Week 5
Electronic Health Records
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are digitally stored healthcare information throughout an individual’s lifetime with the purpose of supporting continuity of care, education, and research (Ajam, & Arab-Chadegani, 2013). The EHRs may include such things as; “observations, laboratory tests, medical images, treatments, therapies, drugs administered, patient identifying information, and legal permissions”, etc. The growing purpose of EMRs is to make available and provide the right information to the right person anywhere at any time in today’s worldwide interconnected technology rapidly improving world (Ajam, & Arab-Chadegani, 2013).
Challenges EHRs Implementation
Though electronic health record (EHR) use in hospitals has increased substantively, there are still concerns that remain concerning the exceptional challenges hospitals face in implementing and attaining meaningful use of EHRs (Gabriel, Furukawa, Jones, King, & Samy, 2013). There are potential challenges and barriers healthcare organizations face in Electronic Health Record use. If our health organizations learn what these common barriers are, it can help our nursing practice manage and set realistic goals to accomplish those barriers (Office Practicum, 2017). I will be talking about three common challenges in the implementation of EHRs and they are: The EHRs technical ability. This means that the EHRs ability to retrieve and send data throughout healthcare is affected by its age and other issues, such as the area in which the health organization is located. If an EMR is used in older building or if the health organization is located in rural areas where there are connection issues and internet failures, this can cause technical difficulties for the HER to operate efficiently (Office Practicum, 2017). The cost of EHRs use. Improvements in health information technology, such as EHRs, can be costly in implementation and usage, and the products are expensive and require funding and investment (Ajam, & Arab-Chadegani, 2013). It is a major barrier, especially for smaller health practices and organizations to find the expenses to invest in the training and support of staff/health care provider EHRs users, and also the cost of the device itself and possible maintenances is a cost issue that present challenges (Office Practicum, 2017). The people (e.g. Nurses). The EHRs are more challenging to use than paper-based records. Sadly, not everybody is pleased with the idea of implementing and using EHRs. For example, some older nurse who are used to the old paper documentations are not always computer savvy, and due to the difficulty, the nurses may opt out from using the EMR system at all or device shortcuts to avoid the use of the technology which increases errors and the patient safety is jeopardized. There will be patients and providers along the way that may reject EHRs or easily give up on them if there are preliminary technical failures (Office Practicum, 2017). These challenges ultimately lead to reduced practice efficiency and interruption of workflow (Ajam, & Arab-Chadegani, 2013).
Strategies to address each challenge and what has been demonstrated to be successful
In order to address the challenges of the EHRs technical ability, the cost of EHRs use, and the people (e.g. Nurses), the following strategies need to be applied. The people: “Nurses learn best from nurses” states Hodgkins (2017). Educating staff, providing support, Training, and also viewing “EHR implementation as a strategic, patient focused initiative, not just a technical effort” (Dworkin, Kirwan, & Smith, 2013). This have been successful because Organizations that have effectively implemented EHR system have comprehended the improved vision of high quality care, healthier, happier patients, and cost-effective delivery. Bearing those in mind is the strategy to maintaining drive, enthusiasm, proficiency, and effort as people face the changes EHR implementation brings to their roles (Dworkin, Kirwan, & Smith, 2013). Also creating an implementation team such as coworkers/ clinical members who can play the teaching roles by using their EHR skill to help colleagues who are technically challenged (Hodgkins, 2017). My work place also went further to train nurses as EHRs supper user (We call them EPIC super user) so they can be available to teach other nurses who are struggling and continuous EHRs training is available monthly.
Strategies to resolve the EHRs technical ability include the adoption of having the right hardware which can save the health organization time and money (Hodgkins, 2017). This will be successful because at my place of work, the hospital provided mobile EHRs for nurses to carry from room to room while providing patient care and have provided physicians with their own laptop or tablet which have helped reduce the time spent logging into the system numerous times each day. The hospital also provided printers in every room which have saved nurses and physicians time. Still speaking on strategies to address EHRs technical issues, I will also address strategies to cost as well. My workplace, healthcare organization, on strategies to address technical issues and cost of EHRs is hiring reliable Information Technology (IT) service companies to help them with their system hardware needs (Hodgkins, 2017). The IT service company monitors the EHRs system in my organization remotely in order to detect problems before they become critical. The IT company in my place of work operates 24/7 to help solve any hardware and software problems that may arise in our EHRs (EPIC) system (Hodgkins, 2017).
The IT service company and EHR seller have been helpful in finding the right equipment at the best possible price for my healthcare organization workplace. The IT service company have also been able to stock, connect and troubleshoot all EHRs devices, including the local area network and routers for our hospital system (Hodgkins, 2017). The best course of action for health organizations is to educate themselves and set budgets on the true costs before they begin the EHR installation. In addition, local regional extension center’s (REC’s) mission is to help hospitals, especially small organizations, to implement an HER (McBride, 2012). In my State, Texas, the regional extension center’s hold live events where health organization providers can hear other health care providers/physicians discuss their experiences implementing EHRs in their practices and where they can also have individual face-to-face meetings with experts. Also, developing a financial strategy have been successful in helping health organizations plan cost of implementing EHR use (McBride, 2012).
References
Ajam, S., & Arab-Chadegani. (2013). Barriers to implement electronic health records (EHRs). Journal of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 25(3), 213-215. doi:10.5455/msm.2013.25.213-215
Dworkin, D., Kirwan, C., & Smith, E. (2013, June 4). Five Strategies to Drive Successful Results in EHR Implementation. Retrieved from https://monkessays.com/write-my-essay/schafferresults.com/perspectives-from-schaffer-consulting-experts/5-strategies-drive-successful-results-ehr-implementation
Gabriel, M. H., Furukawa, M. F., Jones, E. B., King, J., & Samy, L. K. (2013, September 1). The Implementation and Use of Electronic Health Records to Achieve Meaningful Use among Critical Access Hospitals. Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/cahdata_brief12.pdf
Hodgkins, M. (2017). Electronic Health Record (EHR) Implementation: Ease the transition from paper to EHRs. Retrieved from https://www.stepsforward.org/Static/images/modules/5/downloadable/EHR_Implementation.pdf
McBride, M. (2012 July 25). Understanding the true costs of an EHR implementation plan. Retrieved from http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/modernmedicine/modern-medicine-feature-articles/understanding-true-costs-ehr-?page=full
The Office Practicum (2017, February 22). Six Common Challenges in EHR Implementation. Retrieved from https://www.officepracticum.com/blog/6-common-challenges-in-ehr-implementation/
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