Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper

Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper
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Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper
Consider an opportunity for tracking care improvement. What key information would be needed in the database? Example: Time lapse from medication order documented in the EHR to delivery of medication to the patient for the cardiology service.
The database would need to undertake lab orders and tracking. The system would need a tracking module that makes it easy for physicians to receive lab results. Doctors should receive the results electronically. The database should allow the results to be quickly uploaded to the system. Such information would remove the time-consuming task of manually obtaining lab result files. Secondly, the database would need progress notes. Here, healthcare providers document the clinical status during hospitalization or even when the patient is on outpatient care. Clinical notes assist in continuity in healthcare by enhancing communication between the various healthcare professionals involved (Mathioudakis et al., 2016).
Furthermore, the database would need to track prescription from the time it is entered in the EHR to when it is administered to the patient (Ehrenstein et al., 2019). The information would be critical in ensuring that patients take the correct medication. It will also prevent incidences where patients receive the wrong medication despite having a correct prescription.
Describe the role informatics plays in the ability to capture this data. What type of project management strategies and methodologies can be implemented to support informatics initiatives to help improve quality within the clinical practice?
Informatics is critical in offering a mechanism through which clinicians can capture critical information. Patient information results in large data sets. The data is not useful unless it is collected and analyzed. Through informatics, large data sets can be collected easily. Healthcare professionals need a wide range of data to make decisions (Truglio-Londrigan & Slyer, 2018). Informatics ensures that the data is analyzed in a way that makes sense to health professionals.
Two major project management strategies and techniques can be implemented. These include agile and waterfall. The agile methodology entails breaking a project into several phases (Al-Saqqa et al., 2020). The methodology emphasizes collaboration with stakeholders to ensure continuous improvement at every stage. Collaboration remains key for both the team members and the project stakeholders.
Given that improving the quality of care in the clinical practice is a continuous process, agile methodology is appropriate because it supports informatics initiatives that make the necessary changes. In the healthcare setting, continuous feedback is necessary for improving the quality of care. Feedback is needed to adapt the informatics project to the client's specific requirements with the agile approach. Therefore, the frequent iteration nature of health informatics would be better addressed using the agile approach.
The waterfall methodology is also critical in the informatics project. The approach entails having project activities into linear sequential phases. Each stage depends on the deliverables of the previous phase (Van Casteren, 2017). While the agile method can get a project delivered quickly, it is inappropriate for long-term projects. Using an agile approach can get the team lost in details and fail to focus on the bigger picture. The sequential nature of the waterfall methodology makes it possible for players to see a sequence of tasks laid out from the start to the end. For large-scale informatics projects, the waterfall approach can work. The biggest challenge with the approach is its rigidity, which can be costly to healthcare facilities. In an environment where continuous improvements like improving the quality of care, the waterfall method may not deliver faster results.
Discuss which systems and staff members would need to be involved in the design and implementation process. What is the role of the advanced registered nurse in promoting evidence-based practice and leading quality and performance improvement initiatives within this setting?
According to Gross et al. (2016), the implementation of EHR would require the collaboration of several staff members. The EHR team lead would be responsible for making the final decisions about the implementation plan. Another staff is the EHR implementation manager, who will be tasked with keeping the project moving. The staff would monitor the work plan to ensure that the project remains on schedule. Thirdly, an information technology lead would be required to deploy and operate the software and hardware. All questions regarding the software and hardware will be directed to the IT lead. Finally, another staff will be the physician champion. The staff would act as a liaison between the physicians and the implementation team. The physician champion would demonstrate how the system should operate from a clinical perspective and demonstrate how physicians require the EHR to operate efficiently. The physician champion would also update the physicians on the progress of the EHR to ensure that they "buy-in" to the project. Finally, a registered nurse (RN) is needed to ensure that the system promotes evidence-based practice (EBP). The inclusion of EBP ensures that nurses have scientific research to make well-founded decisions (Lehane et al., 2019). An RN would bring innovative ideas and practices to improve the quality of care and advance health information technologies.
Outline strategies for implementing the new EHR proposal. Consider communication changes, transitioning to the new EHR, and managing resources (human, fiscal, and health care resources).
Communication is a crucial part of the success or failure of implementing an EHR system. Any change in an organizational setup can attract resistance if not communicated well. So, the communication strategy while implementing an EHR system entails clarity in communication. The clarity in communication entails communicating what will be affected by the change. As Schulz-Knappe et al. (2019) indicate, organizational change's success depends on how the employees feel about the change and how well the change was communicated during the change process. So, the implementation of the EHR system should be communicated clearly with the individual tasks that will be affected outlined as well.
Transitioning to the new EHR calls for patience and time. Expecting the overhaul of an old system to happen fast and with immediate changes or results is simply delusional of the management. There is a need to exercise patience and to transition over time. So, the transition process needs to be broken down into different phases and spread out over several months. The phases will then be implemented slowly to avoid causing breakdowns in service provision.
With regard to resources, there is also a need to ensure balance in how the resources are spread out and utilized. Allocating too many resources to the transition process could leave the older version deprived of resources. For example, asking three-quarters of the human resource to dedicate their time to the transition process could cause a breakdown of service provision. So, the management of the resources should be done with a balanced view of the state of events. The phases should command or demand the resources needed. However, there is a need to ensure continuity, and hence a call to balance the resources with the needs.
Discuss what professional, ethical, and regulatory standards must be incorporated i...