Electronic Health Records: Challenges & Benefits

This assignment delves into the complexities of Electronic Health Records (EHR) implementation within healthcare. It examines both the advantages and challenges associated with EHR adoption, drawing upon a range of research articles that highlight various aspects like interoperability, data security, patient privacy, clinical benefits, and potential risks.

Running head: IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Abstract:
The report offers an insight into the requirements and processes that are required for the
implementation of the cloud-based EMR in the considered organization. The report has been
devised taking consideration of the previous experience of the deemed organization with the
EMR services. Hence, the associated risks and their remedies have also been discussed in the
report along with the benefits of the talked about system. Finally, before concluding the report
has also offered valid reason for the management to approve the implementation of the
system.

2IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Table of Contents
Introduction:................................................................................................................................3
Required elements and technologies:..........................................................................................3
Technology:.............................................................................................................................3
Elements:.................................................................................................................................4
Resources required:.....................................................................................................................4
Software Diagram:......................................................................................................................6
Justification of the Diagram:...................................................................................................7
Applications and services that will run on the considered software:..........................................7
Benefits and threats:....................................................................................................................8
Benefits:..................................................................................................................................8
Threats:....................................................................................................................................8
Approval and risk management:.................................................................................................9
Risk Management:...................................................................................................................9
Conclusion:...............................................................................................................................10
References:................................................................................................................................11

3IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Introduction:
Information System (IS) is recolonizing the industry, and Electronic Medical Record
(EMR) is offering its services in the healthcare industry. EMR is providing its assistance in
the maintaining the health record of the patients while offering assistance to the doctors and
other health service providers (Khan, Abbas & Halder, 2014). The deemed report provides an
insight of cloud based EMR service with a network diagram for the same along with its pros
and cons. The elements, technologies and the resources required in the implementation
process has also been discussed. Finally, the report has been concluded by offering the risk
management strategy for the considered service.
Required elements and technologies:
Implementing a new technology offers multiple requirements that need to be fulfilled
before the implementation. The case is same with cloud based EMR, and hence, the
considered section defines the required elements and technologies for the implementation.
Technology:
The technological demand for the implementation of the considered system is limited
to a client-server system. However, client server system consists of a vast number of hardware
equipment along with different software (Bajwa, Singh & De, 2017). To earn a broader view
of the needs the system can be classified as client and server.
Client: Client refers to the computing system equipped by the user to make specific
requests to the server for the specific information. The computing system can be a
workstation, mobile devices, tablet PC or laptop.
Server: It contains applications and database for accessing on request from the client
to share, process and store information. In the deemed case the cloud based server with the
centralized database is proposed because of its efficiency and mobility.

4IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Elements:
Apart from the technological needs, other factors need to be considered before
implementing the system in the organization. One of the most critical elements is appropriate
leadership under which the implementation process can achieve the deemed goal. Proper
planning and resource management are critical factors to the achieving the goal. Selecting the
right vendor for the purchase and implementation of the EMR. Suitable time frame and
expectation analysis. Organizing the clinical contents that will be expected from the EMR.
Resources required:
Organizational resources play the most significant role in the implementation or
success of a new project or system. Hence, it is advisable to analyses and plans the resources
before introducing any new project or system. The deemed section analyses over the
resources that are required for the implementation of the EMR.
Stakeholders: Stakeholders are potentially the most important resource of an
organization. In the deemed situation the doctors, nurses, accountants and other employees are
the ones who will contribute to the system after its implementation (Boonstra, Versluis &
Vos, 2014). The patients also need to approve of storing their health record to a cloud based
EMR. Hence, the stakeholder’s approval for the system is mandatory for the same.
Capital: To install the system the hospital will need money and other modes of
capital. The deemed organization will have to buy the technologies and the security measures
to keep the system protected (Millards, Bru & Merger, 2012). They will also have to
employee the skill to maintain the functionality of the deemed system.
Inventory: Inventory of the organization consists of all the assets, product and services
of an organization. The system should be devised based on the size of the inventory, and it

5IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
will also offer the systems required for the implementation process (Anoshiravani et al.,
2012).
Information: The organization was using EMR earlier, and hence they must have
some data stored in it. Those data could be of assistance for the implementation purpose. It
will simplify the research that needs to be done before the implementation of new system.

6IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Software Diagram:
Figure1: Network Diagram of EMR
(Source: Created by Author)

7IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Justification of the Diagram:
The designed model is a 3 layered model consisting of access, distributed and core
layers. The access layers will enable connection of enterprise with the server and the end-
users. The distribution layer serves the purpose of smart operations layer where filtering,
routing and QoS policies are managed. The speed of the network will be managed by the core
layer.
Applications and services that will run on the considered software:
The deemed system will monitor all the clinical applications and services they have
been listed as follows:
Report Sharing: The deemed system will deliver opportunity for timely and appropriate
communication of information to relevant stakeholders. It will reduce the manual sharing of
the reports which were time-consuming and took a lot of effort (Krush et al. 2014).
Diagnosis Applications: The tools and processes used for diagnosis purpose or biological
sample evaluation will also be operated in an automated manner by the deemed system (Jung
et al., 2014).
Billing System: Accounting and billing processes are essential for any organization, and
hence it is important to keep a clean and organized record for the same. The considered
system offers its services in maintaining the same.
Periodic Checkups: The doctors are burdened with the responsibility to visit their patients
periodically to keep track of the latter’s progress and condition t (Krush et al. 2014).
However, the deemed system lightens the burden by notifying the former of whom to visit
and when.

8IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Monitoring the patients: As suggested in the previous point the deemed system notifies
the doctors of which patient to visit. To achieve the targeted objective, the system monitors
the patients upon specific parameters like vaccination and other physical reading such as
blood pressure, temperature and others (Jung et al., 2014).
Benefits and threats:
The deemed system offers ample of benefits to the organization, however, if not
maintained appropriately can offer specific threats. This section offers a brief overview of the
advantages offered by the system and highlights the potential threats offered by same.
Benefits:
The benefits of the cloud-based EMR has been discussed in the following paragraph.
The deemed system provides the hospital with accurate and complete information of the
patients along with their progress (Tierney et al., 2013). The above mentioned process helps
the hospital in improved decision making. It also enables sharing of the information
electronically with other hospitals and healthcare units which helps save the patient and the
organization lot of time and hassle. EMR system simplifies the organizational operations and
hence offering improved productivity for the organization (King et al., 2014). Equipping
cloud-based ERP will also help the organization save money of the hardware that needs to be
established for the operational purposes of the deemed system.
Threats:
Along with benefits Cloud based EMR also introduces some potential threats to the
organization and they have been discussed as follows:

9IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
EMR errors: Generally, the physicians update the data of the patients on the EMR
without updating the progress report. It can lead to repeating of the data that may lead to error
in the patients’ health record (Shini, Thomas & Chitharanjan, 2012).
Internet Failure: The cloud-based EMR is a web-based process, and hence in case of
internet failure the operation of the EMR may be halted.
Data Security: Cloud-based EMR offers data breach threats. Cyber-attacks may put the
privacy, confidentiality, and security of the patient and the organization’s data at risk
(Bowman, 2013).
Approval and risk management:
The benefits and comfort offered by the system have been described above. However,
the benefit of the system is not limited to those only. The patients and their associates suffer
from regular visits to the healthcare units. Hence if an automated system is offered to them to
reduce those labors, the resultant will be in favor of the organization. In other words, the
system will offer competitive advantage in the market to the organization (Bonney, 2013).
Risk concerns have been assessed in the following section.
Risk Management:
To manage the risk associated with the system, the following measures will be
equipped to prevent any catastrophic event from happening:
It starts with Implementation: The policies and the procedures of the organization need to
be considered before implementation of the system. They also need to be upgraded with the
former accordingly while retaining the older ones (Li et al., 2012). The deemed step will
create the system almost error free.

10IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Training and educating workforce: To omit the chances of developing any loophole in the
security of the system, the hospital needs to educate their workforce about the system (Lei et
al., 2014).
Communication with the Customers: Cloud based tools are often considered to be
vulnerable to security and privacy attacks which may be concerning matter for the patients
and their families (Li et al., 2012). Hence, a program should be developed to educate the
patients about the benefits of the system.
Equipping security measure: The market is offering security measures for the cloud based
EMRs. The hospital can equip them to omit chances of cyber attacks.
Local Backup: The organization can tackle the situation of internet failure by creating a
local backup of the information as a contingency plan.
Conclusion:
The deemed report can be emphasized to conclude that EMR does offer assistance to
the healthcare units and develops an additional level of comfort for the patients as well. The
report also offers an insight into the requirements for the successful implementation of the
cloud-based EMR in the deemed organization along with the requested network diagram. To
omit the development of an ethical issue, the report has also offered limitations and the risk
that is associated with the system along with the advantage that it can offer to the
organization. However, taking appropriate measures can reduce those threats to a minimal
impact level, and those measures have also been discussed in the same. The competitive
advantage offered by the system is also part of the discussion in the report. Hence, in
conclusion, it can be stated that the organization should equip the cloud based EMR in their
workplace.

11IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
References:
Anoshiravani, A., Gaskin, G. L., Groshek, M. R., Kuelbs, C., & Longhurst, C. A. (2012).
Special requirements for electronic medical records in adolescent medicine. Journal of
adolescent health, 51(5), 409-414.
Bajwa, N. K., Singh, H., & De, K. K. (2017). Critical Success Factors in Electronic Health
Records (EHR) Implementation: An Exploratory Study in North India. International
Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics (IJHISI), 12(2), 1-17.
Bonney, W. (2013). Applicability of business intelligence in electronic health
record. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 73, 257-262.
Boonstra, A., Versluis, A., & Vos, J. F. (2014). Implementing electronic health records in
hospitals: a systematic literature review. BMC health services research, 14(1), 370.
Bowman, S. (2013). Impact of electronic health record systems on information integrity:
quality and safety implications. Perspectives in Health Information
Management, 10(Fall).
Jung, E. Y., Kim, J., Chung, K. Y., & Park, D. K. (2014). Mobile healthcare application with
EMR interoperability for diabetes patients. Cluster Computing, 17(3), 871-880.
Khan, F. A., Ali, A., Abbas, H., & Haldar, N. A. H. (2014). A cloud-based healthcare
framework for security and patients’ data privacy using wireless body area
networks. Procedia Computer Science, 34, 511-517.
King, J., Patel, V., Jamoom, E. W., & Furukawa, M. F. (2014). Clinical benefits of electronic
health record use: national findings. Health services research, 49(1pt2), 392-404.

12IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD BASED EMR
Kruse, C. S., DeShazo, J., Kim, F., & Fulton, L. (2014). Factors associated with adoption of
health information technology: a conceptual model based on a systematic
review. JMIR medical informatics, 2(1).
Lei, J., Guan, P., Gao, K., Lu, X., Chen, Y., Li, Y., ... & Zheng, K. (2014). Characteristics of
health IT outage and suggested risk management strategies: An analysis of historical
incident reports in China. International journal of medical informatics, 83(2), 122-
130.
Li, J. S., Zhang, X. G., Chu, J., Suzuki, M., & Araki, K. (2012). Design and development of
EMR supporting medical process management. Journal of medical systems, 36(3),
1193-1203.
Millard, P. S., Bru, J., & Berger, C. A. (2012). Open-source point-of-care electronic medical
records for use in resource-limited settings: systematic review and questionnaire
surveys. BMJ open, 2(4).
Shini, S. G., Thomas, T., & Chithraranjan, K. (2012). Cloud based medical image exchange-
security challenges. Procedia Engineering, 38, 3454-3461.
Tierney, M. J., Pageler, N. M., Kahana, M., Pantaleoni, J. L., & Longhurst, C. A. (2013).
Medical education in the electronic medical record (EMR) era: benefits, challenges,
and future directions. Academic Medicine, 88(6), 748-752.