Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Health Records
With the advent of advancements in science and technology, the usage of electronic health records is considered as imperative for the purpose of deliverance of optimum healthcare to the patient (Bluementhal et al., 2014). The following paragraphs of this essay highlight the salient features pertaining to the usage of the same, followed by key components of data tracking by hospitals and the nurses experiences in handling of electronic data records.
Electronic Health Records imply the process of digitally and technologically documenting the salient details of a patient case study, with advantages such as ease in understanding as compared to the handwriting of the clinician, efficiency in documentation and access, the resultant incentives acquired by the concerned medical staff as well as significant reduction in the usage of space (Alder-Milstein et al., 2015).
- Nature of computer charting: Despite the potential advantages, this system has not been devoid of potential shortcomings, with recent complaints of increased focus on the computer screen, rather than the true details of the patient. The possible negative consequences of the usage of electronic health records may be due to the increased effort utilized in computer charting, hence, resulting in withdrawn focusing on the requirement of the patient. One of the major reasons for such disadvantages is due to the increased effort required by the concerned clinician to continuously and regular update information, in the absence of which, he may miss out on major details of the patient details. Further efforts utilized in computer charting, include the extensively detailed information which the clinician has to include in the record, which could have been done briefly if performed real time, resulting in greater patient focus (Ehrenfeld & Wanderer, 2018).
- Negative effects on Patient health care: While the usage of electronic health records has resulted in advantageous leaps in the promotion of healthcare and in-depth availability of information concerning the case details of the patient, there has been reported shortcomings in the quality of healthcare received by the patient, as opined in the statements presented by the American Medical Association (Gellert, Ramirez & Webster, 2015). This can be evident from the recent complaints made by the concerned physicians concerning the increased efforts required by them for the purpose of maintenance of patient health records electronically, which they could have meaningfully utilized in the provision of time for the concerned patient, hence further resulting in lack of appropriate communication between the two. The concerned activities of continuously and elaborately documenting details in electronic health records have led to the emergence of burnout, physiological and cognitive exhaustion and loss of individuality associated with the work amongst the clinicians, further resulting in lack of priority given to the concerned patient and the resultant negative patient healthcare quality (Rathert et al., 2017).
- Insufficient patient data during a law suit: This is due to the presence of insufficient information concerning the patient case details, since a majority of the electronic health records, thrives on the usage of pre-determined templates. Such templates or patient detail criteria formats which ignore the unique, individualized aspects required for the each patient, due to their unique presentation of case details and symptoms, which is completely different from the rest. This, and the resultant physician burnout suffered from the concerned clinician, may lead to gross insufficiencies in patient data, followed by wrong treatment and the resultant complaints by the patient families concerning medical negligence (Ben-Assuli, 2015).
At present in any organizations, the data that are being tracked can be classified into three types. These include: the recording of the number of falls occurred by patients in a clinical setup, as a vital indictor of quality, information pertaining to the readmission of patients in an effort to reduce the concerned repetition in readmission and gain incentives, and collection of feedback from the patients concerning treatment quality, in the form of The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (Hebda, Hunter & Czar, 2018).
- Patient Census and Statistics: An additional type of data that may be utilized in the event of data tracking by any concerned hospital is the maintenance of a patient census, which includes a daily recording of information concerning the number of patients admitted in the hospital every day. This will provide information, concerning the times of the year when the patient admission in the hospital is the highest, followed by a clear presentation of organizational data, specifying the concerned physician or department which experiences the largest patient load and the time during which, the patient population is recorded to be extremely low (Coulter et al., 2014).
- Importance of tracking Patient Census and Statistics: This recording of important population information will yield vital data concerning which times of the year, or which departments of the concerned clinical setting, encounter the largest load of patient administration. It has been reported that the demand in hospital health services and patient’s perception of provision of quality health care is reduced, during peak patient admission periods when patient numbers outrun the number of available beds. Hence, a tracking and availability of data pertaining to the number of patients admitted, will aid the hospital in enhanced management of peak business periods and the resultant enhancement in the healthcare of the concerned patients (Wang, Kung & Byrd, 2018).
- Organization concerned with tracking patient data: For the tracking of data concerning patient census and statistics, the concerned hospital staff may undergo training in the usage of certain technologies such as the usage of spreadsheets along simultaneous application of electronic health records, an upgraded version of electronic health records allowing sections for patient population recording and the application of a caseload management software to be used besides electronic health records. Likewise, the AIMS center, that is Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions have developed unique systems software pertaining to Care Management and Case Load Tracking (Cifuentes et al., 2015). Likewise, the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada, aim to track patient census data for the purpose of improvement of Canadian healthcare solutions (Evaniew et al., 2015).
- Ethical considerations: One of the key ethical considerations, pertaining to the collection of patient census data or statistics, along with the patient disease details, is the usage of such information for the purpose of research conductance. Since, activities pertaining to merely the healthcare organizations, are considered ethical, hence, the usage of such data beyond the concerned clinical setup, raises questions on a patient’s privacy, for which, due consent of the patient must be obtained (Gracy, 2015).
The selected topic based on the information of the discussion forum, was ‘Nursing Experiences with Electronic Health Records’.
- Importance: Nurses are required to the undertake a variety of multidisciplinary roles, concerning patient evaluation, assessment and feedback, and not merely restricting themselves in the alleviation of the somatic symptoms of the same. Further, as opined by the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, the need of the hour is to undertake systematic modifications in the nursing educational curriculum, in order to inculcate the usage of technology. This is due to the present mandatory usage of electronic health records by the Healthcare Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (Mennemeyer et al., 2016). However, despite the perceived advantages of the same, there has been reported difficulties in the usage of electronic health records by nurses, who are learning the implementation of such technologies. One of the key drawbacks reported by the nurses was the presence of distress in the usage of such technology, due to the detailed effort required and awareness of the possible medical repercussions concerning errors in electronic documentation. Further complaints included reduced user friendliness pertaining to the usage of electronic health records and the lack of support received during incidences of technical glitches (Gephart, Carrington & Finley, 2015). Hence, the importance of this discussion topic, lies in identifying the experiences of nurses concerning usage of such records and the possible negative effects, which would pave the way for the development of improved training and education of the nurses concerning the implementation of the same.
- Information Sciences: The Informatics or Healthcare theory which is believed to align best with the above mentioned topic for discussion is the theory of Information Sciences. The theory of Information Sciences implies the exploitation and usage of various types of scientific based information pertaining to technological implementation. Since the usage of electronic health records is associated with digitalization and technology, this is theory is considered best suited for the aforementioned topic involving nurses in the deliverance of optimum healthcare to the patients. In this situation, there is scientific and technological information is applied to assist in the retrieval, management and analysis of information pertaining to the healthcare of the concerned patient. The key features of the Information Sciences theory which can be associated with the usage of electronic health records by patients, involves retrieval of information, as evident by the documentation and obtaining of patient information in the record data. Additional features which are relatable are interactions performed between the computer and human, as evident by the close dedication nurses are required to offer towards their computers in maintenance of electronic health records, along with management of information in a system as presented by the usage of digital information by the nurses in the clinical patient setup (Hebda, Hunter & Czar, 2018). Hence, for the above associations of the features with the key characteristics of the discussion topic, the Information Sciences theory can be considered as the most appropriate informatics and healthcare theory, pertaining to the nursing experiences of utilizing electronic health records.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded, that despite the significant benefits, the usage of electronic health records can pose detrimental health impacts on the quality of patient treatment along with the experiences of nurses pertaining to the usage of the same. Hence, the need of the hour, is to implement educational modifications in the nursing curriculum for the purpose of training concerning the usage of electronic health records, followed by key considerations of the problems faced by the clinicians in the usage of the same.
References
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