Older paper filing techniques are being phased out in favor of electronic health records (EHR). Nursing specialists can use electronic health records to document patient care and obtain information that can help prioritize care. Furthermore, information entered into computer systems can be accessible by the care team, including doctors and, in certain cases, patients themselves. While security remains an issue for Electronic Health Records, HIPAA requirements ensure that healthcare companies preserve the security and privacy of electronic records, and emerging technology such as blockchain and encryption are alleviating privacy issues.
Registered nurses can use EHRs to see if there are any additional measures they need to take for a patient, monitor modest condition changes, and receive information as alerts or reminders right away. The speed and accuracy of medical care are affected by real-time health updates and can be volatile (“Seven Nursing Technologies Transforming Patient Care”, 2022). Registered nurses learn how to use software systems on the job, but their education and training will assist them to comprehend what different indications on medical records indicate and what action they can take to enhance patient outcomes.
The majority of the general public is aware of the importance of electronic health records. According to a 2019 poll conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit healthcare advocacy organization based in San Francisco, California, 45 percent of Americans believe that electronic health records have enhanced care quality, with only 6% reporting a loss. Nonetheless, primary-care physicians in the United States are dissatisfied. According to a 2018 survey conducted by Stanford Medicine in California, 59 percent of respondents believed the systems needed to be completely overhauled. Fixes are sought by healthcare administrators and producers of electronic health records.
Electronic health records could use machine-learning algorithms established for recommending movies or consumer products to assist clinicians with medical diagnoses. Systems that might sift through enormous numbers of clinical information and insurance-reimbursement data to identify the cheapest prescription that would be beneficial for a patient are said to be in the works. Although the digital medical assistant may be more adept than the movie-selection algorithm, people should ultimately make the decisions.
Although electronic health records (EHRs) constitute a critical information platform for modern health care, they face significant design and implementation issues. Fortunately, today’s EHRs may be optimized for increased efficiency, clinical care, and provider well-being using a variety of techniques (HKBU et al., 2022). Additional best practices must be created in the future, and future generations of EHRs and other health IT tools must be designed using human factors engineering principles to guarantee that usability is prioritized.
Beyond EHRs, more technological advancements are on the horizon. Integration of aggregate data from numerous sources into a common data model is one promising strategy (outside the EHR). Data from a variety of sources can be put through algorithms to produce information tailored to certain use cases. Nevertheless, issues of bias, liability, and transparency (all of which are beyond the focus of this paper) must be addressed for these and others to follow. Additionally, all technologies must be tested and appraised in the context of the providers who will use them as well as the environment in which they will be employed.
Current implementation strategies prioritize implementing peer-led training programs, and occasionally training physicians to increase EHR efficiency after initial deployment. They also highlight the importance of hiring clinicians throughout different implementation stages. It might be beneficial for healthcare professionals to consider the human factors of the work environment assessment to ensure the technology is utilized with the highest possible accuracy.
References
HKBU, H., Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, U., (UBC), T., & (FZJ), J. (2022). The future of electronic health records. Nature. Web.
Seven Nursing Technologies Transforming Patient Care. Western Governors University. (2022). Web.