Free «Technology in the Healthcare Profession» Essay Sample

Introduction

An electronic health record (EHR) and electronic medical record (EMR) enable the health care providers to collect and retrieve the detailed information about the patient and population that has been stored electronically in forms of digits. The information recorded may be shared with several health facilities through networks and information system among other means of communication. Although there was a slow adoption of electronic health record, many hospitals have recognized its meaningful use thus making their operation easier. Similarly, clinical and administrative leaders have adopted the EHR and EMR into their strategic plans that incorporate inpatient and outpatient care and provide a broad range of coordinated services. The paper will examine how the EHR and EMR have impacted my workflow and whether the impacts have been positive or negative.

Impacts of the EHR and EMR on the Workflow

Since HER and EMR at my hospital include a portal that gives patients web-based access to their records, it has enabled me to schedule the appointments with the patients. During the appointments, the patients can ask the questions regarding their health, view their test results as well as order their prescription. In addition, new technology allows providing the e-visits to the patient to discuss health issues that do not necessarily require office visits. The impact of adopting EHR and EMR has been positive to the workflow since I have been able to serve many patients through the use of the portal to which many of them have expressed their satisfaction.

The discussed technologies are also important as they make it much easier to retrieve and trace the data of the patient in the registry as compared to the use of paper chart reviews which is time-consuming. EHR and EMR are better organized than paper charts; therefore, it allows for quicker retrieval of laboratory and x-ray results. Apart from that, they provide an electronic summary of problems that summarizes the major illnesses, surgeries, allergies as well as the medications of the patient. Thus, it has impacted my workload positively since I do not have to peruse through the large paper chart which sometimes does not contain conclusive results. 

EHR and EMR also ease my workload through immediate diagnosing of the diseases by giving access to the whole information of the patient. The adopted innovations had a positive effects since they help me to identify the problem of the patient, diagnose it as soon as possible, and act swiftly and thoroughly within a short time thus reducing the identification time of patients during admission to the hospital as well as dealing with the congestion.

With the help of EMR and EHR systems, I am able to automatically monitor clinical events of the patient by scrutinizing his or her data from an electronic health record. This helps me to predict, notice, and prevent potential adverse events. The events that I monitor through the web portals are discharge or transfer orders and laboratory radiology results among others. This is as positive advancement since it alerts me helping to identify the patients who have missed their medical care at the comfort of my workplace.

However, they sometimes cause delays thus negatively impacting the workflow. They involve more documentation before, during and even after the patient has visited. The additional information coders may cause the delays and errors as I wait to close notes at the end of the day.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the EHR and EMR enable the hospitals and health care providers to collect, store, and retrieve detailed information about the patient. The information recorded is used by both the patient and the hospital. Despite the slow adoption, it has impacted my workflow positively. EHR and EMR allow scheduling the appointments with the patients, easy retrieval of the information, immediate diagnosing of the disease as well as automatic monitoring of the patient. Nevertheless, it has impacted my workflow negatively by involving more documentation and thus causing delays and errors.