Measurement of effectiveness of new applications used in healthcare organization

Effectiveness of new applications used in healthcare organization

Literature Review

Electronic Healthcare Records

Electronic health records (EHR) are an alternative route to the medical records available electronically replacing the paper charts and data in the healthcare organizations and healthcare provider's offices. These can consist of the medical histories of the patients including the symptoms and diagnosis, medicines profiles, immunization records, medical lab reports and other important information, which the healthcare provider may want to keep in the patient's record. These records are maintained in the computer systems within the special software customized for this type of usage. All areas of the clinical follow up are recorded in the EHR right from the assessment of the patient until the dispensing of the medicine including the treatment plan development, lab reports and healthcare provider's notes. Everything that once was practiced in the written form is now entered into a computer into the special database that is EHR.

The high-paced development of the IT systems over the past couple of decades has made the EHR a necessity on the large scale, and in the past few years, it has been integrated into the educational, industrial as well as the governmental organizations. EHR has the possibilities to give a significant contribution to the development of the healthcare quality and ultimately affecting the patient's safety. Ideally, an EHR is implemented to a highly productive level it should provide complete and accurate data and information of the patient that helps in making a right decision, management of the patients flow, effective communications. In addition, it proves the major contribution in the services of the point of care healthcare providers who are right at the floor to assess and providing direct care. In the factual analysis, the EHR should overcome all the problems that are faced in the paper-based working.

Challenges of the paper based system

Paper based system is nearly inefficient

Information can be misplaced or easily replaced

The healthcare providers have to memorize many things that ultimately lead to errors

Pulling out patient's histories was merely a difficult task with the paper-based system

In case of a drug recall for any reason, the paper-based system doesn't provide any efficient way to recall or inform the patients to discontinue its usage

Paper based system couldn't provide efficient means to provide patients histories when starting a new medication

Challenges in implementing EHR

Executing a new system into a workplace, which has running flow of existing systems, is not easily absorbed by the practicing staff. It is especially complicated when there is a wide range of electronic potential present. Conflicts towards a change are always a challenge for the new systems to implement. There is an immense challenge in the resistance of the physicians in the EHR implementation. Training is another challenge that is not convenient when the setup is very eventful. The cost that is gained by the benefits of EHR overwrites the cost of implementation.

Objectives of EHRs

The main objectives to implement an EHR in a healthcare setup are the following:

To improve ...