Question

Write a three (3) page paper on the application and challenges involved with implementing an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for a private family medicine practice. This is a small family practice with 3 doctors and a HIT budget of $60,000 annually and $150,000 for upfront expenditures.

The term paper must answer the following questions.

1. What are the most important functionalities of the EHR that need to be implemented at the practice?
2. Is it possible for any existing Practice Management Systems to be integrated with the EHR?
3. Identify any two critical challenges in implementing the EHR.
4. Identify any four critical advantages the EHR would provide to the practice.
5. How would you manage the project planning and implementation of this EHR?
6. Explain the technology security considerations and how HIPAA governs its implementation.
7. Discuss strategies for disaster recovery and include discussion on storage media options
8. Evaluate cloud computing considerations, to include cloud-hosted versus local installation
9. Make a recommendation on the type of EHR system this practice should adopt and support your decision using data. ( No  plagiarism please ) 3 pages essay answering all the questions that are being asked please

Answer 1

1) Important functionalities of the EHR :

1.Health information and Data : EHR should contain specific data about the patient i.e the patient record. These records are used by concern doctors to take immediate and effective decisions regarding the patient's health EHR system should have well designed system to manage such data efficiently.

2. Results Management : EHR also manages all types of results such as laboratory test results, procedure results etc which holds advantage over paper based record storage. This helps improve the quality of the care and treatment. This also improves the decision making and the patient safety.

3. Past Record Management : Past record management is important as this improves the workflow process by eliminating lost orders and ambiguities caused by illegible handwriting, generating related orders automatically, monitoring for duplicate orders, and reducing the time to fill orders. This also improves desicion support capabilities.

4. Decision Support : This enhances the clinical performances for many fields of healh care such as prevention, prescribing of drugs, diagnosis and management, and detection of adverse events and disease outbreaks. Also computerized decision support to improve drug dosing, drug selection, and screening for drug interactions.

5. Administrative Process:  Electronic scheduling systems for hospital admissions, inpatient and outpatient procedures, and visits not only increase the efficiency of heath care organizations, but also provide better, more timely service to patients. computerized decision support tools are being used in a variety of settings to identify eligible or potentially eligible patients for clinical trials.

2) Yes it is possible for any existing Practice Management Systems to be integrated with the EHR. Where the clinical side is interlaced with the administrative side with an integrated system.

This integration provides benefits to both the systems. Such as,

• Sharing of data
• Pomotion of interoperability
• Improved analysis of records

3) Two challenges in implementing EHR are,

1. The technical ability :

A computer’s ability to fetch and send data throughout healthcare is affected by its age and other factors, such as the area in which the practice is located. The long connection from a remote place becomes problematic and difficult, which makes the EHR implementation hard.

2. The users

Every users do not prefer working with EHR. So, the EHR must fulfill the user i.e the patient's requirement or else the patient may deny to use EHR if he/she encounter any minor technical issue.

4) Four advantages of using EHR :

1. Providing effective and efficient care to the patients due to the quick access of the patient's record.

2. Patient information are shared safely and securely.

3. Improved interaction and communication between patient and provider.

4. Improved efficiency of provider's business and improved productivity of provider's work life.