Critical Factors in Implementing an IT System in Health Facilities

Critical Factors in Implementing an IT System in Health Facilities
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Critical Factors in Implementing an IT System in Health Facilities
The public healthcare systems in many countries encounter challenges that include weak healthcare systems as well as under-resourced services, therefore, providing poor outcomes to the patients. The global references validate that, implementing IT systems in healthcare organizations has the ability to minimize all the inefficiencies of the manual process as well as reducing operational costs (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010). Also, the availability of modern information technologies such as electronic medical records can result in a rise in the amount and availability of electronic medical information. Electronic medical records have been suggested to assist the healthcare professionals in their daily work and also reduce clinical errors, therefore, resulting in quality healthcare services (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010). Nevertheless, some of the healthcare systems have been unwilling to implement these electronic medical records in their establishments due to various reasons. The purpose of this essay is to discuss some of the factors why healthcare organization are unwilling to put into practice the electronic medical records. Also, the paper will explore how Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) impacts patient’s records.
The Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are electrical systems that are used in medical services to collect, display and store the patient's health records. The EMRs are a means of creating organized and legible recordings. The EMRs are projected to replace the traditional medical records where patient's accounts have been stored in paper form. Despite their positive influence, these devices face challenges from the practitioners. For instance, the electronic medical records are different from the traditional working style and implementing this system requires considerable financial resources (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010).
Financial Factors
The financial factor is one of the barriers that have caused many healthcare organizations reluctance to implementing these electronic devices. Many of the physician's concern is whether the charges of employing and using EMRs system will be affordable or whether they will get any financial advantage from it. However, the cost of implementing the EMR system is classified into start-up and ongoing costs (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010). However, the healthcare services claim that the start-up costs to implement these devices is high which ranges from $16000- $36000 for every practitioner (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010). This cost includes the hardware and software purchase, contracting and installation expenses, with an EMR software going for $10000 for every physician (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010). A study shows that many medical organizations claim this costs to be significantly high and therefore it becomes a barrier for them to adopt the EMR system (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010).
Furthermore, implementing EMRs requires an extensive commitment to the system administration, maintenance as well as support to ensure that it is effectively working. The healthcare organization, therefore, claims that the ongoing costs which include modifying, maintaining and upgrading of these systems are high. Also, the merchants charge costly for after-sales services which make the health services unwilling to implement the electronic medical records. High EMR costs make the physicians worry about significant financial risks that could take a long time to recover from (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010).
The start-up and ongoing costs required to implement the EMRs are very high and many organizations have inadequate capitals to cover them particularly the medium and small organizations. Therefore, these costs have forced many health organizations to be reluctant to implement the EMR system (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010).
Social Factors
Physicians in the medical services have been working and collaborating together with other parties in medical diligence like the vendors, managers, insurance companies, patients, and the subsidizers. The decision of implementing EMR systems will therefore affect the connection between the doctors and these parties. According to (Shachak et al., 2009), 92% of medical practitioners claims that EMRs could alter their communication with the patients. Using the EMRs increases time spent in computers during consultancy sessions and also while filing electronic forms. Therefore, this can result in inevitably less eye-contact as well as less conversation between the physicians and the patients. Alternatively, EMRs calls for more time per patients especially when the physician has low computer skills, therefore, creating inefficiencies within the doctors and patients (Shachak et al., 2009). Also, hunting for buttons and menus consumes more time and also disrupts the interaction between the patients and the practitioner. This makes social factors a barrier to most of the healthcare organizations to adopt the EMR systems because the doctor-patient connection will be changed.
Healthcare organizations have also been reluctant to EMR’s implementation because they lack support and involvement from the external and internal parties. For example, the USA highly encourages the EMR adoption, although many physicians claim that, this decision is affected by the regional and local organizations which are not active in EMR debate (Boonstra & Broekhuis, 2010). Also, medical insurance companies lack stand out actions and policies that support the EMRs use, hence, driving health organizations from implementing EMRs. Management level in health organizations is als...