Workplace technology - Essay Example

There is no nurse informaticist in my place of employment. The person responsible for introducing technology in the workplace is an administrator of one of the ten facilities of the organization. Mr Ernest Smith has a master’s degree in computer science and is also a certified nursing assistant (CNA). He has worked in Long Term Care (LTC) rehab for many years as a can and still keeps his CNA certificate valid. According to him, he was not responsible for bringing the adopted software to the facility because he was not yet employed when its use was initiated.

However, he fully supports the use of this software. In the clinical software decision-making process for the organization, the input of all the directors of nursing was acknowledged. On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law a plan for economic recovery designed to pull the United States out of a deep recession. Encompassing $789 billion in funding for stimulus programs, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included $19 billion to promote the adoption of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) technology, which allows individual doctors and eligible medical providers to receive $44,000 or more for “meaningful use” of an EHR system starting in 2011 (reference).

Nevertheless, the use of technology is still limited in LTC settings because of funding issues. Although a government incentive is being given to help in the transition to new technology, long-term care providers such as nursing homes are not eligible for incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program (https://questions.cms.gov/). In my workplace, the software system Matrix is used. This system was introduced to the organization in 1998 for billing purposes.

It is a web-based clinical EHR and financial software system designed specifically as a form of eldercare technology. Clinical, financial and corporate processes can be managed through this single system. Matrix also allows access from a web-enabled device at any time, and can be used for billing and clinical applications. This model supports the multiple locations of this organization, which has a single company database. Matrix is HIPAA and HI-TECH compliant. Access is based on user-defined roles, encrypted over a 128-bit secure socket layer, and is guaranteed secure.

Individual passwords and screen savers are used for privacy and security. For my specific practice, coding and emailing is used. Email is used mainly between the managerial staff, while coding is done through the Matrix HER system using the “face sheet” process. When a patient is admitted, a face sheet is generated (all information about the patient including demographic data is entered), and clinical and financial users share one point of data entry for all census and resident demographic information.

The clinical application that is currently being used in nursing is for care planning and MDS. Mr Smith has said that using the same system, eMar, documentation and eScribing will be initiated as soon as the correct hardware is acquired.