High Road Toward Health Reform, by Ray

¶ … high road toward health reform," by Ray Lefton, improved information technology is a critical component of healthcare reform. Comprehensive electronic medical health records will facilitate communication between physicians and patients as well as reduce the potential for medical errors. Flagging obvious medication errors; enabling patients' complete records to travel with them; keeping track of the responses to treatment of widespread databases of patients to 'vet' the effectiveness of patient care are all potential benefits of electronic medical records. Federal leadership and committing resources to achieving this goal is necessary, given that implementing EMR will require a substantial shift in organizational cultures and expense. "Savings can be achieved with sufficient investment, compliance, and the adoption of best practices" (Lefton 2008: 42). However, issues with IT interoperability continue to plague the lofty goal of creating complete "health IT standards and infrastructure" to serve the goals of American patients (Lefton 2008: 42).

Discussion question: Although electronic records may be more accurate than paper-based records, there are still many errors which can arise which are unique to EMR. What are some of these errors and how can they be rectified?

Article 2

According to Michael Strachan's article "Managing change proactively within the current HIM professional domain," change is a vital component of the healthcare environment. Healthcare managers must be just as dynamic and willing to change as providers are willing to use improved technology to treat patients. Examples of such changes include the implementation of quality control systems like the Balanced Scorecard. Also, because of the increased complexity of healthcare delivery due to the use of IT, more formal project management is necessary to ensure that projects are managed correctly; are completed in a timely fashion; and make effective use of organizational resources.