Need for Electronic Health Record in Hospital's Departments

Examination Department

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In the examination department, several needs can be solved by the use of Electronic Health Record (EHR). The practitioners attend patients with different who have different needs and hence a different information is used. The department needs a good information system that would help them keep the record of patients and also retrieve past records fast enough. Also, they are in need to maintain the record of the information for patients when there are recurrent activities that need to be done in the process of diagnosis. Practitioners have a need to access schedules for the department easily so that they can have an effective running of all processes (Heller, 2016, p. 327). The department has a need of eradicating errors that may arise because of insufficient information or poor communication. There is need of protecting private information about a patient and ensuring that information is accessed by the authorized persons only.

Lab Department

The laboratory department needs to record patients. Effective communication is required between the examination department and the lab department to have the right test done. Once the tests are done, the department has a need for sending the results to the examination room for further examination. The department's staff needs to communicate to the patients by sending reminders to be provided with specimens that may not be available immediately for use in lab examination or for subsequent tests (Heller, 2016, p. 337).

Finance Department

The finance department in a hospital should ensure billing is done effectively. The department needs particular patients information to know the treatments that were done and the cost for the services. For efficient billing of patients, the department needs to access information from all departments. There is a need to minimize expenses so that other operation can be done effectively. Also, the departments require having information of on the stocks used in the other department for the provision of finances at the right time.

Training Needed After Implementation

The medical practitioners will need to be trained on how to enter and share patients information in the Electronic Health Record. Training is required on how to ensure that one logs off their users' accounts after accessing the system to protect patients data. Also, health practitioners should be trained on how to set a strong password and other possible measures to secure information in the system. The security efforts would be necessary to protect information from unauthorized people and computer hackers. Since it is a professional duty for practitioners to protect information, it is necessary for the training on how to do it for efficient usage of the system. The system should assist health professionals to access information quickly. Since it would be used in different departments, training is required to specific users according to their department. Newly hired staff should be trained on how to use the system depending on their experience and their past knowledge of an EHR system in their previous employments (Kelley, 2016, p. 319). The health practitioners should also be trained on ways of troubleshooting in case of challenges in the operation of the system. Troubleshooting problem training is needed to ensure that work is not delayed unnecessarily when there is an issue that can be solved without the necessity of a system technician being present. The IT department should be trained on how to keep a backup database to ensure that information cannot easily get lost. Lastly, the health users should be trained on assessing the functioning of the system so that they can know when to ask for technical assistance from system vendors to avoid wasting time trying to repair errors that cannot be solved without technicians help.

Vendor Services Needed After Installation

After the implementation, the hospital may require vendor services to maintain the systems and keep it in a good operating condition. The system needs testing by the seller to check its effectiveness regularly, possibly after every two months. Regular testing ensures that the system functioning is efficient and offers the prescribed services such as assuring the security of data. A system requires updates, and the vendor should provide them once there is an improvement. The updates should improve the effectiveness of the system in improving its usability in the hospital (Kelley, 2016, p. 333). In a case of malfunctioning, the vendor should be contacted for repairs immediately it is identified. The vendor should provide the services and repair for the system and ensure that it is functioning in the efficient and effective as per the expectation. The maintenance and vendor support of the system should be though out its useful life.

Interview Question

In identifying the best product, the facility management should ask the following questions to the vendor

What assurance can you offer that your products can function effectively for a long time?

What are the after sales services provided by your company?

What is the cost associated with maintenance and after sales support services?

How is information secure when using the system?

Does your system have unique features that make it exclusively stand out from other systems in the market?

References

Heller, M. (2016). Clinical medical assisting + mindtap medical assisting, 4-term access (2nd ed., pp. 321-357). [S.l.]: Delmar.

Kelley, T. (2016). Electronic health records for quality nursing & health care (pp. 310-345). DEStech Publications, Inc.