The Effectiveness of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in Improving the Provision of Care

The Effectiveness of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in Improving the Provision
of Care
Introduction to EMR Strategies for enhancing safety and quality care in relation to EMRDisadvantages of EMR
Description of EMR and its purpose
Summary and Conclusion
Technology has the potential to improve the provision of care in
hospitals. EMR is a digital form of patient paper records that
comprises patient health information such as medical history and
treatment plans (Kruse, Stein, Thomas & Kaur, 2018). Through EMR,
health care providers’ store and view patient information in formats
that are impossible with paper charts (Manca, 2015). EMR can
improve efficiency, enhance patient outcomes and improve population
health.
References
The reports may consist of patient conditions, physiological signals, medical
forms and medical treatment videos (Almunawar, Anshari, Younis, & Kisa,
2015). Data entry and access screens are controlled using pointing and scrolling
devices such as a mouse (Evans, 2016). The records contained in EMR are
generated and maintained by a certain health care provider (Almunawar et al.,
2015). The functionality of EMR includes electronic medication ordering,
elaborate patient management and billing systems (Almunawar et al., 2015).
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Summary
EMR presents one of the most important technologies in the health
care industry. Importantly, the potential benefits of this technology are
limitless, and they revolve around improving the quality of care,
patient satisfaction, and hospital operations.
Recommendations
-Advanced training for nurses to improve EMRs’ efficiency
-Proper implementation of EMR in health organizations
-Acquisition of up-to-date computer hardware and software
Strategies for Nurses
-They should commit to comply with a code of conduct that
promotes patients’ safety and usability.
-They should monitor safety and usability challenges of EMR
continuously through simulated clinical scenarios and test cases
(Ratwani, Hodgkins & Bates, 2018).
-Nurses within each department should cooperate and share
ideas on how to improve EMR’s effectiveness.
Strategies for Organisations
-They should develop and implement guidelines on the best
practices of using EMR.
-They should bring developers on board to address the
challenges identified through research.
-They should update t organisation’s infrastructure including
computers constantly to support EMR’s functionality.
Advantages of EMR
EMR impacts patient
satisfaction and patient-
to-doctor
communication
positively (Alkureishi et
al., 2016).
EMR provides
treatment goals and
alerts to remind
healthcare providers
when specific
screening dates are
due (Manca, 2015).
The availability of
patient information
allows providers to
personalize treatment
plans.
EMR allows for fast
and easy access of
patient information.
EMR can bridge
inherent gaps between
practice and science to
inform disease
detection, treatment
choices and increase
prognosis accuracy
(Vrieze et al., 2013).
EMR offers access to
health data that can be
used for health
improvement and as a
safety net for feasible
health threats (Kruse
et al., 2018).
EMR improves the
management of
chronic diseases,
prevention of diseases
and screening of
targets.
EMR might have many medical errors that affect the quality of care (Kruse
et al., 2018).
EMRs might generate extra administrative tasks for the health providers (Zang, X. & Zang,
P., 2016).
The quality of data contained in EMRs may vary because of sociotechnical factors
associated with the users (Zang, X. & Zang, P., 2016).
EMRs are also linked to confidentially and privacy issues (Zang, X. &
Zang, P., 2016).
Patient information might be prone to misuse by the care
providers.
Implementing EMR systems might be costly for some
hospitals.
It might be complex to search and effectually review information
contained in EMRs