Cloud-Based Electronic Health Records Smart Technology Essay

Introduction

Smart technology today plays a significant role in improving care efficiency, access, and safety. One of the smart technology applications in healthcare organizations is the electronic health records (EHRs) which has improved the documentation of patients which has a significant role in improving care quality and safety (Almutiry et al., 2013). Patient documentation promotes quality and continuous care by providing a means of communication between health providers regarding the patient health status. The EHRs fosters the creation of unique identification and data for patients which ensure easy retrieval of medical records when they are required by health care providers (Bajwa, 2014). Therefore, as a smart technology EHRs has promoted health care quality and accessibility as well as collaboration between healthcare providers in providing patient care solutions. This paper will assess how EHRs enhances care quality, access, and safety as well as its drawbacks and future implication on care.

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EHRs Smart Technology

Cloud-based EHRs refers to the digitization of patient information which increases convenience for the physicians and other healthcare stakeholders to access patient information easily. The patient medical history information, in this case, is stored in a cloud database which makes universal access possible and promotes the practicability of EHRs in patient diagnosis (Almutiry et al., 2013). The EHRs record a patient health history and allows instant retrieval which has a significant potential towards improving healthcare if well adopted and implemented. The EHRs is a new smart technology that enables the consolidation of the patient information which makes the data available anytime and anywhere despite the location of the patient by the medical professionals. Most healthcare organizations and professionals can easily access new technology which makes access to data easy even remotely (Bajwa, 2014). The Internet has also played a significant role towards the adaptation of EHRs in healthcare services and in the future EHRs will open up healthcare to other opportunities by promoting quality and research due to the availability of patient information.

EHRs Impact on Safety, Efficiency, and Quality of Care

EHRs has a significant impact on patient safety due to its aspect to promote continuity of care. Continuity of care means the ability of a health care provider to provide assessments that recognize the importance of reviewing the patient history. Patient history plays a significant role in patient diagnosis and can help health professionals from making mistakes (Bajwa, 2014). Medical history of a patient enables physicians to make a competent diagnosis by considering previous patient medical history which can give clues on the health issue or the attention that the patient requires. Quick diagnosis is necessary especially in critical cases to ensure the wellness of the patient. Delayed diagnosis by waiting for lab tests can be unreliable especially when the patient is unresponsive and cannot provide testimony regarding their health (Bajwa, 2014). In such cases, smart technology such as EHRs can play a significant role towards ensuring correct diagnosis which improves care efficiency, safety, and quality.

Benefits and Drawbacks of EHRs Smart Technology

Benefits

From a patient perspective, EHRs is advantageous because it reduces the time taken for diagnosis as well as the need to go to specific hospitals for care. EHRs is accessible from anywhere which ensures that healthcare providers in the system can be able to carry out patient medical history assessment which improved care quality and efficiency (Keliris et al., 2013). Healthcare provider's benefits from EHRs by ensuring correct diagnosis which has a significant impact on the healthcare provider reputation. The ability of the health care provider to make a correct diagnosis especially in emergency cases promotes care efficiency and convenience. Lastly, the healthcare organizations benefit by investing in EHRs because it promotes research and organization decision making based on the patient needs and preferences of care.

Drawbacks

A major drawback of EHRs towards the patients is that it can undermine the privacy of the patient if the information is leaked through a cyber-attack or deliberate disclosure by healthcare providers and data custodians. Therefore, although EHRs promotes quality of care and safety if mismanaged can be catastrophic to the healthcare providers responsible for maintaining the patient privacy (Bajwa, 2014). Implementation and maintaining a functional EHRs is costly to the organization and malpractices such as patient information leak, or loss can attract lawsuits against a healthcare organization which damages the reputation of providers.

Implementation of EHRs

Cloud-based EHRs can easily be implemented today by many healthcare providers due to the development of technology such as cloud storage and the internet which makes it possible to create a universal database system containing patient's medical histories, and different healthcare providers can access the patient medical history independently (Ren, 2012). The growing cyber-attacks and the cost of setting up a universal EHRs is a significant barrier towards realizing the application of the EHRs smart technology widely. Hackers remain a considerable threat to the already established EHRs which contains important patient information.

Technology Replaced by Cloud-Based EHRs

Database-Based EHRs

Most of the EHRs that exist today are based on individual hospitals and healthcare stakeholders such as health insurance and does not cover the majority of the population. This EHRs technology should be replaced by cloud-based EHRs which promote universal access by physicians and could play a significant role towards promoting care quality through evidence-based decision making (Abayomi-Alli et al., 2013).

Risks of Violating Patient Privacy and Confidentiality and Mitigation Strategy

There is a significant risk of patient privacy and confidentiality violation due to compromise by the healthcare providers on the hackers. Patient medical history information in the hands of malicious people can be detrimental to the patient history (Ren, 2012). Promoting high ethical and morality amongst healthcare providers as well as the legislation of laws that governs patient information access can significantly improve access and security of patient's medical history. Lastly, the encryption of the cloud-based electronic health records can promote patient control of their information which reduces the risk of patient information theft.

Conclusion

Cloud-based EHRs is a smart technology application that can be used in healthcare to improve efficiency, safety, and quality. Medical information plays a significant role in patient diagnosis and treatment, and sufficient access 0f patient medical history can promote evidence-based decisions in care. However, it is important to address the privacy and confidential issues to realize the merits of cloud-based EHRs.

References

Abayomi-Alli, A. A., Ikuomola, A. J., Robert, I. S., & Abayomi-Alli, O. O. (2014). An Enterprise Cloud-Based Electronic Health Records System. Journal of Computer Science, 2(2), 21-36.

Almutiry, O., Wills, G., Alwabel, A., Crowder, R., & WaIters, R. (2013, June). Toward a framework for data quality in the cloud-based health information system. In Information Society (i-Society), 2013 International Conference on (pp. 153-157). IEEE.

Bajwa, M. (2014). Emerging 21st-century medical technologies. Pakistan journal of medical sciences, 30(3), 649.

Keliris, A. P., Kolias, V. D., & Nikita, K. S. (2013, November). Smart cards in healthcare information systems: Benefits and limitations. In 2013 IEEE 13th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering (BIBE) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.

Ren, H. (2012). Transition to cloud computing in healthcare information systems (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).