for NURS 8210 Week 9 Assignment: Health Information Technology Project [Major Assessment 5]
Health information technology (IT) refers to the technology and infrastructure used to document, analyze, and share patient health information. Health technologies include health record systems and personal health tools such as smart devices and applications (Wienert, 2019). Health IT seeks to improve patient care and help attain health equity. It supports the documentation of patient data to enhance healthcare delivery and allows for analysis of the data for healthcare practitioners and the entire healthcare system (Wienert, 2019). Besides, Health IT increases patient safety, improves the quality of healthcare delivery, minimizes medical errors, and supports the interaction between patients and healthcare providers. The purpose of this essay is to describe a health IT system in my organization, including the design and development of the technology system, and its innovative features.
Information on Organization
This section will describe of the health information technology system adopted in my organization and explain the type of health organization. Besides, I will discuss the main purpose of the health IT system and why it was developed. I will also discuss how the organization determined that the IT system will meet its predetermined needs and how it is managed.
Health Information Technology System
The Electronic medical record (EMR) is one of the health information technology systems adopted in my current healthcare organization. An EMR system refers to a digital type of a patient medical record that is used in healthcare settings, such as clinics, hospitals, and physician offices (Honavar, 2020). The EMR is used to examine a patient’s medical history and is used by health providers for diagnosis and treatments. An EMR usually contains clinical notes and information collected by the providers in the clinic or hospital (Wali et al., 2020). EMR systems are more effective than traditional paper records because they allow clinicians to monitor a patient’s health over time. Furthermore, they enable clinicians to easily pick out client in need of screenings and preventive care to improve health outcomes for these patients (Wali et al., 2020). The EMR uses various tools that help improve clinical decisions, thus creating a safe, effective and efficient healthcare system.
Organization Type
My current healthcare organization is an acute mental health hospital providing both inpatient and outpatient mental health services. The organization is a leading provider of mental health and addiction treatment services in the region. We strive to offer a safe and supportive environment where clients in crisis receive comprehensive care delivered with compassion and respect. Inpatient services include child, adult, and geriatric psychiatric care, acute medical detox, and addiction rehabilitation. Outpatient services include addiction treatment and outpatient psychiatric care. The most common conditions treated in the organization include Behavioral and mood disorders, Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar disorder, Emotional Trauma, Schizoaffective disorder, Schizophrenia, and Suicidal disorder. The organization is run by a team of medical and non-medical staff, including receptionists, record officers, informaticists, psychiatrists, PMHNPs, registered nurses, pharmacists, social workers, nutritionists, and counseling therapists.
Health Information Technology System
The EMR was adopted for clinical purposes, mainly collecting and documenting patients’ health data. The EMR is used to record and avail patients’ demographic and clinical health data, such as patient identification data, clinic attendance, and encounter data (Honavar, 2020). The EMR is used to document patients’ clinical data, such as medical history, psychiatric history, current treatment, allergies, lab tests and results, vital signs, and progress notes. Besides, the EMR contains information on clinical encounters between a mental health practitioner and a patient (Honavar, 2020). The EMR has clinical decision support (CDS), which notifies providers of abnormal diagnostic results, vital signs, drug allergies, and potential drug interaction (Sutton et al., 2020). The CDS also reminds clinicians of the appropriate patient care interventions such as tests and medication. Furthermore, health providers use the EMR to put patient care orders in the system, accept prescription orders, and handle referrals with information of the referring clinician and of the specialist.
Reasons for Developing the EMR
The main aim of developing an EMR system in the organization was to improve health care quality. The decision to acquire the system was driven by the need to improve coordination in the healthcare team, reduce medical errors caused by missing patient data, and maximize cost-efficiency (Lin et al., 2020). The previously used paper records were faced with a myriad of challenges from errors caused by illegible handwriting, misspellings, and the use of varying terminologies that created much confusion. Consequently, the EMR was created to eliminate these paper-based irregularities and standardize patient records across the hospital.
Paper records were often misplaced, affecting efforts to monitor patients over time, and misplaced data led to repeated tests. As a result, the organization developed the EMR to ensure that patients’ records were securely stored and to improve providers’ access to these records (Lin et al., 2020). Furthermore, the EMR was developed to merge patients’ data in one central system rather than having scattered paper records (Wali et al., 2020). Clients were dissatisfied with the long wait times and clinicians losing their records when using paper records. A number of clients recommended the organization to acquire an electronic system similar to other hospitals to help store and easily retrieve their records, which would minimize the wait times.
How the Organization Determined That the System Could Meet Its Predetermined Needs
The organization’s management conducted a survey to determine if the EMR could meet its predetermined needs of reducing medical errors, improving quality of care, coordination of care, and cost-efficiency. Healthcare providers were administered questionnaires that collected information on the challenges they came across when providing patient care and the factors that caused these challenges. Providers mostly reported documentation errors, loss of clinical data, poor coordination among health providers, and loss of time in retrieving patient records. The questionnaires also asked the health providers about the approaches that the organization can implement to address those challenges. The health providers recommended for an electronic system that would help in retrieving patients’ records while maintaining privacy and confidentiality. The success of the EMR implementation in other healthcare organizations further led the organization’s management to determine that the EMR would meet its predetermined needs. Health organizations that had successfully implemented the EMR recommended it since it significantly enhanced the quality of patient care and increased patient satisfaction, and cost-efficiency.
Management of the EMR
The EMR is run by a team of health informaticists tasked with maintaining the system. The health informaticists work with other staff by assisting them to key in patient information in the EMR and retrieve it. Informaticists ensure that the EMR’s user interface is easy to navigate to save time for health providers. Clinicians consult the maintenance team in cases of a system failure that is beyond their capacity. The health informaticists who manage the system fall under the IT department in the administrative structure and report to the head of IT.
Information System Application Design and Development
The design and development of an information system application centers around accomplishing a project. The design and development of a health information system are crucial since it determines the success of adopting the system in the organization. This section will describe the design and development of the EMR, including how stakeholders make decisions about the EMR, training, security issues, initial funding, arrangements for downtime, system upgrade, and how the EMR changed in response to health care reform and related legislation.
