The transition to electronic health records hold with it the potential of solving the problems experienced in the traditional paper systems. However, the move can pose a lot of challenges in the implementation process to the hospital management and the healthcare industry at large. This paper describes some of the pitfalls of this transition and the possible solutions.
Lack of Physician Buy-in
The first problem is obtaining a full support from staff and practitioners. Achieving a total buy-in from the physicians on the technological matter is difficult ( Hoerbst & Ammenwerth, 2010) . Most people have questions on the upheaval while a few have resistance. Many physicians express concerns over the promise that the transition to EHR system will change the daily activities. On the other hand, the staff fears to lose their jobs as the technology will take over most of the clerical jobs. The misinterpretation of the benefits of the new system may lead to the individuals seeing it as a curse.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The solution to this problem is having a strong leadership that is both reasonable and forceful. Outreach to staff should be imperative as this is an organizational change. The leadership must be able to approach the employees and prove to them why the implementation of the EHR is a priority to the organization. Also, the change champion should be able to convince the staff that their jobs are not jeopardized. The physicians should be included in the entire implementation process to drive out any doubt. Thorough involvement of the staff is essential in ensuring that the system is customized to meet the requirement of the human resource that will use them.
Limited Testing for Usability
The other potential issue that may arise with the implementation of the electronic health records is the question of usability. The suppliers of the technology need to assess the usability of the EHRs before vending them. However, the current situation only tests the EHR once it has been designed ( Hoerbst & Ammenwerth, 2010) . In other words, the usability tests are conducted only to figure out how easily the providers can carry out several functions using the system. For instance, the requirements for using the EHR system is evaluated based on the ease with which a physician can order a medicine successfully, instead of determining their likelihood of ordering the wrong medication.
The issue of testability can be solved by the stakeholders ensuring the vendors and their products undergoing several tests during the initial development process. This should be done in the design phase of the project and updates made to the workflows while they are being developed. While doing this, the interests of the client should be taken into consideration. This should go on even to the post-implementation phase to assess any problems that were passed in the previous assessment.
Privacy Implications
Finally, there is an ethical implication of using EHR and it is related to the privacy of the patient data. The technology is used to store personal information that should be confidential. There are chances that the medical practitioners can share information concerning the patient without the knowledge of the client ( Ozair et al., 2015) . Third parties such as other healthcare institutions, insurance companies, among others will require access to the information if the system is to function as required. This puts the patient at the risk of security breaches from unauthorized access and release of information without their knowledge. The autonomy of the client is in jeopardy when the data is shared without their consent.
The solution to this pitfall is securing the data storage area using passwords and only allowing access to the authorized personnel. This is to increase accountability in case of any breach. The organization should also have a strict data protection policy that only allows for the release of confidential data on the consent of the patient.
The solutions stated above may be essential in answering the issues singly, but they do not guarantee a hundred percent efficiency and absolute elimination of the issues raised. For instance, it is difficult to solve the case of privacy as the data may be leaked to the third parties without the knowledge of the patient of the management. It will require a lot of costly audits to figure this out. Thus, even the person holding the password can be the one leaking the information, as seen in several data breaches around the world.
References
Hoerbst, A., & Ammenwerth, E. (2010). Electronic health records. Methods of information in medicine , 49 (04), 320-336.
Ozair, F. F., Jamshed, N., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health records: a general overview. Perspectives in clinical research , 6 (2), 73.
