ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD

Electronic Health Record

Abstract

In the realm of health information technology (HIT), Electronic Health Record (EHR) is the next step to establish goals for increased meaningful use. As regions and states begin to establish EHR, governance of EHR has become an increasingly significant issue. The ideal structure and sustainability of the governance of EHR is still in debate. Health care administrators need to get involved in the implementation of EHR and its governing body early to ensure their organization's needs are met and that the governing body understands the obstacles health care organizations face when managing HIT. Involvement of administrators in the governing process can help implement robust EHR that yield organizational efficiency, cost savings, and improved patient outcomes. Furthermore, the dynamics of the clinical data collection can lead to health care and public health leaders developing programs to further improve the overall health of the community. In this paper we try to discuss the issue relating to public health departments, that they do not get data directly from the EHR.

Electronic Health Record

Introduction

Electronic Health Records (EHR) mobilizes health care information through the use of electronic health records between organizations within a community or region. The goal of EHR is to retain the meaning of information exchanged between different health care organizations. The ability to transfer information across organizations in a region can effectively create a patient-centered environment that is more efficient, effective, and safe (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society).

Health care costs are at an all time high in the United States. Health care organizations are utilizing health information technology (HIT) and EHR to streamline health care services. EHR are paving the way for improving safety, quality and efficiency of patient care. The health care industry has faced significant reforms in the past year. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) passed as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). HITECH provided funding needed to start EHR in the Unites States.

Discussion

EHR serves to provide effective administrative and clinical benefits to all stakeholders, including providers, payers, and public health organizations. In an ideal setting EHR will serve to reduce health care costs by eliminating redundancy and simultaneously improving care for patients. In the future EHR can make electronic health records (EHRs) currently in health care organizations become more robust through interoperable systems and clinical data sharing.

Public Health Department don't get data from the EHR directly, in order to determine the ideal governance structure stakeholders need to begin by assessing the current delivery and financing structure of health services, current EHR operations, and the size of the community or region the EHR will coordinate (Accenture, 2009). Additional considerations now come into play; these include what is the desired level of centralized versus distributed control; and the degree to which enterprise architecture, standards and common services should be defined at a state level versus at the EHR levels.

For this model the public sector directly provides governance and infrastructure for ...