Acute, Ambulatory, and Inpatient Settings and their EHR Needs

This article discusses the differences in EHR needs for acute, ambulatory, and inpatient settings. It covers topics such as meaningful use, certification, referral and laboratory software, interconnectivity, and functionalities.

Running head: ACUTE, AMBULATORY, AND INPATIENT SETTINGS & EHR NEEDS
Acute, Ambulatory, and Inpatient Settings and their EHR Needs
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ACUTE, AMBULATORY, AND INPATIENT SETTINGS & EHR NEEDS 1
Acute, Ambulatory, and Inpatient Settings and their EHR Needs
Meaningful Use
There are no differences in meaningful of EHR systems in ambulatory care settings,
acute, and inpatient settings. All EHR systems should meet the need of the hospital and patients
by ensuring that they improve quality, safety, efficiency, and minimization of disparities in the
hospital settings.
Certification
The EHR needs for ambulatory care has to cater for basic information about the patient
and the family members because the patient does not spend time in the hospital. According to
Clevan (2016), vendors designing EHR for acute care setting should make changes to the system
so that it can detect and correct errors that occur in records. The certification for acute care and
inpatient setting require computerized physician order entry (CPOEs). This is not required for
ambulatory care settings. According to McAlearney, Sieck, Hefner, Robbins, and Huerta (2013),
EHR systems designed for ambulatory settings should also play a role in diagnosing with the
goal of knowing where to place the patient.
Referral and Laboratory Software
There is also difference in electronic prescribing for both inpatient and ambulatory EHRs.
Ambulatory EHR systems deal with orders for medications from external pharmacies and
vendors. On the other hand, the inpatient and acute care settings rely on internal processes and
medications with high levels of accuracy. This implies that both acute and inpatient software
require internl referral requirements for accessing physical laboratory data about the patient.
Interconnectivity

ACUTE, AMBULATORY, AND INPATIENT SETTINGS & EHR NEEDS 2
Unlike the ambulatory care setting, the acute care setting EHR system handles
information about the patient that spends time in the emergency department. This implies that the
needs of EHR systems for patients in these settings are different. The acute and inpatient EHR
system will require web-based application for connecting the hospital to other facilities,
compared to the ambulatory care setting.
Differences in Functionalities
Inpatient EHRs serve purposes similar to those of the acute care settings. Patients in
inpatient settings need regular monitoring and observation to make sure that the caregiver is
attending to the patient for improved outcomes. According to Kruse, Stein, Thomas, and Kaur
(2018), EHR systems designed for the inpatient settings and acute care settings should remain
active and work with high levels of accuracy. Loulin (2019) explains that EHR systems meant
for inpatient settings are different from those of ambulatory settings in the sense that inpatient
EHRs do not diagnose. Ambulatory care EHRs are more of patient-centered and deal with
functions such as prescriptions, patient summaries, reminders, and timely access where the
patient has the right to access the records. This implies that the system has to be simple for easy
accessibility by the ser. The user interface has to be simple and easy to access for the user. For
web-based access, the system should provide interactive platform where the user does not have
to navigate complex tabs to access information.

ACUTE, AMBULATORY, AND INPATIENT SETTINGS & EHR NEEDS 3
References
Clevan, M. (2016). Ambulatory versus acute care EHRs. EHR systems for clinics differ from
those used in hospitals. But does that mean they can't get along? JAMA, 77(1). Retrieved
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16805296
Kruse, C. S., Stein, A., Thomas, H., & Kaur, H. (2018). The use of Electronic Health Records to
Support Population Health: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Journal of medical
systems, 42(11), 214. doi:10.1007/s10916-018-1075-6
Loulin, V. (2019). Improved diagnosis and patient outcomes. HealthIt. Retrieved from
https://www.healthit.gov/topic/health-it-basics/improved-diagnostics-patient-outcomes
McAlearney, A. S., Sieck, C., Hefner, J., Robbins, J., & Huerta, T. R. (2013). Facilitating
ambulatory electronic health record system implementation: evidence from a qualitative
study. BioMed Research International. doi:10.1155/2013/629574. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3817798/