Essay Example on EHCR: Improving Healthcare Quality and Efficiency

The aim of this paper is to elaborate on Electronic Health Care Record (EHCR), how it is implemented to the healthcare systems. Also, the paper gives details on how the EHCR influences the standards of an organization, including staffing and decision making. The paper will conclude on the impacts of EHCR both positively and negatively.

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The EHCR is an electronic record of a patient’s health data created by one or more experiences in any medical setting (Crameri et al., 2020). The data includes; the patient’s illness, vital signs and symptoms, past medical history, laboratory information such as radiology reports, patient’s progress and also demographics of the patient. The EHCR automates and saves time for the clinician’s work-flow. Additionally, the EHCR can create a whole record of patient experiences, such as supporting the other care-related tasks directly or indirectly. This is made possible through evidence-based decisions, outcome reports together with quality management. Electronic Health Care Records also useful in the pharmacy activity in the printing out of prescription or also analyzing what the allergies related to the patient.

The Electronic Health Care Record influences the standards of an organization comprehensively. When clinicians have access to accurate and finalized information, patients get better medical services. Electronic Health Care Record can boost the potential to diagnose diseases and minimize or still avert medical mistakes, thereby improving patient outcomes. A public survey of doctors who are ready for meaningful use offers vital evidence: 94 percent of providers report that their EHCR enables records readily accessible at point of care 84 percent repost that their EHCR provides clinical advantages for the application, and 75 percent of providers report that their EHCR enables them to give better patient healthcare (Lau et al., 2012). The study still showed that Electronic Health Care Record improved the quality of care screenings such as diabetes, colorectal and breast cancer, and also chlamydia.

Furthermore, with the Electronic Health Care Record, the patient’s information will be able to be processed from all sources, and the healthcare providers will be able to apply the system as the primary source of data at the point of care. EHCR enable clinicians to make a support copy of all medical data. For instance, if the hospital is affected by a catastrophe such as floods or fire, the medical records remain safe (McCrorie et al., 2019). This system influences the standards of the organization by allowing the facility to keep close track of the patient’s medical records and limits the data the unauthorized people to access it.

The influence is felt where the time spent to search through cabinets for a patient’s file hence give room for physicians to give better services to patients. Many insurance firms support EHCR as they believe this system eliminates likely errors. There is global evidence that the implementation of EHCR increases the efficiency of an administration and betters decision making. The system provides evidence-based decisions at the point of care of a patient hence preventing adverse effects to the patient. EHCR influences the decisions of physicians by giving precautions against prescribing medications that would harm the patient.

Additionally, decisions are influenced using the Electronic Health Care Record by intensifying research and monitoring for improvements in healthcare services (Lau et al., 2012). Through collecting all laboratory reports and results in one place using the EHCR, therapeutic decision making is influenced. Study shows that the use of EHCR decision support helps to enhance asthma care and compliance.

This system also improves the communication of patient information among the staff members. An EHCR process that is well applied reduces expenses by abolishing copies of documents generated for insurance firms, other clinicians, and also other units with the need to find information from a patient. The staff workforce is made easier (Benn et al., 2019). The points mentioned above all portray the positive influence and decisions related to Electronic Health Care Record.

However, the negative influence of the Electronic Health Care Record system is still significant. For instance, the initial buying and related application costs of the advanced technologies are costly for an organization. Many administrative executives at the health care units recognize insufficient financial support as the most significant negative impact in the application of such kind of technology (Shachak et al., 2009). Therefore, only firms with enough capital manage to purchase such technologies. This hence affects financial decisions making negatively.

Many staff members, such as clinicians tend to resist to change, which significantly influences their decision-making processes, especially when the EHCR system is deployed. Some physicians firmly get pleased with the way of performing duties and therefore resist new changes. Additionally, some staff workers are critical in applying computerised systems and the e-prescribing to care for patients. Their decisions hence are not at all influenced by the Electronic Health Care Record reports. The implementation of the advanced systems brings a wholesale change in the method of care delivery (Shachak et al., 2009). The positive influences can be worthwhile, but the required effort to control the decisions by the top leaders’ resistance may be enormous.

Electronic Health Care Record disrupts work-flows for many staffs which eventually induces temporary losses in the productivity of the workers. The loss of productivity originates from the final-users learning the new system and may likely count losses in the revenue (Benn et al., 2019).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Electronic Health Care Record dramatically influences the decisions in an organization both positively and negatively. However, the positive impacts of the Electronic Health Care Record outweigh the negative influences.

References

Benn, J., Johnson, O., & Scantlebury, A. (2019). Staff expectations for the implementation of an electronic patient record system: A qualitative study. https://europepmc.org/article/ppr/ppr147580

Crameri, K. A., Maher, L., Van Dam, P., & Prior, S. (2020). Personal electronic healthcare records: What influences consumers to engage with their clinical data online? A literature review. Health Information Management Journal, 1833358319895369. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1833358319895369

Lau, F., Price, M., Boyd, J., Partridge, C., Bell, H., & Raworth, R. (2012). Impact of electronic medical record on physician practice in office settings: a systematic review. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 12(1), 10. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1472-6947-12-10

McCrorie, C., Benn, J., Johnson, O. A., & Scantlebury, A. (2019). Staff expectations for the implementation of an electronic health record system: a qualitative study using normalisation process theory. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 19(1), 222. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12911-019-0952-3

Shachak, A., & Reis, S. (2009). The impact of electronic medical records on patient–doctor communication during consultation: a narrative literature review. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 15(4), 641-649. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2753.2008.01065.x