The integration of Electronic Health Records (EHR) is a subject that is at the center of discussion in the healthcare sector. With the quality of healthcare services being the focus of most healthcare institutions, accuracy, speed, and efficiency are matters that are critical in the healthcare system. Many healthcare organizations and researchers hope that EHR is the tool that can provide the accuracy, speed, and efficiency in the healthcare system. In this sense, many healthcare institutions implement electronic health records with the hope of fine-tuning healthcare systems to increase efficiency and reduce the cost of care. Even though such organizations tend to enjoy the benefits that come with the implementation of the EHR, there is a lot of evidence that showcases the struggle they get through to contain the bad side of EHR. Despite the positive impact that comes with the implementation of the electronic health record in the hospital, the system also has a negative side that hospital management must understand and manage well to enjoy its benefits.
When hospitals implement electronic health records, they enjoy many benefits. For instance, the medical staff can access with much ease different documents when they are in the EHR system. With electronic records, the hospital staffs punch in the records and make them available. The system, in return, stores the records and makes it easy for authorized individuals to access them faster. In this sense, the implementation of the electronic record system enhances the speed with which the staff can access the medical data and use them ( Rathert et al., 2019) Further, the system stores such data and only make them available to authorized people with correct security details. In this case, the medical data are much safer as opposed to situations where the staffs use paper records. With the EHR system, there is an ease of communication as staff from different departments connect through the system. Improved communication reduces any chance of misdiagnosis or diagnosis errors. In return, this reduces the cost of care by reducing the chances of legal issues that may arise due to misdiagnosis or medication errors ( Laper, Restrepo& Crawford, 2016). Furthermore, electronic record improves on the accuracy, creates an excellent platform for sharing data in the hospital, and also help the healthcare providers with decision making. All these merits of electronic health records encourage hospitals to implement the system.
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Despite such benefits, implementing electronic records in the hospital still poses a lot of challenges. For instance, the cost of implementing the system is enormous. To the hospital, the financial manager needs to plan for the financial budget that comes with the implementation of this system. Furthermore, implementing this system means that there is a need to change the structure of the hospital ( Petrides et al., 2017). The staff must shift from using the paper record to the digital age. Training is necessary, and the cost of training could suffocating other areas in the hospital that need money. There are also high chances that staff may resist such change, thereby complicating the entire system. There are situations where the EHR system fails to communicate well with other systems in the hospital. The interoperability is an issue that is of a great challenge to many hospitals that opt to implement the system. All these points imply that even though the implementing EHR comes with positivity, the management must remain vigilant to deal with the negative side that comes with the system.
In conclusion, despite the benefits that accrue to the hospital when it implements the EHR, the management must stay vigilant to understand the challenges they are likely to face when dealing with the system. Such challenges include the resistance to change, the cost of implementing the system, and the problem of interoperability.
References
Laper, S. M., Restrepo, N. A., & Crawford, D. C. (2016). The challenges in using electronic health records for pharmacogenomics and precision medicine research. In Biocomputing 2016: Proceedings of the Pacific Symposium (pp. 369-380).
Petrides, A. K., Bishop, I., Goonan, E. M., Bates, D. W., Shaykevich, S., Lipsitz, S. R., ... &Melanson, S. E. (2017). The benefits and challenges of an interfaced electronic health record and laboratory information system: effects on laboratory processes. Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine , 141 (3), 410-417.
Rathert, C., Porter, T. H., Mittler, J. N., &Fleig-Palmer, M. (2019). Seven years after Meaningful Use: Physicians’ and nurses’ experiences with electronic health records. Health care management review , 44 (1), 30-40.
