Interfacing Science and Technology

Healthcare has transition from depending on paper charting, to using health information technology, to improve quality of care.  Over a decade the government advocated for a national system of electronic health records (EHR).  In 2009 the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed addressing healthcare technology called Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH).  Since the government experienced some resistant’s from healthcare providers during the implementation of EHR.  Health Information Technology (HIT) systems are to facilitate a more reliable exchange of information among practitioners and patients and significant improvements in the way care is delivered (McBride et. Al., 2012) using electronic health records, with meaningful use guidelines.  The concept of meaningful use is a strategic plan that uses EHR to provide better healthcare within an organization.  The Center for Medicare & Medicaid services provided reimbursement incentives (Martin, at. El., 2011) for healthcare organizations to use electronic health records to improve patient care (Nelson & Staggers, 2014).  It is vital for interoperability between multiple health systems in healthcare to exchange health data without restricted access (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, 2013).  The optimal goal is for each individual to have a panoramic electronic health record from birth to death, from any health provider.

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Nursing informatics is a subcategory of health informatics that incorporates nurses' interactions with healthcare technology systems.  Nursing informatics (NI) is the specialty that integrates nursing science with multiple information management and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage, and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice.  For nurses to be visible within the era of the patient’s electronic record requires academic preparation of nurses not only in terms of using equipment and knowing how and what to document, to make data meaningful. Using standardized nursing languages to capture data will provide new opportunities for national and international research to improve care.

Nurse Leader on Frontline

For healthcare organizations to stand any chance of truly transforming the way that care is managed nurses leader need to be on the frontline.  The burden of many of the necessary but difficult changes healthcare is making today fall squarely on the shoulders of frontline leaders.  Nurse Leaders are in critical positions to make healthcare reform work to improve quality of care (Kirby, K. 2010).  In countless ways, nurses leaders indisputably have earned the right to play a major role in  healthcare redesign efforts at all levels. 

 

 

 

 

References

 Kirby, K. (2010). Are your nurse managers ready for health care reform? Consider the 8 'Es'. Nursing Economic$, 28(3), 208-211

Martin, K. S., Monsen, K. A., & Bowles, K. H. (2011). The Omaha System and meaningful use: applications for practice, education, and research. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 29(1), 52-58.

Nelson, R. & Staggers, N. (2014) Health Informatics: An Interprofessional Approach. Elsevier: St. Louis, Missouri.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Healthcare Workflow

 

 

Healthcare reform offers financial incentive for healthcare organization to implement health information technology with the objective to increase efficiency, improve patient’s outcomes and reducing cost.  The US healthcare system has underwent a dramatic transformation that incorporated Health Information Technology (HIT), with the development of Electronic Health Records (EHR).  With this massive change the transparency within department cause workflow deficiency.  Understanding current nursing workflows and nurses’ view of clinical and documentation processes can help optimize recording of point-of-care documentation (Yeung, M. et al., 2011).

 

 

 

Wikipedia defines workflow as an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of business activity enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information.  Workflow is the daily functions of various ways to operate a health organization.  Every day patients are seen, prescriptions are written, labs and X-rays are reviewed, and a host of other jobs performed.  This is all accomplished by healthcare providers using paper chart workflow that has been implemented for years.  EHR workflow will differ from those used for paper-based processes (Amatayakul, M. 2011).  Paper-based workflow is cumbersome and inefficient.

Electronic health records have been promoted as a potential tool for narrowing the quality gap.  Yet, the interface between healthcare providers using new technology revealed workflow challenges.  Here are some of workflow challenges:

1.       Double documentation.

2.       Lack of real time data.

3.       Lack of Knowledge.

4.       Proper IT use

5.       Culture change from paper-base to EHR.

 

 

  

Key to Success

 

To improve workflow within an organization it is imperative that nurse leaders, physicians and Information technology collaboratively work together to develop a plan for success (Rohm, T. et al., 2013). 

 

 

 

1.       Team approach:  Transitioning to electronic health record requires close teamwork.  Nurses and patient care techs must interface closely and coordinate in order to get patient care accomplished in real-time.

2.       Cross training:  Staff need to cross-train in order to be familiar with other job functions, including physicians.

3.       Reduce time:  To achieve efficient workflow with minimal waste certain tasks are assigned to certain personnel.  This would eliminate prolonged medical decisions, out-of-date or inaccurate information.

4.        Patient focus:  Addressing your patients' needs with the guidelines using data sets. Information technology acts as a tremendous facilitator if it is implemented and used with patient focus in mind.  Workflows do not replace human interactions in planning and providing care.

 

Health organizations can develop new, standardized workflows for the clinicians who perform these tasks and provide education for clinicians regarding these workflows (Amatayakul, M. 2011).  Proper use of HIT requires workflow redesign that safely interface technology to enhance practices and workflow while delivering safe and efficient patient care.  Electronic health record and Health information technology solution will enable a more logical and efficient workflow.

 

Reference:

Amatayakul, M. (2011). Why workflow redesign alone is not enough for EHR success. Healthcare Financial Management: Journal Of The Healthcare Financial Management Association, 65(3), 130.

Rohm, T., Skidmore, N., Bharadwaj, M., Hammoud, B., Gray, T., & Lloyd, K. (2013). Urgent Care EMR Implementation and Workflow Redesign. Journal Of International Technology & Information Management, 22(2), 85-101.

Yeung, M. S., Lapinsky, S. E., Granton, J. T., Doran, D. M., & Cafazzo, J. A. (2012). Examining nursing vital signs documentation workflow: barriers and opportunities in general internal medicine units. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 21(7-8), 975-982. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03937.x