Many insurance plans cover only a limited number of doctors’ visits or hospital days, exposing families’ to unlimited financial liability. Over half of all personal bankruptcies today are caused by medical bills. Lack of affordable health care is compounded by serious flaws in our health care delivery system. About 100,000 Americans die from medical errors in hospitals every year. One-quarter of all medical spending goes to administrative and overhead costs, and reliance on antiquated paper-based record and information systems needlessly increases these costs.
Additionally, the medication information is updated in the patient’s medical record and easily available for follow-up visits. A major advantage of CPOE functionality is built-in clinical decision support. Alerts appear when orders are entered for medications or treatment that may cause an adverse reaction to a drug or drugs that had previously been ordered for that patient. The same applies to dosing errors—if a care provider ordered 250 mg of a drug for a 10-year-old patient, but maximum dosage is
I choose the articles for Cerner, for the fact that my employer recently bought a contract with the company. I have grown accustomed to the changes, and know the pros and cons of the software. “Cerner is an integrated database that provides a comprehensive set capabilities allowing health care to electronically store, capture and access patient health information in both acute and ambulatory care setting.” (www.medicalrecords.com Feb. 2012). With this system our facility is able to keep up with the patients’ history even if they were not seen for years. This complex new system has ways of looking up patient history and pharmaceutical information if a drug is not known.
While studying the surgical patient tracer worksheet, one of the most serious deficiencies identified was the patient history and physical not being done within twenty-four hours of admission. In fact, the patient medical records were completed after more than seventy-two hours of patient admission. Documenting medical records in an appropriate time frame is an important standard in the joint commission accreditation process. The Joint Commission requires an accredited hospital to have written policies regarding timely documentation into medical records. Eighty percent of a patient’s diagnosis is done by the identification of their current and past medical histories.
In this day and age when people's mantra is "I need my privacy", not many people are comfortable about having their entire medical history recorded and digitized for almost just anybody to see - in other words, incursion into people's privacy. EMRs can lead to loss of the human touch in health care. In the process of digitalization, the interpersonal aspect in health care may be lost. In handwritten hospital charts, doctors and other health care practitioners may write what they think and they feel based on their personal observations in their very own words. EMR is simply about ticking off boxes and crossing out things in electronic forms.
On the surface, just being able to simply send the basic patient chart to another doctor in the practice, the front desk, the nearest hospital or even a specialist is an improvement on the current paper process (Source One). However, even more important than ease of use, is the ability of the EMR software to track patient systems across multiple providers in the same practice or across hospital in an entire integrated health network (Source Seven). The physicians would have the option to view other patient charts with similar patient symptoms to a patient they were currently treating in real-time, which would allow them to see what they were ultimately diagnosed with, potentially saving the life of the patient on the table. It could essentially cut out the ‘learning curve’ of that doctor, especially if it was a set of symptoms that they were not as familiar with (Source Sixteen). Further, the EMR software is capable of alerting the doctors to trends that are taking place across the health system, making them aware of current bugs that may be floating around the area, which can help with quicker, accurate treatment of diseases and illnesses (Source
Consumers are more interesting in the way technology has advanced with in the health care era. Patients are aware that all medical information is safely kept in a computer, but are concern of possible typos or errors that happens with the use of computers. On the flip side consumers understand that retrieving the health information can be done faster for test results and other important information that may usually take weeks to retrieve. Consumers now know it is easier for them to request refills on medication, and sent to the pharmacy quicker. Consumers realize medical providers are gaining a better way to manage the medical information, which will help improve the health care industry, and provide positive medical care.
I believe that telemedicine will be even more prevalent that it is today, possibly even to the point where patients will be able to skype with their primary care physician from home. I believe that within the next ten years we will see a complete electronic medical record through a National Health Information Exchange, making it possible for a person to receive more accurate health care anywhere in the country. I believe that because of technology and the patient portals, patients will be more informed and will be more involved in the type of care they are
EMR contains the treatment and medical history of patients in one practice. Hence, EMR enables the clinician or doctor to easily identify patients who require preventative screening, and to track data over time. Markedly, EMR has made the patient record-keeping process simpler and convenient, comprehensive, and more accurate. Notably, doctors use specific software to allow them search and enter information electronically. In addition, the complete history of patients is made available by this system.
EMR systems link all the various sections within an organization and include all data found within those sections. The reason behind this decision is because all forms of data and information will be transitioned to become electronic versions. This would eradicate the dreaded doctor hand writing which can lead to major problems when deciphering prescriptions and instructions. The information received, via hand held device or data entry specialist will be automatically uploaded into a new database that will house all the information. Essentially, EMR systems provide more efficiency measures and provide a more productive work place Data Governance Data governance (DG) refers to the overall management of the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data employed in an enterprise.