Improving Health Care Delivery by Integrating Information Technology
In order to modernize the operations of their medical facility, Pleasant Manor nursing home should consider contracting to implement the Epic System of electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management throughout their campus. A pioneer in the march towards digitization of health care records, "Epic makes software for mid-size and large medical groups, hospitals and integrated healthcare organizations" using proprietary software that efficiently "spans clinical, access and revenue functions and extends into the home" (Epic, 2012). In accordance with Pleasant Manor's stated mission to serve as an "expanded geriatric clinic that provides basic services for seniors, general practice, counseling and education programs, radiology, complete blood work, and an osteo-care unit for citizens of the outlying communities," the facility will make this transition with the goal of standardizing its procedures and streamlining its processes. Located on an expansive campus in the retirement community of Vero Beach, Florida, Pleasant Manor is widely recognized as a regional leader in the nursing care industry, offering an impressive 1:3 caregiver-to-resident ratio, monthly in-house physician visits and regular podiatrist, optometrist, and psychologist visits to consistently deliver high quality nursing care services to the local community.
Today, Pleasant Manor has become a recognized leader in the "Skilled Nursing and Sub-Acute Rehab industry &...
Because Vero Beach lacks a full-fledged Community Care facility designed to the serve the area's burgeoning geriatric population, the majority health care needs are met by small 24-hour emergency clinics, private medical practices, and nursing home facilities like Pleasant Manor. The institutional objective set forth by Pleasant Manor is to provide superior in-patient and out-patient care in such a way that usage of integral facilities is encouraged to generate sufficient profit margins to maintain the facility's future viability. By adopting the EPIC system of electronic record keeping (EMR), Pleasant Manor can ensure that its continual process of
modernization is conducted in such a way that patient acuity rates are preserved, while profit margins are maintained and even increased.
The first priority of Epic Systems during the implementation phase of their electronic medical recordkeeping structure is applying the
methodology of their Model System to the health care center undergoing the transition, "which provides a starting point for validating pre-built configurations based on the best content and workflows used" (Epic Systems, 2012) at the hospital's facility. The Epic Governance structure separates the various departments within a hospital which utilize health care records information, ordering them in terms of importance to the overall delivery of
medical services. Physicians and
nurses are the most crucial links on the informational chain, followed by administrators, support services, and in some cases external users like pharmacies and hospice centers. Thus, ascertaining the ways in which the various users access and exploit the…
