Healthcare Report: Comparing EHRs in Ambulatory and Acute Settings

This report examines the distinctions between electronic health records (EHRs) in ambulatory and acute healthcare settings. The report begins by defining the role of EHRs in modern healthcare, emphasizing their importance in data sharing and integration across different departments within hospitals and clinics. It then differentiates between inpatient EHRs, primarily used in hospitals for order entry, medication management, and electronic medical records, and ambulatory EHRs, designed for outpatient care settings and smaller establishments. The comparison highlights the specific advantages and applications of each type of EHR, emphasizing that the choice between the two depends on the infrastructure and needs of the healthcare setting. The report concludes by noting the benefits of EHRs, such as improved data accuracy and patient education, and provides relevant references to support the analysis.

Running head: HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT
Healthcare management
Name of the student
University name
Authors’ note

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Table of Contents
Differences in EHRs in ambulatory and acute health care settings.............................................2
Inpatient EHR..................................................................................................................................2
Ambulatory EHR.............................................................................................................................3
Comparison......................................................................................................................................3
References....................................................................................................................................4

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Differences in EHRs in ambulatory and acute health care settings
The emergence of electronic health records (EHRs) have served as a boon in an acute and
ambulatory health care set up. The scenario can be compared with respect to hospitals or chain of
hospitals where a number of departments are connected and calls for active information sharing.
In this respect, the lab, pharmacy, x-ray and many other departments requires rapid integration
and customization of services. Thus, over here each department had to separately print their data
or enter their data manually. As commented by Chen & Yu (2017), manual entry of the data
often can lead to erroneous data being recorded. This puts emphasis upon the importance of
electronic health records which ensures that the consistent data is shared throughout the hospital
and interactive interfaces are maintained. In this respect, two different forms of EHR could be
highlighted which are ambulatory EHR and inpatient EHR. The two forms have been compared
over here to arrive at a more favourable and widely accepted mode of EHR.
Inpatient EHR
The inpatient EHR is most commonly used by hospitals or a chain of hospitals. With
respect to an IT perspective a hospital is not a single department but a group of various
departments or systems. The EHR helps in establishment of a common link between various
departments and segments of a hospital (Cohen, 2016). Additionally, the inpatient EHR mostly
focuses upon order entry and medication administration. For successful establishment of EHR
within an acute care setting stress is levied upon electronic medication administration records
and medical reconciliation.

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Ambulatory EHR
In the other hand ambulatory EHR is designed for outpatient care settings and smaller
establishments. It is simpler than the inpatients EHR because the focus area is a single care set
up and is mainly concerned with managing small amount of data. The ambulatory EHR allows
the physician to access the detailed health reporting of the patients including past hospital
admissions or past history of allergies. As commented by Rein & Simpson (2017), the electronic
health records have brought about a revolution within the medical system and care channel. The
comprehensive data base allows the physicians to have a look at the larger picture and provide
proper assistance in much lesser amount of time.
Comparison
A comparative account between both forms of EHR have established that both are
indispensable and have been found to be of immense importance within the health care process
and set up. However, the particular mode of EHR chosen over here depends upon the
infrastructure of the medical set up. That is for a chain of hospitals, inpatient EHR is needed
whereas for a small clinical set up ambulatory EHR can serve the purpose. The data presentation
and accurate documentation established with the help of the EHR reduces the chances of errors
within a medical set up. The high definition imaging results obtained with the use of the
sophisticated EHR systems can be used to educate the patients and their respective families
about the detailed condition of an individual’s health.

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References
Chen, J., & Yu, H. (2017). Unsupervised ensemble ranking of terms in electronic health record
notes based on their importance to patients. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 68, 121-
131.
Cohen, M. F. (2016). Impact of the HITECH financial incentives on EHR adoption in small,
physician-owned practices. International journal of medical informatics, 94, 143-154.
Rein, A., & Simpson, L. A. (2017). Finding “truth” across different data sources. Israel journal
of health policy research, 6(1), 14.