Technological advancements have facilitated the development of electronic methods of storing medical information. Electronic medical records have become significantly beneficial to many health care organizations. Currently, it is good for healthcare organizations to move towards electronic systems for storing patient information. It is important to realize that the use of electronic medical records help in improving access to essential health information. For health information to be more useful, it should always be sharable between physicians, as well as different medical practices. Therefore, electronic medical records have significantly changed the way that traditional medical records are stored and managed. Currently, healthcare organizations are capable of keeping all information in one place. Additionally, medical information can be shared between offices of healthcare providers more easily.
Implementation of Electronic Medical Records
Medical records are very important in medical facilities and they should be well documented and maintained for easy retrieval. It is important to realize that medical records have a special role in planning, evaluation, research and training. As such, electronic health records could help health facilities to effectively improve storage and access of healthcare information. Despite the various advantages offered by electronic health records, many health care facilities have been reluctant in implementing electronic medical records. There are various reasons why health facilities find it hard to implement electronic health records.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Time is one of the important reasons why health care facilities are reluctant in implementing electronic health records. Generally, healthcare organizations do not actually take the time to properly become familiar with the available products, select the appropriate EMR, implement it, as well as train to use it. Therefore, it becomes very difficult for such organizations to actually appreciate the benefits of electronic health records. Most of the physicians are always not willing to take extra time to use electronic health records. Additionally, some of the physicians fear the idea of not being compensated for taking a lighter load. As such, they prefer using traditional methods of keeping health records. This explains why most health care facilities have been reluctant to adopt digital ways of keeping patient information.
Cost of investment is another important barrier to the implementation of electronic health records. This is because health care organizations have to actually weigh the costs of creating and supporting their own IT structure and applications. Additionally, the high cost of using external vendors to provide the IT services make the health care organizations to be reluctant in implementing electronic medical records. The costs in question may include purchase price, monitoring costs, coordination costs, negotiating costs, governance costs, as well as upgrade costs. It is worth realizing that such costs generally act contrary to the typical benefits provided by the electronic medical records. Costs remain the biggest barrier to adoption for small to medium sized health care organizations without large IT budgets. This underscores the significance of cost as a barrier to adoption of electronic medical records. It is worth realizing that cost, as a barrier, is compounded by the uncertainty over the actual size of any financial benefits that may accrue from electronic medical records over time.
Absence of computer skills is also another important factor that impedes the implementation of electronic medical records in health care organizations. It is important to point out the fact that the skills needed to effectively listen to patients’ complaints, assess medical relevance, determine interventions, as well as type notes concurrently are not always available in most healthcare facilities. Moreover, the electronic medical records service providers seem to always underestimate the level of computer skills required from the users. In practice, the electronic medical records systems are normally very complex to use by physicians. As such, the benefits of the system may not be realized due to the incompetence of the physicians in terms of using them. Therefore, lack of the requisite computer skills is one of the reasons why some of the health care facilities are reluctant to implement electronic medical records.
Electronic medical records are perceived by many health care organizations to cause workflow disruption. The time required to learn how to use digital systems might lead to disruptions of critical workflows in health care facilities. Therefore, most health organizations are reluctant to implement electronic health records infrastructure due to the anticipated disruptions in the workflow.
Electronic health records are usually considered to negatively affect doctor-patient relationships in health care organizations. Some researchers have highlighted the likelihood of interaction challenges between physicians and patients when using electronic health records systems. Doctor-patient eye contact is considered crucial for complete interpersonal communication between the doctor and the patient. For instance, some of the physicians report stopping the use of electronic medical records systems because they disrupt the clinical encounter.
Vendor trust is another important concern raised by some health care facilities. For instance, lack of technical support from vendors has been cited as one of the major barriers for adoption of electronic medical records in health facilities. It is therefore clear that the quality or the electronic medical records systems’ vendors are crucial for adoption of electronic medical records in health care organizations. Additionally, some of the physicians believe that some of the vendors in the market are not actually qualified to provide a proper service.
Impact of HIPAA on Patients’ Medical Records
Since the HIPAA went into effect, the confidentiality of patients’ medical records has been increasingly protected by federal law (Green, 2012). Initially, a patchwork of state regulations was used to guard confidentiality of patient health information. HIPAA currently ensures that the patient health information is properly protected from abuse. As such, the law has helped in enforcing a higher standard of handling confidential patient information in health care facilities. HIPAA’s ultimate objective is to effectively protect both the inappropriate disclosure of private medical information. It ensures that all the patients have the right to know what is in their medical records. It is therefore clear that HIPAA affects all facets of healthcare regarding the safety and confidentiality of patient health information.
It is important to realize that HIPAA is such a sweeping legislation that has mandated many changes in health care (Kilbridge, 2003). For instance, sign in sheets in hospitals no longer ask patients the reason for the visit. This is an attempt to make the health information of patients as private as possible. Additionally, the computers containing patients’ health information must be password-protected in order to safeguard it. Having computers password-protected ensures that the patients’ information is not easily seen by the public. The legislation recognizes that need to enhance patients’ privacy at all levels in healthcare facilities. The HIPAA also requires that health care workers are not allowed to discuss details relating to patients openly such as names, type of medical care, explanations of medical conditions, as well as appointments.
The legislation has also ensured that patients fully understand their rights as far as their medical records are concerned. For instance, HIPAA offers patients a clear and understandable definition of what those rights entail from a clinical point of view. Under HIPAA, every medical practitioner is obliged to offer a clear explanation regarding how he or she will deal with a patient’s protected health information, as well as what rights the patient has. Moreover, HIPAA allows patients to file complaints with the covered entity. The entity must respond in certain ways and within certain periods. Therefore, the legislation has significantly highlighted the importance and the need to protect the confidentiality and privacy of patients’ health records.
Therefore, the HIPAA requires that healthcare facilities continually analyze potential risks and vulnerabilities that may lead to the violation of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the patients’ health information. As such, health care facilities should create audit logs by implementing software and hardware that record and examine activity in information systems that use or contain electronic patient health information.
The HITECH Act
The primary objective of the HITECH Act is to significantly improve the manner in which health care is delivered by investing in progressive health care technologies in the United States of America. Meaningful use of electronic health records in healthcare organizations is the major focus for the legislation (Jha, 2010). The HITECH Act has implications for both health care providers and patients. For the providers, HITECH has ensured that the federal government provides financial incentives to help healthcare providers offset the initial costs of converting to electronic medical records. However, the providers are obliged to effectively demonstrate meaningful use of the electronic health records. For the patients, the HITECH has ensured that they have a legal right to see and get a copy of their health information from hospitals, doctors and other healthcare providers.
There are various advantages associated with the legislation. For instance, HITECH has resulted in the empowerment of physicians in healthcare facilities. The improved technologies used in recording patient health information facilitate easy access to information in hospitals hence enhancing faster decision-making. HITECH Act has also led to improved clinical outcomes. This is because electronic health records improve the quality of care and patient safety in healthcare facilities. It is important to realize that electronic health records focus on patient safety, efficiency and effectiveness in the continuum of care. HITECH has also led to favorable organizational outcomes. For instance, EHRs are associated with increased revenue and reduction of costs in health care organizations. Additionally, electronic health records are known to improve the ability to conduct research. Therefore, the use of HER in healthcare facilities helps in facilitating quality research.
However, there are drawbacks associated with HITECH. For instance, implementation of electronic health records is very costly. Ongoing maintenance costs, as well as declining revenue are some of the factors that impede adoption of EHRs. EHRs are also believed to disrupt workflows in healthcare facilities. This may significantly affect productivity. The risk of patient privacy violations is also another disadvantage of HITECH.
Training on the proper use of electronic health records could be an effective strategy for mitigating the potential disruption of workflow in health care organizations. This will eliminate the possibility of costly errors and delays in service delivery.
Workflow Processes
The workflow from admission to discharge in hospitals can be so hectic. Therefore, it is important to limit the movements of physicians and nurses in order to increase efficiency and minimize fatigue. As such, secure can be used to effect communication between nurses and physicians regarding patient treatments. As such, unnecessary paperwork and movements will be reduced significantly.
Impact of Key Federal Initiatives
The various federal initiatives aimed at improving the privacy, safety and confidentiality of patient health information regulate access and sharing of such information. The federal initiatives such as HIPAA ensure that patient health information’s privacy and safety is safeguarded.
Advantages of IT Systems in Healthcare
Applying IT systems in healthcare comes with important systems. IT systems such as EHRs help in minimizing errors, reducing costs and improving coordination between healthcare providers. This goes a long way in improving the safety of patients in healthcare facilities hence enhancing the quality of care provided.
In conclusion, it is demonstrable that federal initiatives aimed at protecting the privacy and confidentiality of patient health information play a significant role in promoting the quality of care in healthcare facilities. Implementation of electronic healthcare records is a sure way of improving patient safety and quality of care.
References
Greene, A. H. (2012). HIPAA compliance for clinician texting. Journal of AHIMA , 83 (4), 34-36.
Jha, A. K. (2010). Meaningful use of electronic health records: the road ahead. Jama , 304 (15), 1709-1710.
Kilbridge, P. (2003). The cost of HIPAA compliance. The New England journal of medicine , 348 (15), 1423.
