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Electronic Health Record Use in Healthcare

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Electronic Health Record Use in Healthcare

Introduction

Due to the general technological developments in many industries, organizational health

records organizational management has also drastically developed in the recent past with the

healthcare sector. In the past, medical records were primarily recorded, stored, and retrieved

through the paperwork. However, the spectrum has evolved to incorporate technology for

advanced outcomes. As such, electronic health records (EHR), better referred to the electronic

media records (EMR) is a comprehensive and extensive system that stores patient health as well

as other populations’ health information. According to Flanagan et al. (2013), EHR enables

health care providers and other stakeholders to easily access, share, and consolidate data across

all networks within their systems. Recently, EHR was first put to use, and since then, tremendous

progress has been made, with many major companies in the industry beginning to experiment

with it. In another research, Wylie et al. (2014) note that the system as a whole can record the

patient's personal information as well as the specifics of their treatment, which enables the

medical staff to have a more comprehensive understanding of how to deal with specific patients

in terms of the complications they may be experiencing based on the individuals' past

experiences that are retrievable. In addition, electronic health records are often shared throughout

different departments and organizations. This is done to guarantee that all participants have

access to the same information, which is necessary for the implementation of the value-based

care model (Agniel et al., 2018).

EHR systems are designed to include beyond only clinical data gathered in a healthcare

institution. This is because it can provide a more comprehensive perspective of a patient's care,

in contrast to EHR systems, which only contain patients' medical and treatment histories
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(Shahnaz et al., 2019). Notably, the usage of electronic health record software is undergoing fast

transformations, and this technology is often misunderstood despite its capacity to bring about

significant shifts throughout the medical landscape. Regrettably, a sizable proportion of those

who work in the healthcare industry is incapable of appreciating the many ways in which

electronic medical records contribute to patient care. In a separate piece of study, Flanagan et al.

(2013) acknowledge that over the last ten years, there has been a rise in the number of activities

that revolve around the promotion of EHRs. In addition, several sectors, such as healthcare

agencies, organizations affiliated with the federal government, and humanitarian groups, have

strongly pushed for the implementation of different technical solutions for electronic health

records. On the other hand, even though the vast majority of the motivations behind the

implementation of the technologies in question aim at improving the quality of medical care

services in general, it is essential to take into consideration the enormous effects that HER

technologies might cause on the level of the physician-patient encounter. It is important to

consider the costs, history, and future of the input of technology in healthcare to have a complete

understanding of the topic as a whole. This is especially true when looking at the topic from the

perspective of the safety of patient information, the trust of patients, and the overall quality of

healthcare. Even though it is difficult to implement and manage due to the sophistication

surrounding software development and management, the use of EHR in healthcare helps in

streamlining the operations in the healthcare sector in preventing data loss even though it also

has implications on cost challenges and improves the overall quality of health care services.

Advantages of EHR Systems

The use of EHR systems has resulted in an enhanced method for articulating health

services as well as a reduction in the financial load that is placed on patients, payers, and
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healthcare providers. These may be linked to the funding of these initiatives by the federal

government under the value-based care paradigm, which is predicated on the concept that

anybody who does not adopt these programs would face negative repercussions. According to

research that was distributed, roughly 14% of patients generally need to go through examinations

more than once since their medical histories are either missing or inaccessible. This results in the

patient, who already has a lot on their plate, incurring additional fees and experiencing ethically

questionable difficulties. However, this does not apply to all health care companies since the

majority of these businesses work under a variety of financial constraints.

When it is required, the WHR system enables the health information of patients to be

quickly located and retrieved from a central repository, regardless of the location of the patient's

health care provider or facility. This indicates that doctors may have direct and fast access to the

information they desire, and at any time, to assist them in making key choices that can aid in

enhancing the patient's recovery process and the health of the population as a whole. Because of

this, time is saved, and as a result, fewer resources, including financial resources, are required to

complete many of the activities involved in healthcare. In addition, this might assist medical

professionals in locating patient health data on their own without having to rely on assistants,

who could potentially jeopardize the quality of treatment provided by supplying information that

is not relevant to the issue at hand.

EHRs may also serve as the cornerstone for improving the quality of the health service.

Providing safe and efficient patient care depends on having trustworthy access to all available

patient health records and information. EHRs categorize precise and comprehensive data

regarding patients' health history. According to Kierkegaard (2011), the patient's medical record

is also readily available for clinicians to analyze to decide what actions are necessary for therapy
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or other medical choices. Considering the active lifestyle that various patients lead. Whilst

running effective practices and providing treatment, physicians may deliver the most effective

treatment possible the patient care thanks to the use of the EHR system (Agniel et al., 2018);

Improved health results and, most crucially, an improving clinical experience may result from

this. EHRs may also assist healthcare professionals in making quick, sensible choices regarding

patient care. Additionally, it enhances the collection, evaluation, and transmission of patient data.

Members may get clinical reminders and notifications through EHR.

The introduction of HER also plays an essential role in revenue increment. As argued by

Shahnaz et al. (2019), every business always has an objective of maximizing its revenue, and

players in the healthcare sector are not any different. HER offers enormous and efficient

payment and billing tools that help in ensuring payment and managing income. For instance,

claims can automatically be rectified of any coding errors or mistakes that they might be having,

which might have, instead, led to time-to-time rejections within the systems. Such features

increase the rate of first-time acceptance for insurance claims and other stakeholders, which

facilitates reimbursements without delayed or loss claims. As a new and highly important

healthcare technology, HER equally allows healthcare providers to document all aspects and

occurrences of their patients’ visits, which makes it more efficient and achievable to provide

tangible and retrievable evidence regarding individual claims.

On the other hand, the federal government, through the collaborative healthcare and

information technology amalgamation program, offers monetary incentives to any healthcare

practices that plan, implement, and execute the use of any HER-related systems. Organizations

can be rewarded huge amounts of money and other advantages for implementing and using a

certified solution and ensuring that the implementations meet the required standards. In another
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research, Agniel et al. (2019) contend that the government has been forced to introduce penalties

for any healthcare organizations that do not meet these requirements as they lead to the

compromise of patient data. In any case, HER programs are designed and meant to aid healthcare

providers in meeting guidelines and preparing for future mandates, hence everyone involved in

any way has to ensure that the best results are achieved.

Disadvantages of EHR Systems

The installation of HER systems that are standardized and kept in good working order is

an expensive endeavor; different private corporations have been providing financial support for

this project in a wide variety of medical facilities. Despite this, it has not been possible to

evaluate, assess, or otherwise quantify the effect that the system has had since there is no

standard method in place for doing so. This has, to a certain degree, often resulted in poor

decision-making within the context of health care, which is a technology gap in healthcare that

need to be addressed in the course of further study (Flanagan et al., 2013). To ensure that no

important details are overlooked, accurate measurement and analysis of the many outcomes that

may be achieved based on the information obtained through research must be carried out.

As aforementioned, it is obvious that the establishment, running, and maintenance of

EHR systems are among the most demanding and expensive projects in the healthcare realm.

Mullins et al. (2020) contend that provided that the cost depends primarily on the system a health

care facility or provider settles for, a majority of them call for extra input such as extra hardware

gadgets—computers, information technology experts and moderators, and among others,

providing training and induction programs to staff members. There is an increased possibility

that more employees will be needed to avoid personal lapses (Meeks et al., 2014). It is nearly

impossible to alienate the possibility of incurring noteworthy losses in the whole process and
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hence has to be prepared to deal with the financial bit. Hence, the primary point, in this case, is

that the installation and management of electronic health programs in the healthcare system

come with a range of negative financial implications and at the same time, healthcare planners

should never underestimate the budget of the same just like they should be prepared for it.

One drawback of having EHR is that medical identity fraud is more anticipated to attack

this data. In the neighborhood, medical identity fraud has become more prevalent. To get

medical care, services, or products, it is considered medical identity fraud when someone

unlawfully accesses and uses a patient's individually identifiable data (Agniel et al., 2018).

Insurers, patients, hospitals, and other victims of medical identity fraud suffer economic loss and

administrative issues (Wylie et al., 2014).  When such happens, the entire process may result in

very distressing, challenging, time-consuming, and expensive treatments. For instance, to acquire

duplicates of their health files, let alone to fix fraud-related errors in such documents.

Regrettably, a lot of healthcare professionals lack the resources necessary to react to patient

complaints about mistakes in their data. In a medical context, the hospital must take preventative

steps to keep identity fraud to a minimum (Zhouet al., 2009). The healthcare center has taken

additional precautions to prevent medical identity fraud. Making sure we're employing the right

employees and providing them with security awareness training is the debut step in ensuring

these precautionary measures (Shahnaz et al., 2019). It is strongly advised that each candidate for

employment undertake a comprehensive background check to make certain they have never been

accused of identity fraud. Additionally, all members of staff will get coaching, which will

include the correct protocol and what will happen if a breach occurs.

The costs of putting in place the EHR system are another drawback. In addition to the

software price, retraining, resources, and time have to be paid for, sometimes, continuously. to
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curb this challenge, the EHR can be introduced into a healthcare system in a sequence of five

steps. according to Wylie et al. (2014), evaluating the culture readiness, making plans for

a health care agency's strategy, choosing or revamping a certified EHR method, providing

training and execution of the chosen EHR System, offering and achieving constructive use of the

system per se, and continuing to ensure high - the quality or improved performance are the six

essential steps in the whole process (Meeks et al., 2014). Applying these technologies is not an

easy undertaking, therefore whatever a healthcare agency wants to incorporate should be well

addressed.

One other drawback associated with using an EHR system is the possibility of suffering a

loss of data. as argued by Shahnaz et al. (2019), data loss is a state that is considered to be an

inaccuracy in information systems. As a result, this condition occurs when information is lost as

a result of mistakes or carelessness that occur during storage, transfer, or processing. Disaster

recovery and backup and disaster recovery software and procedures are implemented into

information systems to either avoid the loss of data or to recover data that has been lost (Meeks

et al, 2014). A hospital staff's capacity to provide uninterrupted medical attention to all of the

patients may be placed in jeopardy if a computer malfunction caused crucial data that they have

been gathering over the years to be lost. Therefore, if they employ electronic health record

software, they are equally required to have a reliable data backup strategy (Meeks et al., 2014).

Numerous practices have decided to store data backups offsite by using the assistance of a cloud

computing company. They will still manage to rebuild their patients' information using the

provided cloud backup even if their local servers experience a devastating catastrophe. This is

because the cloud backup is stored elsewhere.

Conclusion
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Summarily, the implications of HER in the dispensation of healthcare are undisputable.

With the current technological innovations, improvements in the sector are expected to deepen in

the near future. As a result, the cost of healthcare has drastically reduced alongside improved

healthcare provision and efficiency among providers, payers, and patients. Furthermore, EHR

use in healthcare has increased the incorporation of all healthcare providers in the access of

patient health records, hence making the healthcare spectrum easily manageable in regard to

attending to each patient’s needs on an individual level. However, as many other sectors, there is

more need for the necessary stakeholders to deal with the technical shortcomings that prevent the

full exploitation of the EHR systems, especially from the perspective of change acceptance,

sustainability, and efficiency.

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References

Agniel, D., Kohane, I. S., & Weber, G. M. (2018). Biases in electronic health record data due to

processes within the healthcare system: a retrospective observational study. BMJ, 361.

Flanagan, M. E., Saleem, J. J., Millitello, L. G., Russ, A. L., & Doebbeling, B. N. (2013). and

computer-based workarounds to electronic health record use at three benchmark

institutions. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 20(e1), e59-e66.

Jardim, S. V. (2013). The electronic health record and its contribution to healthcare information

systems interoperability. Procedia technology, 9, 940-948.

Kierkegaard, P. (2011). Electronic health record: Wiring Europe’s healthcare. Computer law &

security review, 27(5), 503-515.

Meeks, D. W., Smith, M. W., Taylor, L., Sittig, D. F., Scott, J. M., & Singh, H. (2014). An

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American Medical Informatics Association, 21(6), 1053-1059.

Mullins, A., O’Donnell, R., Mousa, M., Rankin, D., Ben-Meir, M., Boyd-Skinner, C., &

Skouteris, H. (2020). Health outcomes and healthcare efficiencies associated with the use

of electronic health records in hospital emergency departments: a systematic

review. Journal of Medical Systems, 44(12), 1-25.

Shahnaz, A., Qamar, U., & Khalid, A. (2019). Using blockchain for electronic health

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Sunder, G., Bendale, P., Sinha, P. K., Mantri, M., & Dande, A. (2012). Electronic health record:

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Wylie, M. C., Baier, R. R., & Gardner, R. L. (2014). Perceptions of electronic health record

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Zhou, L., Soran, C. S., Jenter, C. A., Volk, L. A., Orav, E. J., Bates, D. W., & Simon, S. R.

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