Reviewing Academic Electronic Record Systems: An Essay.

The Origin and Concept of EHRs

Discuss about the Academic Electronic Record Systems.

One of the blessings bestowed by the technological innovations to the society has been the information and communication technology and it has found acceptance in almost all of the public service sectors including health care services. The introduction of the electronic health records have been by far the most revolutionary breakthrough for the field of health care and health informatics. Health information technology can be defined by the process that can collect, report, manage and transmit medical data and information of different patients and keep records of the performance of the health care professionals, and electronic health records are the tool that enables the health care facilities to achieve the same. EHRs are the computerized tools that can collect, process, store and present patient information generated by the encounters and activities in any of the care delivery settings, which has been considered as one of the most important tools n order to improve the quality and safety of the care provided. This literature review will focus on the effectiveness of the electronic health records in the context of aged care services (Jha et al., 2010).

The origin of medical records can be dated back to the fifth century BC, and it served the purpose of identifying the cause of a particular disease and document the treatment plan followed. In the 1960s the paper based medical records were the mode of patient information utilized globally in all kinds of clinical treatments. In the early 21^st century, the emergence of information technology into the health care sector brought forward the field of health informatics, and electronic health records came into being. In the current age, EHR is viewed as the solution to the most of the challenges in the health care sector, and is utilized by almost all health care professionals, such as specialists, physicians, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, dieticians, lab technicians, radiologists and others. Many authors have opined electronic health records to be the revolutionary transition that, if utilized properly, has the potential to change the face of health care altogether (Jha et al., 2010).

The operation of the EHR enables the health care professional to record the heath care information about the patient digitally and the activities undertaken to carte for the patient in a digital format that is processed and stored in a database that can be accessed by the health care professionals anytime and anywhere with authorized access to the data. Undoubtedly the importance of that in improving the care quality and safety will be radical, that is the reason EHR has become the necessity in the health care industry globally. The operation of the electronic health records is easy as well; the EHR comprises of patient identity, medical history, demographics, immunization status, medication allergies, radiology images, lab tests, vital signs, and personal statistics for the patient and the health care professionals are supposed to enter the information each time they visit the patient. The health care professionals have to make entry into the EHR every time they take assessment of the patient, in order to view the data previously entered by the other health care professionals and enter the data taken by the health care professional. Following this simple protocol can ensure that quality and optimal care is being provided to the patient and the safety and wellbeing of the patient is being given the first priority. In case of the aging patients, it is even more useful as there are a lot of complications associated with the aging and frail patient and there a lot o safety risks for the aging patients on residential care like fall risk, pressure injury, anxiety, respiratory infections, etc. Maintaining a strict EHR protocol will ensure that the all the factors associated with the aging patients are being considered (Rathert et al., 2017).

EHRs in Aged Care Services

According to the authors, Healthcare Informatics and electronic health records has been introduced into the aged care system both residential and nonresidential few years back in order to improve both the effectiveness of the aged care and the safety of aged care. Hindustani the authors have carried out a qualitative review on the effectiveness of electronic health records in improving the aged care services taking the context of the Australian hospitals. The results indicated that there were 3 categories of benefits as perceived by the Healthcare stuff due to the implementation of electronic health records into the treatment procedure (Zhang, Yu & Shen,  2012). The first benefits encountered by the staff had been in the documentation sector which enabled the staff to access the medical information about the patient every time they encountered the patient for assessment or treatment. Along with that and organized set of data help them serve higher quality of care to the patients and enabled smoother communication between the patient and the aged care staff. The electronic health records also enabled effective interpersonal communication between the aged care team assigned for a particular patient where one benefit led to another crafting an optimal care for the patients. The article by Yu indicated and similar results in a case study within the contact of Australian residential aged care fat staff responded with improved system and service quality improved information storage and access system improved training and self efficacy and improved patient satisfaction within the aged care (Yu et al., 2013). According to the study by Chung and Cho, authors assessed the performance of the HR systems within the context of aged care services and the results indicated that implementation of HR systems not only improve to the reliability of The aged care services but it also escalated the patient satisfaction and experience of stay in The aged care facility (Chung & Cho,  2017).

Although most of the studies indicate at the effectiveness of ESR records there are some disadvantages of HR installation into the aged care system as well. These alternate viewpoints were facilitated by you at all. In this study the authors attempted to investigate the unintended adverse consequences of implementing EHR in the residential aged care facilities taking into consideration the organizations within the Australian Capital Territory (Yu et al., 2013). The results indicated the presence of 8 categories of adverse consequences such as inability after staff in proper data entry, inability in Information retrieval, user resistance, and increased complexity of information management, confidentiality concerns, and complicated care delivery services. Similar alternative use measured by relevant studies on the adverse consequences of EHR into residential Aged care services.

Benefits of EHRs in Aged Care Services

The principal questions that are asked in this literature review regarding the efficiency of EHR systems in improving the care quality and cash delivery of the aged Care Services within residential settings. Along with that this literature review attempted to question the patient safety and patient satisfaction in accordance with an active EHR system in the residential aged care facility. The results of this literature review indicated at the radical improvement of aged care services due to the range of benefits facilitated by HR system and also indicated and improved Patient Safety and patient satisfaction within the similar context. The challenges that were found prevalent within the implementation of EHR in aged care services can be improved by training and skill enrichment of the Healthcare professionals so that they can understand the operation of EHR Services more appropriately and improve their professional efficiency along with the quality of the care they provide (Chung & Cho,  2017).

Conclusion:

On a concluding note, it can be said that the importance of the EHR is an essential tool in improving the care quality and escalating patient safety and patient satisfaction within any health care division including aged care services. However the lack of proper and large scale training and skill improvement of the health care staff is creating changes in optimal us of the revolutionary service, therefore, proper and periodic training can improve the future of health care services radically.

References:

Chung, J., & Cho, I. (2017). The need for academic electronic health record systems in nurse education. Nurse Education Today, 54, 83-88.

Jha, A. K., DesRoches, C. M., Kralovec, P. D., & Joshi, M. S. (2010). A progress report on electronic health records in US hospitals. Health affairs, 29(10), 1951-1957.

Rathert, C., Porter, T. H., Mittler, J. N., & Fleig-Palmer, M. (2017). Seven years after Meaningful Use: Physicians' and nurses' experiences with electronic health records. Health Care Management Review.

Sines, C. C., & Griffin, G. R. (2017). Potential Effects of the Electronic Health Record on the Small Physician Practice: A Delphi Study. Perspectives in health information management, 14(Spring).

Yu, P., Qian, S., Yu, H., & Lei, J. (2013). Measuring the performance of electronic health records: a case study in residential aged care in Australia.

Yu, P., Zhang, Y., Gong, Y., & Zhang, J. (2013). Unintended adverse consequences of introducing electronic health records in residential aged care homes. International journal of medical informatics, 82(9), 772-788.

Zhang, Y., Yu, P., & Shen, J. (2012). The benefits of introducing electronic health records in residential aged care facilities: a multiple case study. International journal of medical informatics, 81(10), 690-704.