EMR Implementation in Small Independent Practices

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Achievements in public health and technology have created growth in the health care industry. Significant advances in prevention as well as declines in death rates have created a need for a more sophisticated system of record keeping. While monitoring the health of the nation, planning and developing better health services, and delivering effective and efficient care is now more important than ever. The need to manage patient data has increased as well. Moving from a world where paper records are kept in file cabinets, to implementing a system where documents are stored and maintained on computers and accessed through EMR systems is a complicated procedure for a large system, let alone the smaller independent practices that still exist. This paper will discuss how smaller independent practices deal with implementation, data control and maintenance of electronic medical records. Literature Review The use of Electronic Medical Records or EMRs began in 1996 when President Bill Clinton signed The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) which helped protect health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs, as well as providing guidelines for policies and procedures to assist in the maintaining of privacy and security for individually identifiable health information such as medical records (2014 EMR Mandate, 2012). In 2011 the federal government mandated that medical facilities and offices begin the process of transferring current traditional medical records to electronic medical records (2014 EMR Mandate, 2012). Over the next 5 years or so all facilities must make meaningful progress to upgrade to electronic systems (2014 EMR Mandate, 2012). Implement... ... middle of paper ... ...se and Exchange of Health Information. Retrieved from http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/rtc_adoption_of_healthit_and_relatedefforts.pdf Ouellette, P. (n.d.). EHR best practices: EHR training for independent physicians. EHRintelligencecom Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://ehrintelligence.com/2012/06/26/ehr-best-practices-ehr-training-for-independent-physicians/ Taye, M. (2012, February 9). OpEdNews - Article: How Changes in Medical Technology Affect Health Care Costs. Opednews.com Progressive, Liberal United States and International News, Opinion, Op-Eds and Politics. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Changes-in-Medical-Tec-by-Matthew-Tae-090209-748.html Vetter, D. (2013). Stewards of our own healthcare. Growth of Web-based health records offers enormous benefits to consumers. Health Management Technology, 34(8), 14.

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