Electronic Health Records Essay

The Effect of Electronic Health Records

Preserving patient data digitally has been the goal in health care for numerous years. The change from paper records to electronic health records has been a slow process. When a patient comes to a hospital, doctor’s office, or outpatient clinic the information that is provide by the patient and about the patient would be document in a computer system. This would allow easier access to records, easier storage, access for research, as well as many other benefits. In 2009 the United States enacted The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) to provide incentives for hospitals and physicians to transition to electronic health records (EHR) (King, Patel, Jamoom, & Furukawa, 2013). In 2014 the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act required “meaningful use” of electronic health records to maintain reimbursement levels from Medicare and Medicaid (USF Health, 2017). Five guidelines are required to be considered be of “meaningful use” and include: 1)improves quality safety, efficacy and reduces health inconsistencies; 2) engage patients and families to be active members in health care; 3) increase health coordination; 4) advance public health; and 5) ensure privacy and security of personal data (Stimson &

Some anesthesia providers have access to EHR but do not implement them for documentation while other do not utilize EHR at all. Anesthesia Information Management Systems (AIMS) are electronic in surgery documentation systems that are integrated into an EHR or a standalone system (LaDage, Prasun, Linton, Kaiser, & Laskowski, 2015). Lecture reviews states that AIMS are beneficial for completeness of records, accuracy, access to patient information, and meeting set standards (LaDage, Prasun, Linton, Kaiser, & Laskowski, 2015).
Impendence to Anesthesia Information