Challenges Employees Face with Electronic Health Records - Research Paper Example

?Ruchi,\ This module was submitted as module 5, your results section. You did not report any findings from the survey that you submitted for module 4, but you made statements about issues that you did not ask about (such as electronic health records). Ruchi, every module contradicts the previous module, you ignore feedback and you pull findings out of the air. Go back and rewrite module 3 and clarify who were your participants and discuss what you did in regard to anonymity and informed consent. Then rewrite module 4, so that it is consistent with module 3 and reflects what you actually did. Then rewrite module 5, describing what you found from the survey you submitted in module 4. I expect all three modules to be consistent with each other and reflect what you actually did. Every sentence you write should be understandable and relevant to the module, you have submitted a lot of words, with no real content.. This is not graduate level work, you have a lot of work to do, to get a passing grade. Ruchi Patel Prof. Peters HCA 500 7/27/13 Abstract – there is no abstract for the results section, you should submit an abstract for module 6 The ratification of Obama Care as a healthcare reform program that was passed in 2011has significantly brought with it, emphasis on the use of electronic health records. The use of electronic health records also remains an indispensiblevalue since it is an integral part of medical services provision. As a matter of fact, healthcare provision begins with the retrieval, updating and storage of the patient’s profile (the patient’s health status, the degree to which the patient has met his financial obligations, family or ethnic background, allergic reactions,age, and financial status) and ends with the same. Likewise, successful medical intervention rises and falls on the management ofelectronic health records, since information gathered from research findings, which is, key to the dispensation of evidence-based practice heavily relies on electronic health recordsfor safekeeping. Legal suits that ensue from patient-healthcare giver also depend upon electronic health records to be launched and prosecuted. Because of this, it is apparent that electronic health records is sacrosanct to healthcare practice and must therefore be studied, in order for ameliorations to be made in the field of medical practice. Introduction –there is no introduction for this module, you present your results in this module, you are free to add any information here, to your introduction in module 6 That there are many challenges that employees face with electronic health records is not in doubt. These challenges are multiple in natures since they have underpinnings in human nature, technological advancements, and laws that govern the provision of healthcare services and the use of technology. In turn, appreciating these challenges that accost employees as they attempt to use electronic health records is very important since it is the key to the realization of patient-based and evidence-based care. Ultimately, making healthcare provision patient-based and evidence-based is the key to the dispensation ofsuccessfulmedical services. The gravity behind this realization is that analyzing and acknowledgingthe difficulties that employees face with electronic health recordsis the first step towards successful medical services provision. Methodology The method that has been used for data collection is questionnaires. This approach was the mostappropriate method of data collection, due to its affordable nature A lot of efforts were also concerted to address ethical issues that accosted the research program, in respectto humansubjects in the research. This was requested as part of module 3, which you did not satisfactorily complete but I am interested to know what you actually did, as this forms part of the methodology section for module 6.  Secondly, informed consent was obtained from the respondents, at least a month before the actually questionnaire was enacted. Ok, but you did not provide me with any informed consent forms. That needs to be included in module 6. The consents were put in writing after the potential respondents were accorded the chance toaskpertinent questions andmake appraisals on the risks and benefits involved in the research. Alongside this, the research undertaking went an extra mile toconsent to the fact that informed consent is a progressive value, not a mere formality or a one-time event.  There were also remunerations on how confidentiality and privacy concerns would be taken to account. Closely related to the point above, is that the state of equipoise was greatly considered. In this light, since a new intervention is being tested against an accepted treatment, room was left for uncertainty on the approach that is superior. This allowed for the accommodation of a true null hypothesis, right from the onset of the research design, concerning the outcomeof the trial. Conversely, there are other ethicalconcerns that were dealt with, before the researchdesign were fully developed and taken into consideration during data collection. The first ethical principle that was taken care of is autonomy.Autonomy refers to the obligation and duties of me as theresearcher investigator, to respect every respondent, as individuals capable of making informed decisions, in relation to the research study. To this effect, participants were accorded with full disclosure of the risks, the benefits and alternatives that accost the research. The second principle that had to be factored greatly in the research undertaking is justice. In regard to this, carrying out proper sampling techniques ensured equitable selection of participants. Because of this principle, the physicians, nurses and administrators who are to serve as participants have been drawn from an array of healthcare services providing institutions. The same concept ensures that benefits and burdens that accompany the research undertaking are equally distributed among the respondents. Again, before embarking on data collection, efforts were made to maintain the principle of beneficence. Beneficencerefers to my mandate as the researcher to maximize benefits for the respondents. The same also compelled me tominimize harm to the respondents. It is against this backdrop that a total risk-benefit analysis was performed, before the actual data collection. This section above on ethical issues is primarily undecipherable. I have no idea what you did. The ethical issues should have been addressed (but were not) in module 3. In your final report please refer to the issues I noted in the modules: voluntary participation and anonymity. Choosing the Respondents (Sample) The respondents were chosen through the help of survey sampling. Survey samplingrefers to be the selection of a subset of individuals from a given statistical population, as a way of estimating characteristics of the larger population. Because of this, 50 respondents were chosen from 5 high ranking healthcare organizations. The same was extended to middle level and small-scale healthcare services providers. Because of this, the respondents equaled 750. Ok so it seems you surveyed staff about their own medical records? The choosingof 750 respondents from different categories in terms of complexities of organizational setups is to help instill an element of objectivity. This is important since, collecting data from only large scale healthcare organizations or middle or from micro organizational setups is bound to produce results that are lopsided. For instance, it is obvious that relying on information from large-scale health care providing organizations will elicit multiplepositive attestations concerning the use of electronic health records, since organizations that are full-fledgedare likely to have powerful and well-establishedinformation and communication technology (IT). Because of this, workers from such organizations are likely to have the least of complaints, if at all, concerning the use of electronic health records. Middle level organizations are also likely to have physicians, nurses and administrators being ambivalent about the use of electronic health records. Small scale organizations that deal in healthcare services provision are likely to have lower levels of being compliant to the electronic health records. Because of this, the respondents arelikely to have problems with the use of electronic health records, mostly because the electronic data system which is used to store, retrieve, and update health records will still not be fully established. It is important to note that the analysis is done after the data that has been collected is organized and categorized. The results are to be organized by being categorized into two categories: those who are totally satisfied with the use of electronic health records. Those who are not satisfied are allowed to specify the challenges that relate to the use of the same provisions, when dispensing their duties. This information above is not what was requested for this module. You need to provide here, how you selected your sample (you have said a lot, but without any facts) and how many in the sample, the response rate and thedemographics Findings in this section you report the findings The respondents are clear that there are difficulties that accost the use of electronic health records, especially in respect to the use of switchover processes. Some of the physicians, nurses and administrators who expresseddifficulties in using electronic healthrecords pointed out at thechanges in the workflow as the factor that undermined their preference for the new system. As the new EHR system is installed, all data that had been stored in hard copies are to be transferred to electronic form, and this thereby increasing the workload that physicians, nurses and administrators have to contend with. According to Menachemi andCollum, researchfindings show that scores of internal medicineclinics experienced a loss of 20% in the first month of the ERHinstallation, 10% in the second month and 5% within the third monthof the adoption and installation of EHR program (Menachemi andCollum, 52). There are others who cited financial concerns, in relation to the use of electronic health records. The respondents maintained that the adoption and implementation cost is a matter that stood in the path to them realizing fairer remunerations. The incurring of more financial liability will have further underpinnings in the fact that installation of electronic health recordssystem also demands ongoing maintenance and temporary loss of productivity. These will both lead the organization to loss of revenue. Others also became apprehensive of the fact that with electronic health records being in place and the extra expenditure that the healthcare organization will have incurred, it will be more expedient to downsize members of the staff. This feeling ofapprehension in turn remains a serious setback to the attainment of performance targets. Conversely, this loss of revenuedemotivates physicians andhospitals from adopting and implementingEHR. At the same time, one readily agrees with the charge made by Cleverly, Song andCleverlyto the effect that the implementation and adoption of EHR are accompanied by implementation costs, which includeprocuring software and hardware, installing both, converting paper charts and data to electronic ones and training their end-users. These costs and setbacks cut across both outpatient and inpatient care. For instance, in 2002, research findings established that in a 282-bed acute carehospital, the total cost for a 7 yearlong installationprogram cost about 19 million US dollars (Cleverly, Song andCleverly, 75). Above the aforementioned reasons as the cause behind physicians' predisposition against EHR, the risk of patient privacy being violatedtowers as can matter of grave concern. This is because, with the adoption of the use of the EHR system, there is a sharp increase in the amount of health information, which is exchanged electronically. Because of the need to stem this drawback, there was an imposition of legal legislation todefine and moderate electronic exchange of health information, and to strengthen the provisions of the Health Insurance Portabilityand Accounting Act. According to Johnson, although this Act made electronic data more secure, yetit placedaustere requirements, and thereby making accessibility of electronic datamore difficult. For instance,the new legislation demands the need top have an audit function system operators, to help identify every individual who has accessed all or any aspect provided for by the medical records (Johnson, 34). As if the immediately abovedevelopment is not enough, many healthcare institutions have proceeded to implement non-tolerant penalties for employees (physicians, nurses or administrators)who accessEHR files inappropriately. This may lead to a situation where employees in a healthcare institution are too careful touse EHRsystems, and thereby reducing the pace, ease and teamwork spirit with which duty should be discharged. Works Cited Cleverly, W., Song, P., &Cleverly, J. Essentials Of Health Care Finance (7th Ed.). New York: Jones Publishing, 2011. Print Johnson, Franklin. Electronic Health Records and Efficient Medical Services Provision.Oxford: OUP, 2011. Print Menachemi, Nir&Collum, Taleah.Benefits and Drawbacks of Electronic Health Records. Risk Management Health Policy, 4 (2011), 47-60. Print Read More