EHR Adoption Paper

The adoption of EHR has been slower than expected (Gans 1323). With numerous systems available, it is particularly difficult for a smaller practice to identify which system best meets its needs. Other notable challenges for some practices include assumption of the capital investment as well as managerial responsibilities associated with the IT infrastructure. A common implementation challenge encountered is the lack of a universal vision and definition of EHR. Since there are multiple interpretations of the definition of EHR and attendant requirements, identifying current and future needs is a complex process for potential users. Short term limited ability systems will eventually become obsolete as there is a move toward more global EHR systems. On June 18,

Another measure that implementation of EHR may affect will be patient satisfaction. Its impact on patient satisfaction will be difficult to quantify. It is anticipated that staff will be more knowledge about the patient and will have more time to spend with the patient both factors are known to improve patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is reported publicly so scores can affect selection of the hospital as a place for treatment and patient’s willingness to recommend or return.

To better understand where my facilities progress is concerning EHR’s, I will first explain the six step process in implementing an EHR. In the first step, an organization must assess their preparedness to initiate an EHR. This includes their

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made an investment in the year 2009 to encourage the adoption and implementation of the electronic health records (EHRs)(Cite). EHRs incentive payments were authorized through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals when they privately and securely used EHRs for achieving improvements in care delivery by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). The healthcare organizations are expected to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs. This rule of meaningful use has been implemented to strike a balance between acknowledging the urgency of adopting EHRs for improving the healthcare system and identifying the challenges that would be put forth

Hence, EHR 's are inherently complex amalgamations of diverse subsystems targeted toward varied users. The stakeholders are the users and must have a role in implementing any IT or EHR system into its work flow. An EHR can be customized to accommodate any environment depending on the level of expertise of the vendor and how long they have been in the business of creating an optimum system that 's customized to fit the organizations needs. For the most part, EHR 's must be designed for efficient, error free use. Ideally, an EHR is a system that encompass all the subsystems that make a hospital meet "meaningful use" criteria to acquire incentives for adopting EHR into practice. In the next five years, EHR adoption will no longer be a luxury, it will be a "MUST". EHR 's and other health information technology will be a necessity to practice medicine (econsultant.com, 2010). Rather than purchase several standalone systems, it would behoove one , in my opinion , to purchase an EHR that would satisfy all the needs of the stakeholders, the physician , nurses and other hospital staff and all parties involved in the tertiary practice too. Although LWMS 's budget is not large enough to accommodate the full cost of implementing an EHR,

eHealth is an application of information and communication technologies which can help manage and improve healthcare. According to McClure, “The global impact of e-Health is being manifested in the reduction of healthcare costs and improved efficiency through better retention and retrieval of records, better management of chronic diseases, shared health professional staffing, reduced travel times and fewer or shorter hospital stays” (as cited in Isabalija, Mayoka, Rwashana, & Mbarika, 2011). One of the most important factors that influences eHealth adoption amongst the healthcare organizations and providers is the financial incentives provided by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The HITECH Act of 2009 was signed into law to promote widespread use of electronic medical records (EMRs) and supporting technologies. As per the provision in the HITECH Act, the healthcare providers who adopt EMR system and manifests the “meaningful use” (MU) criteria by 2015 will receive incentives under

Anita Ground also stresses on the huge importance of this planning stage by using a concept of system life cycle. It consists of feasibility study, analysis, design, programming, implementation, and lastly maintenance (Ground, 2011, VA TMS training material). The analysis phase in particular would coincide with what the author Yoshihashi is presenting in figuring out office strategy and researching EHR options. Identification of stakeholders and system requirement would play a critical role in EHR adoption (Ground, 2011). Stakeholders would include patients, family, clinicians, billing, registration, and coding as well as the external users such as Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Bottom line is that the new system being purchased would need to provide meaningful use to the clinic based on the current certification standards.

So much so that our political leaders and President Barack Obama have created a stimulus package called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Within this legislature, improvements to our healthcare industry and systems have been made with long-term financial savings in mind. As technology and uniformed data was becoming the standard in healthcare, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act has accelerated the speed. “The number of certified EHR vendors in the United States has increased from 605,6 to more than 10007 since mid-2008” (Sitting and Singh, 2012). Healthcare organizations now have no choice but to invest in a new

The pre-implementation phase is the fundamental part of the EHR project because it concentrates on activities that facilitates its success. It includes assessment of processes, structural, performance features, and uniformity systems of health care facility for the strength of the network connection. Moreover, the pre-implementation phase involves developing an appropriate roadmap to the EHR project. Once the need for EHR is established, a set of essential elements should be involved, like, assessment, suitable planning for implementation, defining the need for EHR and choosing a vender, implementation and providing relative support procedures, final assessment for the system, enhancement, maintenance, and full EHR support

It can overall increase productivity and profit in the long-term. For instance, my workplace instills usage of electronic medical records for new and current patients for efficiency, productivity, and accuracy for the long-term of patients dental x-rays and health history. The costs involved are considerable and hard to calculate depending on the fees and licensing. According to, (Health Resources and Services Administration, 2016), a persistent problem is demonstrating a return on investment from an (EHR) implementation is often times challenging and may be even more difficult for smaller practices. The cost and effort involved from staff and management is difficult, but necessary to carry out productivity for implementation of (EHR). Every company practice is different and every practice must adapt to changes of implementing (EMR) for the duration of patient accuracy. Aside from the challenges, cost, and effort of implementing (EMR)’s in health care organizations, there is a desire to generate a return on investment (ROI) from them.

Using the right approach and planning PCC adoption as an EHR system can be beneficial. With change being a constant of the health care environment planned implementation will go smoother (American health Tech, 2014). The first step for PCC implementation should be getting people involved in the process. Physicians and nurses will buy into EHR if they are part of the planning and implementation process (American health Tech, 2014). This will be a great way to solicit their input on how to make PCC work best for them; including an analyst of the existing environment and systems. What major problems and deficiencies are there in the current systems and what develops or capabilities will the EHR need (Nelson & Staggers, 2014).

Overall the toolkit should demonstrate the improvements of EHR in healthcare organization’s perspective. These implementation process are optimal and necessary incorporating the useful resources for physicians to practice. Therefore, the culture of healthcare organizations is extremely important for a number of reasons to succeed the implementation of EHRs, such as engaged staff members level, the investment of workflow analysis to improve the efficiency of the resources collected, create systems to improve the quality of care among patients as providers exchange their information, provide resources so the training staff members can receive consistent treatment and maintenance, and incorporating staff members to be engaged towards

Despite the colossal ventures that have been made in innovation, there are clashing feelings about the estimation of EHRs and regardless of whether they will really help enhance nature of care while diminishing expenses. A current report by Medical Economics showed that 67% of doctors are disappointed with their EHR frameworks (Patel, K, 2015). Investing in EHRs can seem ironic when one of our major concerns in healthcare is skyrocketing costs. System-wide implementation of best-of-breed EHR systems, such as Epic, can run in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Beyond the up-front investment, budgets can also be blown by unexpected vendors’ fees, upgrades or ongoing maintenance needs. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon these days to hear of hospitals going bankrupt because of underestimating their technology spending (Patel, K, 2015). Organizations must consider not only the hardware and software, but also the costs of implementation, training, support, and the potential loss of productivity during the startup phase. There’s also the concern that as consolidation occurs (with larger vendors buying up smaller ones), organizations may need to purchase entirely new EHR systems as their present systems become obsolete (Patel, K,

Electronic health records (EHR’s) have many advantages, but there are plenty of disadvantages. EHR’s were created to manage the many aspects of healthcare information. Medical professionals use them daily and most would feel lost without it. Healthcare organizations were encouraged to adopt EHR’s in 2009 due to the fact that a bill passed known as The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). “The HITECH Act outlines criteria to achieve “meaningful use” of certified electronic records. These criteria must be met in order for providers to receive financial incentives to promote adoption of EHRs as an integral part of their daily practice”, (Conrad, Hanson, Hasenau & Stocker-Schneider, 2012).

When implementing a new EHR, departments need to have a plan in place when the system causes change to the process and design within the organization. Often times, regulations and policies need to be changed to coincide with a new system in place, such as a new EHR program (University of Scranton, 2017). A way to mitigate this situation is to start at the federal level’s regulations and work down the scope from there. This will guarantee that mandatory rules are still being followed and there is successful transition into future policies. Additionally, funding will be crucial to the organization’s ability to have a new EHR system. Each department needs to ensure they are properly tracking funds and that they can afford to upgrade.