Information Management Workflow Concern and Proposed Solution
Health Information Management (HIM) is information management applied to health and healthcare. It is the practice of acquiring, analyzing, and protecting digital and traditional medical information vital to providing quality patient care. With the widespread computerization of health records, traditional, paper-based records are being replaced with electronic health records (EHRs). As a result the concept of nursing workflow has dramatically improved.
Currently, the long term care facility in which I am employed are still paper-based. As a result of being paper-based the workflow of the facility is constantly being disrupted. Nurses find themselves constantly searching for their MARs during a medication pass due to different health care professionals wanting to know information about the current medication profile of a certain resident. Certain times each month the pharmacist consultant has the MAR at times for at least 1/2 hour to review medications and make recommendations. At the end of the shift nurses are having to stay after the shift is over for extended periods of time waiting for the paper chart to chart on their patients. At times, some nurses have forgotten to chart on patients due to the long wait for the paper chart. This not only decreases patient safety but also leads to increased overtime. Implementing EHR/EMR into the facility would not only be a workflow solution but will also have time, financial, health, and environmental benefits as well as seen in the image below.
EHR systems are designed to store data accurately and to capture the state of a patient across time. It eliminates the need to track down a patient's previous paper medical records and assists in ensuring data is accurate and legible. It also data to be documented and displayed in real time. It can reduce risk of data replication as there is only one modifiable file, which means the file is more likely up to date, and decreases risk of lost paperwork. Due to the digital information being searchable and in a single file, EMR's are more effective when extracting medical data for the examination of possible trends and long term changes in a patient. With the implementation of EHR/EMR the facility would then be able to further improve workflow by implementing medical device connectivity leading to decrease in time spent doing repetitive, time consuming tasks.
As a result of implementing EHR/EMR, this would all the facility to have the ability to integrate medical device connectivity, allowing all healthcare professionals the ability to improve and maintain adequate workflow leading to increased patient safety and cost-savings to the organization.
References
Hillestad, R, Bigeiow, J, Bower, A, Girosi, F, Meiii, R, Scoviile, R, and Tayior, R. (2005). Can electronic medical record systems transform health care? Potential health benefits, savings, and costs. Health Affairs, (24) 5. Retrieved from, http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/cs199r/readings/RAND_benefits.pdf
Lavin, M., Harper, E., Barr, N. (2015) "Health Information Technology, Patient Safety, and Professional Nursing Care Documentation in Acute Care Settings." OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing (20) 2. Retrieved from, http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-20-2015/No2-May-2015/Articles-Previous-Topics/Technology-Safety-and-Professional-Care-Documentation.html
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