EMR According to the article, the New York Health + Hospitals turned to the use of Unified Medical Records to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic (Salway et al., 2020) . EMRs are digital versions of the patient paper charts used by the practitioner’s access to patients' medical history ( Charles, 2008) . Usually, EMR are only designed to be used in the practice; that is, they cannot be shared outside an individual practice. Thus, according to Charles (2008), among the healthcare reforms being undertaken is to ensure that the EMRs are designed in a way that facilitate access to patients’ medical records in all avenues of care while ensuring that the privacy, security, and autonomy of the patient is observed.
To that end, the New York Health + Hospitals adopted the EMR technologies and integrated them with other technologies, such as vital-sign monitors. With the adoption of the Unified Medical Records, the New York Health + Hospitals stood to benefit from the following:
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Firstly, healthcare facilities with the New York Health system benefited from improved patients’ efficiency. The EMR enabled automation of services that helped improve documentation of patients leading to speedy decision making (Salway et al., 2020) . The facilities also benefited from standardized clinical workup. With patients’ data, the practitioners could group these patients into ordered sets based on their symptoms (Salway et al., 2020) . This allowed the deliberation of standardized care.
Likewise, the facilities within the New York health system benefited from improved patients’ experiences. The facilities provided the patients (in both inpatient and outpatient settings) with digital gadgets, such as tablets that enhanced self-isolation as required by the government. This facilitated the communication between the patients (in isolation) and their family members (Salway et al., 2020) . Therefore, with the implementation of a Unified EMR, New York Health + Hospitals were able to achieve the desired patients’ outcomes as they have, to an extent, successfully treated and contained the spread of the viral disease.
References
Charles A., S. (2008). Developing Universal Electronic Medical Records. Gastroenterology & Hepatology , 4 (3), 193–195. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3088297/
Salway, R. J., Silvestri, D., Wei, E., & Bouton, M. (2020). Using Information Technology To Improve COVID-19 Care At New York City Health + Hospitals. Health Affairs , 10.1377/hlthaff. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00930
