Transforming Nursing and Healthcare Through Technology Term Paper

Health Information Technology
Student Name
Institution Affiliation
Health Information Technology
Technology continues to revolutionize various sectors of society and economy including the health care industry. They are not simplifying tasks but also fostering efficiency and effectiveness. The health care sector has been one of the core industries of the economy that has embraced technological innovations in different ways. This comes in the wake of the fact that health care is an extremely sensitive docket because the lives of individuals are at stake. While health care personnel have over the years gone out of their way to ensure patient outcomes are improved significantly, their efforts have time and again proved futile. Similarly, doctors and nurses are human beings and as such, are prone to errors that in some cases prove utterly costly. Nonetheless, different forms of technological innovations have transformed the health sector and supported health care professionals in the provision of quality care. One notable health information technology system is electronic medical record. With the system, health care facilities are going paperless. As such, EMR makes it easy and convenient to send data and the seamless provision of health care. Gone are the days when patient records in the form of hard copy files would get lost and jeopardize their lives. EMR also allows patients to get involved more in their treatment through the exploration of patient-specific education resources. Based on the above facts it is evident that EMR is a welcomed HIT to medical facilities worldwide. The essay purposes to examine extensively on electronic medical record as a HIT in the perspective of the Northern Cheyenne Hospital that recently implemented the system.
Understanding Electronic Medical Record
Electronic Medical Records, (EMR) systems can be defined as the digital version of health-based data that is usually collected and managed by physicians and staff within a health-care organization. EMRs include radiology images, allergies, medical history, immunization status, demographics and personal statistics like age. This system is designed to store and accurately share a patient’s data thus eliminating the need for paperwork and filing. A decade ago EMRs were advertised as the key to providing quality health-care. Despite this, a recent survey showed that a number of health-care institutions in the United States have failed to adopt the use of EMRs. This may be due to a number of reasons. First and foremost, most small practices cannot afford to fund the high cost of this equipment. Secondly, most people underestimate the capabilities of EMR and are unwilling to make the changes required. Additionally, there is a failure to redesign the clinical process to pave way for the smooth integration of the technology in to the workforce. Fourthly, there are concerns that EMR may eventually become obsolete. Fifthly, most institutions lack the resources to fund and implement EMR. Last but not least, there are concerns regarding the unintended consequences of the technology. However, the institutions that implemented the user of Electronic Medical Records reported that the perks of a modern database far outweigh any possible consequences. One of the health-care facilities that implemented the system is the Northern Cheyenne Hospital which is located in Montana.
Organization Information
The facility was first established in 1995, replacing an earlier building that had become rundown. The Northern Cheyenne Hospital was built with a goal of reducing wait times for patients. The facility aims at creating and maintaining a rural health plan. Furthermore, it offers quality outpatient care and 24 hour care to approximately 6,300 in patients. The mission of the Northern Cheyenne Hospital is to work with the people of Arizona to promote their physical, mental, spiritual and social health to the highest level. The hospital also owns two mobile clinics that aid in providing quality health-care services. The integration of the EMRs into the work force has been beneficial to the patients and to the medical practice. The patients have benefited from this system in a number of ways. First and foremost, the use of files to document and sign in patients slowed down the speed of service providing. Some patients ended up dying in the reception area as they waited their turn. EMR enables the service care providers to adequately meet the needs of patients. Secondly, the patient data on dosage and personal statistics kept getting mixed up. This inconvenience sometimes led to the doctors administering the wrong dose on a patient. With the new technology, there is little risk of mixing up patient data as computers provide a visual feed of patients and can be relied upon to keep patient files separate. In the Northern Cheyenne Hospital, this system has proven a valuable asset to the medical practice in the following ways; To begin with, the EMR saves space. A hospital that serves as many patients as the Northern Cheyenne hospital will need a vast amount of space to store all forms of patient paperwork (Asswad & Badewi, 2019). This system enables the hospital to store any patient related information in a couple of computers. Secondly, the system enables fast transference of data from one department to the next. Speed in data transference can sometimes mean the difference between life and death especially in the Emergency room. Apart from that, the technological system saves operational cost. Costs such as overtime and transcription services have been cut down as the computers can adequately monitor patient vitals. Moreover, EMRs add an air of professionalism. The system shapes the way physicians interact with patients. Fifthly, this technology enhances the ability of doctors and nurses to identify patient care plans for patients suffering from chronic illnesses (Diangi, Stevens, Halpern – Felsher, Pageler & Lee, 2019). Sixthly, EMR enables the hospital to bill patients more efficiently. What’s more, it also provides the hospital with an enhanced ability to graph data such as lab reports. Visual data is usually easily understood when presented to patients. Finally, EMR enables the faster identification of allergies. Sometimes patients may be given medication that leads to an allergic reaction, certified EMR software catches this issue before it becomes a health emergency. Before implementing the EMRs system, the board of governors of the Northern Cheyenne Hospital conducted a needs assessment.
The quantitative and qualitative analysis used to conduct the survey brought to light the following things. First and foremost, 13.7% of the hospitalizations lead to one case of outside clinical information. Without EMRs, this information is usually not useful 66% of the time because it arrives late. This survey showed that poor accessibility to information was the main impediment to accessing quality health services. The survey results compelled the management to start projects of implementing EMRs in order to avoid future inconveniences. Questionnaire forms were also handed to patients so as to rate the quality of the services provided and make any suggestions. 90% of these forms came back with suggestions on the use of technology to improve the quality of the services provided. After this thorough survey, the board of governors sat down and discussed ways of implementing EMR. A trained team of IT specialists manages and updates the hospital’s EMR system. The team also helps the institution to meet federal requirements.
Information System Application Design and Development
The hospital is funded by the Crow Agency and run by a board of governors. The board of governors consists of various stakeholders all who hold considerable sway in the running of the hospital. When it comes to decision making, the BOG usually holds a meeting and puts the issue to a vote. The implementation of EMR was voted unanimously due to the survey findings. There is also an air of democracy as the patients are also indirectly involved in the decision making. In order to successfully implement the EMR system, service providers go through training that focuses on five key areas. First and foremost, the training timeline is based on goals. When creating a training schedule, both long term and short term goals should be considered. The short term goal should be to enable users to log-in to the system whereas the long term goal should be to enable all the patient care providers to maneuver through the data fields. The training timeline can also be adjusted whenever there is a new system update (Golembski, 2017). Furthermore, the training needs to sufficiently address the different user skill levels. It is vital to properly assess the service providers’ technological skills. This is because even the most reluctant technology users can become computer proficient when subjected to the type of training. When armed with the knowledge of everyone’s skill level, the training will only address the areas they come up short. Thirdly, there should be an EMR training team. The team should comprise of people who are ready to offer both formal and informal training. Distributing members of this team to each department will provide the clinical staff with someone they are able comfortably reach out to whenever they need any kind of assistance. To add on that, one should use real time and hands-on training. Providing trainees with computers during training sessions will allow them to follow training in real time. Written instructions should be distributed so that they can follow by ‘doing’ instead of ‘watching’ (DiAngi, Stevens, Halpern – Felsher, Pageler & Lee, 2019). To sum up, one should choose the right curriculum. Choosing the right curriculum simply means looking at the organizational goals and addressing the areas where user deficiency might prevent the goals from being attained. There are a number of security challenges one faces when it comes to keeping patient data safe, these are data breach, HIPPA Compliance, system failure, phishing and viruses. Firstly, data breach occurs when a hacker gains unauthorized access to the company’s data. It can also occur when data is transmitted over an insecure network. To prevent data breaches from occurring, the IT team decided to only use encrypted information and to use password protected devices. Additionally, password protection will also prevent the organization from suffering a HIPPA violation. Thirdly, a system failure could bring the entire operation to a halt. To avoid this, the data backed up. This safety net also offers protection against potential natural disasters. Finally, the increased u...