Description of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) - Essay Sample

Introduction

The electronic health record (EHR) initiative is a framework spearheaded by the national government under a couple of legislation put in place during Obama's tenure. Most hospitals have an EHR which they use to digitally record all the pertinent information about a patient's medical and health history (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2013). It entails a record of the interaction the patient has had with health care providers, medical interventions given and other significant information concerning the subject. John Hopkins Hospital is one of the healthcare providers with an EHR system which it uses for a variety of functions. The hospital adopted an EHR system in 2011 for recording, analyzing and sharing patient health information across various departments in the facility and among the health care providers handling patients at different stages of healthcare. The management of the hospital initiated the digitization of health records in order to allow seamless sharing of information between practitioners in the healthcare facility.

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At the inception of the system, the hospital wanted to utilize the digitization of records for seamless sharing of information among the many healthcare professionals in the facility. To this end, the hospital projected that the system would not only make entry of patient information easy but also available to the pertinent professionals whenever the need arose. The administration would also like to use the digital health records for research purposes; simplified due to the digitization of patient symptoms, interventions and progress notes contained therein. Furthermore, laboratory information concerning various patient illnesses and conditions will be made easier soon once the EHR system is taken up by the clinical laboratory department of the hospital.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) promotes the continuous development of EHRs with the aim of decreasing costs while at the same time, improving the quality of healthcare (Fontenot, 2014). John Hopkins Hospital EHR mandate aims to improve healthcare delivery through digitization of patient health records which will allow ease of sharing between the various healthcare practitioners. When patient information concerning their health and medical status is available in a digital format and accessible to the pertinent healthcare professionals, their quality of healthcare they receive increases. The reason for this is that one practitioner can be able to chart the course of previous interventions and as such, make informed decisions concerning the interventions needed at a certain point of care. Furthermore, ACA promotes affordable healthcare through the use of EHR systems which record a patient's medical and health history which has several implications. For one, a practitioner will focus on a specific condition rather than troubleshooting since he/she is aware of the patient's history. Secondly, the patient will be able to view their progress as all their notes are charted down (Davis & Khansa, 2016). These processes will ensure that the patient gets the best healthcare at an affordable price; which are tenets of the ACA and also aims of John Hopkins Hospital EHR mandate.

John Hopkins Hospital Plan

The first step for implementing an EHR is assessing organizational readiness. John Hopkins Hospital did this assessment and realized that since it is a large healthcare facility, there was a need to have a digital format for recording patients' health progress. The second step is planning an approach to use, and the hospital did so by deciding to roll out the program by beginning with the busiest departments and then trickle down to the rest. When it came to the third step which is selecting the program, the hospital chose an external software provider to run its EHR program. The fourth step entails conducting training and then implementing the HER system. John Hopkins trained its healthcare professionals and then progressively got all the healthcare practitioners to use the system. Step five of the plan is achieving meaningful use which the hospital aims to do so by using electronic methods of documenting patients' records and ensuring that they get quality yet affordable care. The final step is continuous quality improvement. The hospital does this through regular analysis of the facility's goals, needs of the patients and practitioners and refining workflow to improve patient outcomes (HealthIT.gov, 2018).

Meaningful Use

Meaningful use, according to the HealthIT.gov (2018), is ''utilization of digital health and medical records to achieve; quality, safety, efficiency by reducing health disparities, engaging patients and family, improving care coordination, population and public health and maintaining patients' privacy and security of their health information.''

John Hopkins Hospital is striving to attain meaningful use of HR by continually improving the system that it uses for storing, sharing and updating patient information. The facility, however, needs to improve on the security of the patients' information by enforcing stringent rules regarding the practitioners who have access to the data (Vierra, 2016).

EHRs and Patient Confidentiality

HIPAA Security Rules require that healthcare providers should take measures to ensure that patients' information is secure (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2013). Use of EHR systems puts a risk on the patients' information as individuals can gain access to confidential information which is a violation of HIPAA laws. To prevent violation of these laws, John Hopkins has a system where healthcare practitioners can only access pertinent data by use of passwords and PINs that are subjective to each professional that has access. Furthermore, practitioners who have access to patient information should not divulge confidential information.

References

Burkhardt, M., & Nathaniel, A. (2013). Ethics and Issues in Contemporary Nursing. Cengage Learning.

Davis, Z., & Khansa, L. (2016). Evaluating the epic electronic medical record system: A dichotomy in perspectives and solution recommendations. Health Policy and Technology, 5(1), 65-73. doi:10.1016/j.hlpt.2015.10.004

Fontenot, S. F. (2014). The Affordable Care Act and Electronic Health Care Records. Health Law, 72-74. Retrieved from https://sarahfontenot.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/5-Dec-2013-Will-EHRs-Improve-Quality-Article

HealthIT.gov. (2018). Where can I find a step-by-step approach for electronic health record implementation? | HealthIT.gov. Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/faq/where-can-i-find-step-step-approach-electronic-health-record-implementation

Vierra, M. (2016). Meaningful Use. Annals of Internal Medicine, 165(10), 739. doi:10.7326/m15-2669