11, 2013, from http://www.psqh.com/octdec04/dudley.html Ellis-Christensen, T. (2012, February 25). What are the Advantages of Electronic Medical Records? Retrieved July 03, 2013, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-advantages-of-electronic-medical-records.htm Fischer, S. (2003). Preparing for HIPAA: Privacy and Security Issues to be Considered. SANS Institute. Imprivata. (2010). Privacy Monitoring for Healthcare. Belgium: Imprivata, Inc. Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (1999). Management Information Systems, Sixth Edition (6th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Ledbury, M. (2013). On The Road to Meaningful Use. Retrieved July 10, 2013, from http://www.nwrpca.org/health-center-news/146-on-the-road-to-meaningful-use.html National Academy of Sciences. (2009). The Value and Importance of Health Information Privacy. Retrieved July 10, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9579/ National Institutes of Health. (2006, April). Electronic Health Records Overview. Retrieved July 08, 2013, from http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/publications/informatics/ehr.pdf Outlook Associates. (2010). Medical Chart Conversion. Retrieved July 03, 2013, from http://www.outlook-associates.com/docs/MedicalRecordsConversion-quicktips.pdf Savitz, E. (2012, March 19). Can Health Care Orgs Maintain Trust With Electronic Records? Retrieved July 12, 2013, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/03/19/can-health-care-orgs-maintain-trust-with-electronic-records/ TechTarget. (2011, February 28). electronic health record (EHR). Retrieved July 04, 2013, from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/electronic-health-record--ehr-.html The Victorian Quality Council. (2008). A guide to using data for health care quality improvement. Retrieved July 10, 2013, from http://www.health.vic.gov.au/qualitycouncil/downloads/vqc_guide_to_using_data.pdf Open-ended Questions 1. How new digital information system can improve organizational data? 2. Did new information technology based system will improve quality of patient response? 3. Did new information technology based system will improve quality of management response? 4. How new technology based system offer better support for hospital management 5. How new technology based system offer better support for doctors 6. How new technology based system offer better support for hospital nurses 7. Can overall quality of data will improve through new technology based system 8. Did new system will enhance performance of staff? 9. Can technology transform the working patterns? 10. How staff will perceive new technology, acceptable or not acceptable? Read More