Nursing and Technology
The first computer was introduced to hospitals in the late 1960s in an attempt to better capture patient billing. Since the 1960s, computer technology has grown and marked its presence in the health care system. In the 1980s the term nursing informatics was introduced for the first time and was defined as “the combination of nursing, information, and computer sciences to manage and process data into information and knowledge for use in nursing practice” (Murphy, 2010, p. 204). As technology evolved and transformed so did the definition. In 2008, the American Nurses Association defined nursing informatics as “a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice” (p. 65). It is through this definition that the ANA attempts to bring today’s practice back to basics by “using technology to promote health and quality patient care” (Murphy, 2010, p. 205). Safety is a key factor in promoting health and quality care, and many changes that have been implemented in the health informatics can be attributed to improving safety. Computer applications that have been implemented in many hospital settings are physician order entry, electronic medication administration record, and electronic medical record. These applications have a great impact on today’s nursing care.
Again, one goal of health information technology is safe quality patient care. The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) has gained national attention over the past decade. “The Institute of Medicine has encouraged adopting EMR to reduce medical errors, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 established financial ...
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Unfortunately, the quality of health care in America is flawed. Information technology (IT) offers the potential to address the industry’s most pressing dilemmas: care fragmentation, medical errors, and rising costs. The leading example of this is the electronic health record (EHR). An EHR, as explained by HealthIT.gov (n.d.), is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It includes, but is not limited to, medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. The EHR, then, serves as a resource that aids clinicians in decision-making by providing comprehensive patient information.
Healthcare professionals associated with medical billing and coding know the progress the technology has made so far. In the last few decades, medical billing and coding has switched from being a paper-based system to a computerized format. Under HIPAA laws, medical practitioners had to develop new software in order to send out electronic bills. With the advent of electronic medical records (EMR), with one touch of a button, doctors, Nurse Practitioners and PAs can gain access to all the care a patient has ever received from every healthcare facility the patients visited previously and can figure out possible illnesses. This enables statistical documentation of the population as a whole as well. EMR can also make the healthcare system more transparent and allow integration with reimbursement data. As the healthcare system changes, this will prevent unnecessary costs and make it easier to get the reimbursements needed to treat a patient.
Van Doormaal, J. E., Mol, P. G., Zaal, R. J., Van Den Bemt, P. M., Kosterink, J. G., Vermeulen, K. M., & Haaijer-Ruskamp, F. M. (2010). Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system: expectations and experiences of users. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 16(4), 738–743. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2009.01187.x
“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an incentive, the government began issuing payments to those providers who “meaningfully use certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.” (hhs.gov) There are three stages that providers must progress through in order to receive theses financial incentives. Stage one is the initial stage and is met with the creation and implementation of the HER in the business. Stage two “increases health information exchange between providers.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) Stage three will be the continuation and expansion of the “meaningful use objectives.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) The hospital, where I work, initiated the HER mandate many years ago. In this paper, I will discuss the progression and the challenges that my hospital encountered while implementing the EHR mandate.
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Advances in technology have influences our society at home, work and in our health care. It all started with online banking, atm cards, and availability of children’s grades online, and buying tickets for social outings. There was nothing electronic about going the doctor’s office. Health care cost has been rising and medical errors resulting in loss of life cried for change. As technologies advanced, the process to reduce medical errors and protect important health care information was evolving. In January 2004, President Bush announced in the State of the Union address the plan to launch an electronic health record (EHR) within the next ten years (American Healthtech, 2012).
In 2009 President Obama, through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, pledged to provide incentives to the nation’s physicians and hospitals to convert to an electronic healthcare system in attempt to improve the quality of care and reduce cost (Freudenheim, 2010). By converting to an electronic system, we have the opportunity for improved communication between all healthcare providers and decreased cost to our healthcare system. The goal is to improve communication across all aspects of the service chain (Horan, Botts & Burkhard, 2010). Almost two years later, the conversion progress continues to be slow. Only one in four physician’s offices, mostly large groups, have implemented the electronic record system (Freudenheim, 2010).
Boaden, R., & Joyce, P. (2006). Developing the electronic health record: What about patient safety? Health Services Management Research, 19 (2), 94-104. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/236465771?accountid=32521
Over the last several years, electronic medical records are becoming more prominent in health care facilities, replacing traditional written records. As many electronics are becoming more prevalent with the invention of numerous smartphones and tablet devices, it seems that making medical records available electronically would be appropriate for the evolving times. Even though they have been in use to some extent for many years, the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has brought paperless documentation into the spotlight” (Eisenberg, 2010, p. 8). The systems of electronic medical records mainly consist of clinical note taking, prescription and medication documentation,
Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), is also known as Computerized Provider Order Management (CPOM). CPOE is a process of automated or electronic entry record of health care physician on different types of instructions on how to treat patients, especially patients that are hospitalized under a physician’s care. CPOE is one of the most remarkable system that is being used in the healthcare system to effectively reduce the amount of medication errors. The University of Health Care System might be in the process of rolling out the CPOE portion out of the EMR project, however, they did not do a thorough investigation on what CPOE is and whether or not it would have a positive impact on the EMR project. They should have not taken the step to start the project without already knowing the basics of CPOE. They might have had thought that since it is a computerized system everything would turn out okay and there would not be any problems. However, they fall short to recognize that the user’s knowledge and experience with using the CPOE system would have a significant influence on the effectiveness and productivity of the actual system.
Technology is stated as the scientific method and material used to achieve a commercial or industrial objective. To go one step further, nursing technology is using a tool to advance nursing practice. “The Institute of medicine identified that technology as a viable method of enhancing patient care delivery and improving staff productivity” Sensmeier, Horowitz (2003 page). Because inadequate nursing staff causes shortcuts to be taken, there are mistakes made that could have possibly been prevented. Errors by nursing staff were variously reported as being responsible for between 44,000 and 98,000 hospital deaths per year. Sensmeier, Horowitz (2003). Technology can have a large impact on nursing. In the past 5 to 10 years, computerized patient records have increased less than 10%. This number shows us that we are still not embracing technology to its full potential. Today in most hospital systems computerized electronic charting is being used. Many hospitals have many different systems for...
Journal Title: Impact of Health Information Technology on the Quality of Patient Care. Introduction: Our clinical knowledge is expanding. The researchers have first proposed the concept of electronic health records (EHR) to gather and analyze every clinical outcome. By the late 1990s, computer-based patient records (CPR) were replaced with the term EHR (Wager et al., 2009).
Information Systems/Technology and patient care technology for the improvement and transformation of health care is an important part of the DNP. Technology has transformed every aspect of human life in positive ways. Technology brought efficiency and improved healthcare deliverance system. Healthcare technologies enabled practitioners to better understand disease process and how to implement best treatment plan. DNP programs across the country embrace information systems and technology in their nursing curriculum because, it prepares nursing students to be innovative and deliver best care (AACN, 2006). DNP graduates must have the ability to use technology to analyze and disseminate critical information to find solutions that
The purpose of the Electronic Health Record is to provide a comprehensive, standardized and universal digital version of a patient 's health records. The availability of a patient 's digital health record provides health information and data for critical thinking and evidence based decision-making, aggregates patient data for quality assurance and research. The Electronic Health Record has been, "identified as a strategy for effectively and efficiently coordinating and maintaining documentation of patients health histories and as a secure method of providing more informed clinical decision making" (MNA, 2006).