Electronic Health Record (EHR)
Bearing the everyday evolution of the technology used in hospitals and the Healthcare sector in general, there is need to understand the concept of EHR. This paper undertakes to divulge what EHR is, the components, the advantages that it brings to the Healthcare department in general as well as the complications or loopholes that may come with it and suggestions on how this system can be used safely without exposing the patients to undue dangers and exposure of private details.
The Electronic Health Record (EHR) can be referred to as a longitudinal electronic record about the health of patients that is gathered by the number of turns that the patient visits a healthcare facility. The information that is included in the EHR is vital pieces of information that can help in the handling of the patient in any part of the state. The information include medications, patient demographics, problems, progress notes, past medical history, vital signs, laboratory data, immunizations as well as radiology reports (Healthcare Information and Management Systems, 2011).
EHR has been very instrumental in the Healthcare field in several ways. One of the significant components of the EHR is the administrative component that comes with it. It enables the registration of patients, the admission to the hospital inpatient care, the discharge as well as the transfer of patients from one hospital to another and has these as the key components. These will enable the health information on an individual to be easily processed for the clinical analysis and research as well (The MITRE Corporation, 2006).
The EHR also aids the clinical procedures in that once it has helped identify the patient, it can as well link all the clinical reports and observations made, the tests, the...
The EHR is well-known to capture clinical notes, clinical reports and patient assessment. Things like medical administration can now be easily retrieved without going through the carbon copies. The successful implementation of the EHR must be one that corresponds with a redesign of the workflow and buy-in from the numerous stakeholders for the institution to realize the clinical benefits of the EHR. The system streamlines and automates the clinician's workflow. It also enhances evidence-based decision making among the clinicians, outcomes reporting and quality management (Healthcare Information and Management Systems, 2011).
This method also allows for the validation of information and individual identification that gives more access control, reduction in losses and the capability to give reliable services when needed. This ability to authenticate information is a measure against fraudulent activities like counterfeiting and fraud that has in the past led to the use of medical records and profile of an individual by an imposter for their own fraudulent ends (Conrad Artio, 2011).
Bearing that implementation of the EHR is one financially taxing venture, there is also need to know the financial returns that it brings to the Healthcare facilities. In determining the benefits of the system there are those actual costs that can be determined and there are also other benefits that are a bit hard to append monetary value to. Those that one cannot append monetary value to are things like the reduced staff time that they could spend perusing through records in the records store. Some can have monetary value appended to them like evident reduced drug events that could cost the hospital money and even…
