Foundation of information System - Assignment

Running head: FOUNDATION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS 1
Foundations of information systems
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Institution Affiliation:

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Discussion questions
Question 1: Consider Dr. Ofri’s comments about the trade offs of using the EMRs in the
contexts of your most recent visit to a health care professional. Did he or she use a
computer? If so, did you feel that it interfered with your discussion?
He did use a computer. He looked at the computer screen when he was discussing with the
patient. With the use of the EMR there is loss of the intimacy with the patient (Barnett, Chow,
Flores, Sherman & Duffy, 2017). When comparing to the olden days the Doctor could look
directly at the patient, they would drop their eyes and jot done a note on the page and then they
would look directly again at the patient to continue with the conversation (Barnett, Chow, Flores,
Sherman & Duffy, 2017). Both gaze and body language could remain oriented towards the
patient. In the currently time as much as EMR are offering advantages to the hospitals they have
some disadvantages and these are highlighted as follows;
When it comes to the era of the digital technology, the doctor and the patients encounters the
challenge of centeredness and patient rapport. The doctor focuses their attention on the computer
screen rather than focusing on the patient (Barnett, Chow, Flores, Sherman & Duffy, 2017). This
style is regarded as the technology centered since the doctor focused more on the computer
screen rather than then patient. The EMR technology might be crucial since it allows helpful
exchange of the information such as viewing of the lab and the imaging results through the
online patient portals (Bhargava & Mishra, 2014). The portals could offer the patients with the
method to ask the health care team questions when they visit the hospital. Moreover, the portal
could also allow the patients to make their own appointments, eliminate on the phone calls such
as mammography, and lipid tests. Moreover, it could remind the health care professional about

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the harmful drug to drug interactions. Additionally, many of the patients could appreciate on the
actual view of their record which is under the construction during the visit. As much as it offers
these advantages it has led to the difficulty to conduct the in-depth conversation with the patients
while the doctors are working with the EMR (Bhargava & Mishra, 2014). The workstations in
the exam room more often face the door, which is away from the patient and this could further
complicate on the interaction with the doctor. It is important for the doctor to move their chairs
beside the patient and the computer for easy interaction. The hybrid to complete EMR tasks
particularly during the visit as well as other allows a continued high quality interaction with the
patient. The doctor could highlight to the patient that let them enter their order prescription
electronically to the pharmacy (Bowton, Field, Wang, Schildcrout, Van Driest, Delaney &
Karnes, 2014). I would advocate on the use of the EMR use than the paper. Nonetheless, the
encounter between the health care provider and the patients, in the examination room is different
compared to the pre-EMR.
Question 2: Suppose your family lives in Vermont, you attend school in Texas, and you
break your leg while skiing in Colorado. Describe how EMRs could help in the situation.
There are many projects that have been done to develop EMR system which could be carried out
and used in different states (Perer, Wang & Hu, 2015). The usage of an open source EMR
system in different state could be used to help in this case. Today due to the vast development in
the technology in the world they could respond to the variables and the complex needs to
interchanged clinical data among the health care services institutions (Perer, Wang & Hu, 2015).
The medical interventions are usually dependent on the trust worthy as well as the integrated
history of the personal medical and health status (Perer, Wang & Hu, 2015). EMR is one such
response which could cover on the need to engage the parties which include the patients, doctors,

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insurance organization, clinical staff, health care providers and the makers of the policy. It can
offer a platform that individuals health data could be stored and at the same time accessed only
by the individuals who are authorized. EMR usually stores data and process the health
information (Singer, Halas, Styles, Froese & Paige, 2016). When it comes to the health sector,
open products they have been designed in order to improve on the health care while at the same
time reducing on the cost of the similar property products. With the open source EMR system
there would be a health care connect which would be an initiative to revolve paper based health
records to the EMR for the benefits of the consumers and the health care providers. In the case of
this situation through the use of the EMR system it would be easy for the healthcare providers
taken to access personal history of health record. The health information would be quickly
accessed upon request from the health institution in Vermont (Dobrzykowski & Tarafdar, 2017).
The health information would be transferred among the healthcare professionals under more
secure conditions to the health institution in Colorado. The significance of the EMR system is for
accessibility of the life saving information when it comes to the emergencies situations and at the
same time improve on the safety and the quality of the health data through the shared Electronic
Medical record (Dobrzykowski & Tarafdar, 2017). The healthcare institution that am taken in
Colorado to through SEMR the healthcare professionals will access on my health data and can
address the problem am suffering from more efficiently with the access of the data given. This
has been attributed to the EMR system where health information could be shared more securely
about the history of the patient.
Through the open EMR system in the USA the hospitals across the states could move their
Electronic Medical records from one institution to another, as opposed to integrating the relevant
subsets of the data such as the clinical notes, lab tests as well as the other patient data

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(Williamson, Miyagishima, Derochie & Drummond, 2017). This is in a manner which would
allow the clinicians to learn easily what they should know without reading through all the patient
record.
It can also be noted that through the EMR system they could create their own personal Health
record online where they could store, manage and at the same time share their health data all in a
single particular location (Finlay, Rothman & Smith, 2014). There are many healthcare providers
and hospitals which are offering the patients with the access to the online portals which contains
all their lab work, health stories along with the test results which were performed by the
providers where they go for treatment.
This could be also an efficient ways also for my leg situation in case I had all my personal data
on the online portal of the Electronic Medical record system and had banked them. They could
be able accessed at any location in the world and this might be a better effective way.
Critical thinking Questions
1b. Compare what your country is doing with EMRs with the situations in any other
country at approximately the same economic level. Is your country ahead of the other in its
adoption or behind? Why is this so? In your opinion, is that a problem?
Australia healthcare systems have been ranked among the best in the globe almost in every
quality indicator. However, the costs which have been rising at the rates and inflation has put the
country to a significant pressure on the providers in finding new and better ways in keeping the
Australian healthy (Florman, 2015). As much as quality is high in the health care, Australia they
have lagged and fallen behind in their adoption of the new technologies such as EMR system and
the processes which promise not just the improvement in the outcomes of the patients as well as

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the gains in efficiency delivery in the healthcare (Van Driest, Wells, Stallings, Bush, Gordon,
Nickerson & Ralston, 2016). The Australia healthcare could have been more efficient as well as
effective in case they had taken international trend to the digital transformation which has been
adopted by countries such as USA and UK. To achieve success the fundamental as well as
necessary changes which are associated to the digital transformation to adopt EMR system
policy makers and stakeholders should consider incentive to the healthcare adoption through the
implementation of meaningful use regime such as those which are used in US (Van Driest,
Wells, Stallings, Bush, Gordon, Nickerson & Ralston, J. D. (2016. A meaningful use entails that
providers need to show they are utilizing Certified Electronic Medical record technology in
manner which could be objectively be demonstrated in order to improve quality, safety,
efficiency along with reducing on the disparities in the healthcare (Florman, 2015). Additionally,
it is important to utilize compliance which would result to better clinical, population health
outcomes and increase in the transparency and better data and empowered patients.
EMR is the primary and the community care which is fundamental to the digital transformation,
since it is the building block to any of the digital healthcare system. The usage of this system is
the leading indicator to the digital health maturity. Globally over the past 5 years the adoption of
the EMRs has risen (Florman, 2015). However, in Australia they have lagged behind to adopt on
this system to their healthcare systems. Nonetheless, well positioned Australia meaningful use
policy will help in the delivering of the benefits for the State, Territory as well as
Commonwealth governments through the great co-ordination of the health care of the patient
across private, public, community and primary care sectors. The digital healthcare would play a
central role when it comes to enabling these kinds of changes (Van Driest, Wells, Stallings,
Bush, Gordon, Nickerson & Ralston, 2016). The recent experiences in Australia have highlighted

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that the technological shifts to the healthcare sector should be supported to a substantial planning
and change on management efforts (Zahabi, Kaber & Swangnetr, 2015). Further, there should be
collaborative frameworks across organizations and the healthcare providers.
Find the definition of ‘meaningful use’ of EMRS on the web. Do you feel that the
meaningful use standards for physicians force them to move too fast. Let them move too
slowly?
Meaningful use of EMRs refers to use a certified Electronic Medical record (EMR) technology
in order to improve on the health quality, safety, efficiency and at the same time reduce the
disparities in health outcomes (Williams, Spencer, Sanders, Lund, Whitley, Kaye & Dixon,
2015). The meaningful use is usually implemented in 3 stages. Stage one entails promoting of
the basic EMR adoption as well as gathering of the data. In the second stage involves
emphasizing on the care coordination along with the exchange of the information of the patient.
On the last stage entails improvement of the healthcare outcomes (Zhou, Wang, Hu & 2014).
The well positioned meaningful use policy would deliver benefits to the patients. It is a stepping
stone when it comes to the increase in EMR uptake as well as benefits which could be attained.
The successful implementation meaningful use scheme could have positive outcomes when it
comes to patients and the clinicians (Perer, Wang & Hu, 2015). The patients can receive greater
standards of the care which could comprise of the reduced clinical incidents, interventions which
are appropriate and integrated care pathway into community (Wood, Esko, Yang, Vedantam,
Pers, Gustafsson & Amin, 2014). Through the decrease in the overall length of stay of the
patient, the healthcare providers could reduce on the Weighted Activity Units which could result
to a much lower cost per each admission.

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In my view I think the meaningful use standard for the physicians forces them to move first due
to the requirements which are contained in the stages. A comprehensive and integrated digital
health system enables a number of the highly beneficial improvements. This could comprise of
the patients centric care, service improvements, more sustainable healthcare along with the flow
of the information. These are aspects which are contained in the meaningful use stages which
make the physicians to move fast as they want to sustain a beneficial healthcare to the patients.

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