Electronic Medical Records Essay

Electronic medical examination Records (EMR) ar becoming more widely apply across the health interest spectrum. One of the reasons for their popularity is the potential that is presented for increasing the tint of eachot generateed to long-sufferings by lessen handwriting interpretation errors, reducing medical specialty administration errors and eliminating lost maps. prison term precaution is a crucial skill to have as a halt. It exclusivelyows for a smooth workflow which translates into quality long-suffering c atomic number 18. Much clock great deal be wasted not further by the nurse signing off illegible hand pen orders, but too by the other nurses that have to help interpret the handwriting.The EMR requires the physician to enter orders electronic on the wholey, thereby eliminating handwritten orders. Electronic orders ar more precise and more accurately followed (Sokol, 2006). Fewer errors make it to the long-suffering, reducing unnecessary tests and in creasing the quality of care that patients are receiving. Electronic medicinal drug administration records (MAR) are useful in displaying medications due at specific clocks. Not solitary(prenominal) is it possible to shield the medications due at one time, the MAR pull up stakes also industrious the nurse to potential drug interactions. Late medications go forth be displayed in red to be easily seen.If bar coding is implemented, medication errors batch be reduced by a range of 60%-97% (Hunter, 2011). A lost chart piece of tail be very frustrating temporary hookup trying to deliver seamless care to a patient. Paper charts are easily misplaced. Since there is wholly one, if a single canr is utilize it, no one else of the medical aggroup can view the chart. The EMR can be viewed from any computing machine with secure internet access or on a handheld device. When the internet is down, a downtime view only access is available. care for Involvement Nurses are known as p atient advocates.In advocating for their patients, nurses strive for what is best in their patients care. Since nurses ordain be using the EMR most frequently, it is imperative that they are part of the choice and implementation on an EMR. A nurse, on the EMR team, willing represent all nursing. Nurses will be accessing the EMR through their shift several times and will become familiar with the lay unwrap and workflow and will be able to provide insight into what would work best to ensure quality of care. There is a saying that you dont know what you dont know. A nurse knows what she will carry and is the best to supply this culture.While researching which EMR would be the best for a installation, a nurse can provide teaching on time saving workflows between organisations. Nurses must also be trained as super exploiters to provide a seamless diverge from study charting to electronic charting and provide support to fellow nursing staff. A nurse on the EMR team will be abl e to deliver new instruction in a way that other nurses are more receptive to. Handheld Devices If nurses were to use handheld devices in speech of patient care, there would be a noticeable savings of time as well as more accurate charting.Nursing military force carrying a handheld device would have immediate access to their patients chart to notice new orders, lab results, or medication admission records. The need to review the paper chart repeatedly throughout the day would be eliminated along with the long search that commences all time you have to go steady for the paper chart. This could add several minutes to a nurses time at the bedside, improving patient satisfaction. When vital signs are taken, written on a slip of paper and and then transcribed into the paper chart, there are many opportunities for error and delay.Numbers can be transposed, written incorrectly or the wrong patients instruction could go into a chart. With the immediate availability of a handheld devic e, the info from the vital signs monitor would have the ability to interface into the patients chart virtually eliminating late charting and errors. Security Standards The Health Insurance Portability and accountability Act (HIPAA) was initiated in 1996 as a standard for protecting severally identifiable health information (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services).HIPAA requires that all information, either written or electronically, that falls under the criteria is protected from illegitimate viewers. An EMR carries more stringent HIPAA guidelines than a paper chart due to the risks associated with computer based files and there are a few key step that must be taken to ensure compliance with this act. Access figure each user will have a unique user name and password that must not be shared. Firewall protection must be utilise on the internet server the hospital utilizes to keep open hackers from obtaining access to protected information.If users are authorized to acce ss patient information from home, there must be a secure server used (Arevalo, 2007). Storage Data must be encrypted to enhance the security plot of land information is being stored and while it is transferred. Encryption entails protection of files and data that is only viewable to authorized users. Compliance of these regulations should be audited on a tied(p) basis with any violation being swiftly remedied (Medical Records, 2013). Healthcare cost Purchasing an EMR can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.In order to justify much(prenominal) a large purchase, one must examine the potential ship canal that capital can be saved while using an EMR. after spending hours training users and with a little practice, nurses workflows will improve and less time will be wasted. A chart will not have to be searched for, double or common chord charting is eliminated by using handheld devices for immediate charting. The quality assurance team will be able to run reports on compliance of nerve centre measures and be able to recommend changes to nursing personnel to implement. Fewer medication errors will be made by using the electronic MAR.most importantly, these time and money saving factors will enhance patient safety. With few paper charts to store, valuable space can be remodeled into patient care areas that offer services not previously offered due to space issues (Power, 2013). This will increase revenue for the facility. Comparison Epic offers a computerized management system that is utilized by everyone in the healthcare mise en scene including, nurses, nurse aids, physicians, dietary, radiology, soupcon department and the business office. Each department will have a unique look and functionality to their program.There is no need to use triple systems to gather information on a patient. It can be used in medium size ambulatory settings such as a clinic as well as in a hospital setting for either inpatients or outpatients. With all departments having acce ss to the same information on a patient, errors will be reduced in delivery of patient care. The chance for entering erroneous lab results or miss- documentation will also be reduced with department specific workflows. Not only will this result in better patient care, but also in a nurses ability to delivery effective, efficient, quality care without delay.In addition, all physician order entry is electronic, every time. Order sets can be customized for each prescriber, saving time and chevy while maintaining meaningful use and following core measures. For added security, the system can be set to automatically sign a user out after a specified length of time of non-use. And while all of the patients information is available to each user, audit trails are left enhancing patient security. Epic has pre-loaded patient teaching materials available as well as the option to custom make information.After project summaries are easily printed upon discharge and an electronic copy is permane ntly inclined to the chart. Patient would benefit from a facility the uses the Epic system by having access to MyChart. MyChart is a portal of access between a patient and their provider for communication as well as a movable computerized health record. IF a patient were to access care from a facility that does not utilize the Epic system, that patient would have access to MyChart and would then be able to provide critical information that would enhance their care. some other computerized management system available is one from Cerner.This system can be used in all settings in a hospital including nursing. For medication administration, Cerner has available barcode identification of medication to help nursing staff fuck their five rights verification prior to administration. It also allows charting at the bedside to enhance trueness either through a handheld device or a stationary computer. All order entry by physicians is done on the computer allowing the providers to follow b uilt in prompts for allergy information and ominous drug interactions as well as prompts that will aid in the order of care protocols to enhance patient care.Cerner also has a portal designed for patient to have access to their records no matter where they are as well as tracking information for health goals a patient and their provider have established. The portal allows progress tracking and provides information on steps that can be used to help the patient reach their goals. This gives patients more responsibility for their health while providing the incentive needed. Nursing care will be escalated similarly to the way it would be in Epic.Patient information is easily accessible through intuitive workflows allowing nursing staff to make responsible decisions regarding patient care. My recommendation for a computerized management system would be the one available from Cerner. It is the most user sociable for staff including nursing and offers intensive training and yearly upgrad es. The different departments systems search to work together seamlessly resulting in increased savings of time and money (Cerner, 2013).