Impact of Electronic Health Record System on Nursing Practice and Patient Outcomes

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
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Introduction:
The information management technology that has been chosen by me for
implementation within the hospital setting in order to promote positive patient outcome is the
electronic healthcare record system. The electronic healthcare system also known as the
EHR, has revolutionised the process of maintain patient record and documentation in the
healthcare sector. According to Ajmani and Bagheri-Tadi (2013), an electronic medical
record can be defined as an organized and systematic collection of the patients medical health
information in the form of a digital format. The digital records can be shared across various
healthcare settings. The healthcare records are shared online and the exchange of information
is maintained through information networking. As stated by Tanner et al. (2015), EHRs
include a wide range of data that includes demographics, medical history, detailed
explanation about medication and allergies, status of immunization, laboratory test results
and detailed description about the vital signs. In addition to this, it should further be noted
that the electronic health records also contain information about the personal statistics of the
patients such as the age, height and weight of the patient. Also, it comprises details of billing
information and radiology images of the patient. Electronic Health Record maintenance has
positively contributed to promote positive patient outcomes. In accordance with current trend,
the EHR system is being widely used by the healthcare organizations across the globe.
Healthcare providers are proactively making use of the patient data retrieved from the patient
records in order to deliver effective care and promote quality outcomes.
The combination of multiple clinical data from the electronic health record system has
equipped the care providers to ideally identify and manage chronic illness patients. In
addition to this, it should further be noted that EHR has been found useful in improving the
quality of care with the use of patient data and analytics to effectively reduce the rate of

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hospitalization in high-risk patients. As mentioned by Rind et al. (2013), EHR systems have
been designed with the purpose of storing data in an accurate manner and critically document
the physical as well as mental state of a person across time. The maintenance of EHR
eliminates the need to track down the previous records of the patient (Moja et al., 2014). This
helps in saving time and also ensures that the patient’s medical records are appropriately
organized and is accessible at any instant of time. A number of advantages have been
associated with the use of the technology. Firstly, the system reduces the possibility of data
replication as the system is based upon a single editable file. This effectively helps in
avoiding recording errors and at the same time the file is updated continuously. In addition to
this, the digital format of the file saves the risk of losing the hardcopy of a file. Also, EMRs
are easily accessible and efficiently extract medical data facilitates convenient extraction of
medical data prior to a diagnostic test. At the same time, EHRs also help in convenient
maintenance of population-based medical health data.
Quality healthcare refers to the provision of patient safety practices in order to ensure
protection of the patients from potentially preventable harm related with the healthcare
services (Ajami & Bagheri-Tadi, 2013). Electronic medical records ensure quality and safety
of the healthcare facilities provided with respect to traditional paper records (Middleton et al.,
2013). It serves as an informative analytical tool for the patients as well as the clinicians to
access patient history. It should further be noted in this regard, that EHRs offer an integrated
best-practice support system for the maintenance of electronic clinical decision support. The
clinical decision support offers general as well as person-specific information to the
concerned care teams (Meeks et al.,2014). The information provided is organized and can be
appropriately filtered. This improvises the care outcomes by making the information timely
accessible and facilitates strong decision making framework.

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Analysis:
The use of electronic health record system to record and document patient data has
been associated with a multitude of advantages within the healthcare context. According to
Meeks et al. (2014), it has been mentioned that the implementation of EHR within a
healthcare organization facilitates clinicians to record information about the patients in an
easier and effortless manner. At the same time, the clinicians are also equipped with the
facility to follow the patients stringently from one point of the care to another point of care.
Also, studies reveal that the application of EHR facilitates functions that are automated and
does not require manual operation. This increasingly helps in acquiring positive patient
outcomes and ensure assed patient security. EHR implementation thus promotes electronic
prescription for the patients, perform stringent checks on Drug-Drug interactions and Drug-
allergy interactions (Ajami & Bagheri-Tadi, 2013). As stated by McCoy et al. (2013), the
advantages associated with the implementation of electronic health record technology within
a healthcare system can be enumerated as follows:
 It provides organized, appropriate, updated and complete information about the
patients at different points of care
 It provides an easy access to the patient records and positively promotes in the
delivery of an efficient and coordinated care
 It ensures patient privacy and secures the sharing of the patient related information
between the patient and other related healthcare professionals
 It helps in effectively diagnosing a patient and reduce medical errors to render safer
care
 It improves the quality of interaction between the patients and the concerned
healthcare professionals
 It helps in the maintenance of accurate patient billing