System structures and organizational frameworks

Systems Structures Presentation

Electronic health records are common in the modern era of globalization and high technology. Electronic health records can be defined as a collection of health information, in digitized form, of individuals as well as populations. The objective of having health records in digital form is to make them accessible across different health care settings. This enables the patients as well as physicians to obtain health information from their relevant health care facility by simply requesting it to be sent over from the electronic health records that were held at the previous health care facility where the patient had been checked up. The health care facilities today are connected through a variety of network-connected enterprise-wide information systems. These can easily transfer information regarding any patient from one health care facility to another, given that they are connected via the network.

Electronic health records consist of not only technology components, but also people (physicians and health care providers), and processes such as clinical workflows. The technological aspect of an electronic health record structure consists of the databases, software, and networks. The electronic health records store the data with regard to individuals as well as populations, with the data being managed, accessed and used by health care providers using various support processes. However, there are cost issues related to electronic health records. The development and implementation of electronic health record structures are a steep cost to bear for many governments as well as private health care facilities. The cost-benefit analysis of the entire situation is conducted, and is often wrought with uncertainty as to the gains in efficiency and the quality of the service provided.

The information stored in the electronic health record structures is often of a varied nature. It contains all sorts of data on an individual patient that he was submitted by the patient themselves such as their personal stats (age, height, weight, etc.), allergies, medical history etc., along with any notes and observations by the physicians such as medications prescribed, and of course results of any laboratory tests, radiology images, and billing information. The information contained in an electronic health record can also refer to more than one individual. It can give statistics and demographics of an entire population. The sort of data that the electronic health record structure outputs depends upon the input command given to it, based on what type of data and record the health care facility requires.

The goal of having an electronic health record is to ensure that correct type of information is delivered to the appropriate health care facility in time for the relevant physician make a timely decision regarding the treatment plan to undertake in case of an individual patient. This timely action increases the quality of health care that can be provided to a patient. It also saves the patient and their families from the hassle of getting the previous health care facility to release patient records and files, which are confidential hospital documents, and also the risk of losing those documents. In this manner, the medical records of the patient are safely transferred to another health care facility without the risk of interception or loss. Other aims of electronic health records include the improvement that the technology seeks to bring to the health sector in the form of sustainability and efficiency. The digitization of patient and population health records encourages planning health treatments, measurement of the outcome via comparison of different treatments and medications and promotes a higher level of research and accountability to the patient. Electronic health record structures are often used in shared case management where physicians and consultants from more than one health care facility are participating in the treatment of a patient with the details of the patient with regard to his medical history, past treatment and medication with regard to his/her ailment, research conducted by one or two physicians in the field, the ideas of various other physicians on the methods of treatment used, and which one to use in the future along with the patient's laboratory, diagnostic and radiology reports and images.

Many countries have adopted the electronic health record structure system in order to facilitate improved medical care throughout the region. The province of Saskatchewan, Canada has developed and employed the electronic health record structures system quite effectively. It not only protects the confidentiality of the patient records but also makes the patient's up-to-date data available to authorized health care providers so that rapid decision making can take place.

In the United States of America, as a ruling in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the implementation of electronic health records in clinical settings was made compulsory with around $27 billion were allocated to the cause. This was a part of new health care reforms whose aim was that by 2015, there would be "meaningful use" of the technology made available to improve the quality of patient care available. The federal incentives being offered to hospitals and clinics in order to update to the electronic health record structures have all the physicians and nurses on their toes.

Nurses, as a result, are closely monitoring the effects and consequences of the use of the electronic health record structure systems on their ability to improve patient care. There have been admittedly some benefits. The availability of extensive up-to-date information on the patient and his medical condition and history, allows for measureable improvements from the treatment and care given to patients with chronic diseases as well as those patients which are on preventative medicine. It has been proved via a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania that nurses that work in hospitals and other clinical set-ups with the electronic health care structures in place tend to report a greater deal of improvement in their patients than the nurses working in hospitals that are devoid of such technology. However, there is the task of the nurses learning to use and manage the electronic health record structures. Unless the nurses have had training or been provided transition time from the implementation of the electronic health record structure, they cannot get any meaningful use out of it. For the electronic health record structure to be effective, the user of the technology should be aware of how to mine for the data, the treatment plan to be followed and how to retrieve the meaningful data from the abundance of information available on the individual. Currently, there are also problems with the present infrastructure at hospitals for the proper implementation of the electronic health record structure.