The Economic Potentials With The Current Push For The Implementation Of The Certified Ehr

Cost reduction could impact the quality and efficiency of health care by using information technology (IT). It was a federal policy initiative to increase the outcome of patient’s health (Jacobs, 2012). It was for hospitals to increase the use of technology to assist to manage expenses. It ended up improving the

A powerful IT infrastructure is necessary to advance healthcare quality. Among countless other advantages, an effective IT infrastructure generates accurate and accessible performance data, allowing monitoring of results. However, Hill absorbed the cost to physicians which encouraged their physicians to adapt to the new system. Similarly, they made sure the system was user friendly which lessened frustration and resistance.

This article describes The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act’s (HITECH) “meaningful use” objective to create a nationwide system of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in order to improve patient safety, quality of care, privacy and security. The authors point out that during the first two years of an EHR implementation, clinicians and hospitals must meet certain requirements in order to qualify for federally funded incentive payments totaling up to $107,750 per clinician. This incentive is meant to ease the financial challenges smaller practices might face as the United States works toward a more technically collaborative information care system, EHRs promise to provide.

These rewards serve as gratification and the offered initiatives contribute to the prevailing positive attitudes from the physicians toward EHRs. These benefits include improved patient safety and quality of care, the ability to reduce healthcare cost, and ultimately better patient health outcomes and satisfaction. According to Jamoom et al. (2013), having the ability to access the patient’s charts remotely, being warned to critical lab values and potential medication errors, and the systems’ ability to identify needed lab tests are all reported benefits of the EHR. Improved overall patient care, the ordering of less medical test due to the availability of lab results, and the ordering of more on-formulary medications are all advantages that physicians reported occurring due to the adoption of the EHRs. The adoption and implementation of the EHR has presented challenges for information technology. These benefits of the EHR outweigh the initial dissatisfaction of the physicians. For the adoption of EHR to be successful in the healthcare industry it is important that the physician’s outlook remain

Implementing to electronic medical records has many benefits such as reducing medical record errors, accuracy, having medical record access immediately, reducing medication errors and improving patient care. Monetary incentives are given to providers who demonstrate meaningful use. For those who do not, they face reduction in reimbursement amounts. “In 2017, reduction in reimbursement is 3%.” (National Center for Medical Records, n.d.)

The health IT system is essential to transform the delivery of health care. Innovation within the IT system includes efficient data use through warehouses as they expand health information, which allows for big improvements in the technological use. These improvements would ensure that data user safety will allow the smooth exchange of information transfer electronically between different health care providers. In this case, most hospital employees and health care organizations understand how the health information technology (IT) is important for the HCO’s functions. The passing of “the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) legislation in 2009, with its specific attention to advancing EHRs, federal dollars are dedicated to expanding EHR use in physician offices and more” (Abdelhak pg. 180). This shows that a federal government has an ability to change in the healthcare industry, so the government should incorporate science and technology development. The private sector and government funding resources will also have a significant impact to play a great role in the exploration of new software operations in terms of advancing the technological environment. Advancing this area of the organization encourages health Information

Currently, the healthcare industry only spends 2% of gross revenues on health information technology, while the banking industry spends upwards of 10%. However, the Veterans Healthcare System is one of the largest integrated systems in the world. One hundred fifty-five hospitals and eight hundred clinics rely on one electronic health system (Gupta & Murtaza, 2009). Implementing information systems in hospitals is more challenging than elsewhere because of the complexity of medical data, data entry problems, security and confidentiality concerns and a general lack of awareness of the benefits of Information Technology (Boonstra et al., 2014). The newly implemented system must be reliable from the onset as patient care does not cease in the meantime. Technology has the potential to streamline current practices and reduce costs, however, hospitals must consider the potential risks and consequences of a poorly implemented project and agree that failure is not an option. Good project planning and management can assure success of Electronic Health Record

Greater efficiency and cost savings – Digital records and integrated communications methods can significantly cut administrative costs, including reducing the need for transcriptions, physical chart storage, coding and claims management, as well as facilitating care coordination and reducing the time it takes for hard-copy communications among clinicians, labs, pharmacies and health plans.

The potential for Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to transform healthcare making it more accurate, efficient and cost-effective is significant. Studies indicate that the most common workflows and processes that EMR systems are used for automating can save a healthcare provider up to 67% of the total costs of correcting error-filled reports and minimizing the costs of malpractice insurance as a result (Walker, 2005). The best and most significant Return on Investment (ROI) of all however are the significant gains made in patients' recovery time and effectiveness of treatment programs (Darr, Harrison, Shakked, Shalom, 2003). Between the cost reductions made possible through effective use of EMR systems and the ROI of saving lives, the collection of these technologies, systems and processes show significant potential in streamlining patient-based workflows while increasing the quality of care (Richards, Prybutok, Ryan, 2012).

The infrastructural implementation of EHR systems requires initial high dollar investment which in the current economic environment may require budgetary restraints on other services and supplies. Although the intent is clear and the potential promising, there is limited evidence of the economic benefits of EHR systems in healthcare mainly because it is in its infancy, the hospital board of governors may require extensive due diligence studies prior agreeing to any such change.

Electronic medical records are not sufficient enough to efficiently run a medical practice; therefore, other information technology is required. Computerized provider order entry (CPOE), is another information technology that will be implemented. Prescription errors are common causes of medical errors, which can have adverse effect on the patient and lead to malpractice litigation against the practice. The CPOE software can be integrated within an already established EMR system; within the CPOE, physicians are able to prescribe

Traditionally doctors have worked on paper medical records, resulting in a series of problems to be solved daily. For example: the lack of clarity of the notes, the lack of statistics and reports, the large physical space needed to archive records, the high cost of stationery, etc. are some of the problems they must deal. Computers have come to solve these problems. Moving from "paper" to "digital" is a big change that brings many benefits as faster access to clinical patient information, better storage of medical data, great flexibility to record the information for each its electronic patient medical history, good interoperability between different medical areas to be able to share the data of people served, which directly affects a profit

Covey (1992) says “to succeed at breaking old habits and making new ones, learn how to handle the restraining forces and harness the driving forces to achieve the daily private victory”(p.72). There are a number of barriers and limitations that providers are concerned with in the adoption of the EHR, obviously. One of the top barriers to implementing the EHR system is adding older files and records to the system. Organization sometimes fail to include older records when choosing a start date. This can be done simply by scanning in the documents to store them as images and/or pdf files. If they are hard to read, medical professionals may not be pleased with that.

The Act has brought mandatory changes for healthcare providers to adopt, implement, and demonstrate the meaningful use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and other health information technology instruments by 2015, so as to continue to receive full Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act 2009).1 This paper-to-digital transition requires a significant amount of change in the current information management solutions of healthcare organizations and demands a new approach in healthcare information management. Technically speaking, hospitals, physicians’ clinics, and Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs) will require quick access to computing and large storage facilities which may or may not be available in the traditional settings. Moreover, in accountable care structures, healthcare data such as Protected Health Information (PHI) will need to be shared across various settings and geographies to provide accurate patient care.2 To absorb this change, healthcare providers operating under traditional paper-based arrangements will have to invest in technological capital and establish an Information Technology section which initially will require significant amount of planning and resources. Even now when the majority of healthcare organizations are struggling to maintain their profit margins and are staggering to get hold of cash flows, this additional mandatory investment will

Health information technology is the future of healthcare. In 2009 the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act which is a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was enacted (Woten, 2016). The act encourages hospitals to utilize electronic records by 2011 and by 2015 financial penalties for hospitals who do not comply (Woten, 2016). The act is intended to reduce healthcare errors, reduce costs, improve patient safety and quality. Also, hospitals and Medicaid/Medicare eligible providers who implement EHRs that can demonstrate improvement in health care due to the introduction of health information technology will receive financial incentives (Woten, 2016). The hospitals and affiliated providers who do not