Clinical Systems’ Impact on Efficiencies and Outcomes Within Healthcare Delivery and Nursing Practice

Introduction

This paper seeks to identify the clinical system’s impact on efficiencies and outcomes in healthcare delivery and the nursing practice context. It aims to show how different clinical procedures, such as electronic health records and patient portals, impact health outcomes and the quality of healthcare services. The healthcare organization is dynamic and diverse because of the changing health conditions, the emergence of new health problems associated with manipulating pathogens such as viruses, and the introduction of technology has been essential. The healthcare delivery system’s revitalization is a role that is well played by sound clinical systems globally. While implementing and establishing target clinical care systems, all the professionals of healthcare who offer primary care must come together. The utilization of developing clinical procedures, practices based on evidence, and health informatics and technology has fostered the improvement of efficiencies and patient outcomes. Clinical techniques in improving patient results include advancing research, improving the processes followed in healthcare, improving efficiency, and identifying the patients at risk for a particular condition. The selected clinical system is electronic health records, and the work aims to discuss four selected review articles written about EHR’s application to improve efficiencies and outcomes. It elaborates how medical errors, among other inaccuracies in the care process, have been reduced by using electronic health records.

Selection and Identification of Research Articles

1. Wisner, K., Lyndon, A., & Chesla, C. A. (2019). The electronic health record’s impact on nurses’ cognitive work: An integrative review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 94, 74-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.03.003

2. Kruse, C. S., Stein, A., Thomas, H., & Kaur, H. (2018). The use of electronic health records to support population health: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of medical systems, 42(11), 1-16. doi: 10.1007/s10916-018-1075-6
3. Urquhart, C., Currell, R., Grant, M. J., & Hardiker, N. R. (2018). WITHDRAWN: Nursing record systems: effects on nursing practice and healthcare outcomes. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 5(5), CD002099. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002099.pub

4.Selvaraj S, Fonarow G, Sheng S, Matsouaka R, DeVore A, Heidenreich A, Hernandez A, Yancy W & Bhatt D. (2018). Association of Electronic Health Record Use with Quality of Care and Outcomes in Heart Failure: An Analysis of Get with the Guidelines—Heart Failure. Journal of the American Heart Association, 7(7), pii: e008158. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.117.008158

Summaries of Articles Concerning Efficiencies and Outcomes Improvement and the Lessons Obtained from Clinical System’s Application in Each article and the Specific Examples

Summary 1

Wisner, K., Lyndon, A., & Chesla, C. A. (2019). The electronic health record’s impact on nurses’ cognitive work: An integrative review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 94, 74-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.03.003

The research article elaborates on evidence for electronic health records’ influence on nurses’ cognitive work. There were five topics stated in the research work concerning how clinicians and nurses viewed the electronic health records’ impact and utilized it. The topics included Professional domain expertise and loss of information, keeping and developing a patient overview, creating and keeping universal knowledge of the patient, and cognitive personnel related to electronic health records browsing and using cognitive tools. According to many research studies maintaining and developing patient overviews and the electronic health records’ implementation at both team and the individual level was challenging. It was difficult to navigate information quantities and raise practitioners’ cognitive workload. The judgment showed that the information was fragmented and dispersed, making it tough to comprehend diverse facts’ clinical significance and the sequence of events. The narrative notes restrictions and the recordkeeping template-based style obstructed the capacity of practitioners to understand peers and to articulate the peers’ clinical reasoning. The handoff tools and reports of the summary proved EHR a unique tool to help the healthcare professionals work during the handover and the shift to necessitate paper forms use. The nurses needed technologies to contextualize and personalize data to make the information therapeutically significant and relevant.

Summary 2

Kruse, C. S., Stein, A., Thomas, H., & Kaur, H. (2018). The use of Electronic Health Records to Support Population Health: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Journal of medical systems, 42(11), 214. doi: 10.1007/s10916-018-1075-6.

Electronic health records, according to Kruse et al., are among the systems that improve the efficiency of healthcare and the quality of care. This research showed that electronic health records implementation resulted in recommended preventive care integration in practice and improved delivery, causing improved healthcare outcomes. Based on the researchers in this article, electronic health records implementation in the integrated care unit significantly lowers morality lines and bloodstream infections within the ICU. Electronic health records facilitate more coordinated and patient-centered care, hence improving the efficiency of care. Further, electronic healthcare records foster patient information secure access, which, concerning productivity and the quality of care, results in better outcomes. Electronic health records can be used in chronic disease management, including chronic kidney disease management. Data fragments can be decreased by regular use of electronic health records and, in turn, improve care continuity between the care providers in case health information is exchanged. In the emergency department, electronic health records improve decision-making using the decision tree, are cost-effective, and improve patients’ quality of life. The results of this article show that electronic health records foster safe care continuity. An example is the likelihood of human errors while using manual papers during handover, which are eliminated when electronic health records are applied.

Summary 3

Urquhart, C., Currell, R., Grant, M. J., & Hardiker, N. R. (2018). WITHDRAWN: Nursing record systems: effects on nursing practice and healthcare outcomes. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 5(5), CD002099. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002099.pub

The link between nurse practice and nursing record systems is examined in this study. The exact objectives of this study were to assess the nursing record system’s influence on patient outcomes and nurse practice. The participants in this research were 1846, and the trials were nine, and this consisted of one controlled RCT before and after the research study and eight additional 8 RCTs. The research studies focused on discrete problems, including empowerment of parents and pregnant women, reducing transcription of errors, effective pain management for children, reducing downtime used on data entry for test results, reducing paper use in recordkeeping, and preventing loss of notes, all indicated a high probability in achieving the results desired. The outcomes of the complete nurse records and nursing care planning systems studies were ambiguous or inconclusive.

Summary 4

Selvaraj S, Fonarow G, Sheng S, Matsouaka R, DeVore A, Heidenreich A, Hernandez A, Yancy W & Bhatt D. (2018). Association of Electronic Health Record Use with Quality of Care and Outcomes in Heart Failure: An Analysis of Get with the Guidelines—Heart Failure. Journal of the American Heart Association, 7(7), pii: e008158. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.117.008158.

This study explains that EHR implementation results in the improvement of healthcare coordination and, in turn, causes efficiency improvement during healthcare delivery. In the same manner, the demonstration of electronic health records indicated that they are effective in improving outcomes and quality of care and also in reducing medical errors. Despite this, the study outcomes show that electronic health records utilization did not relate to the improvement of healthcare quality and did not show heart failure-associated outcomes significant impact. This study’s findings showed that using electronic health records alone is not enough to improve outcomes associated with heart failure. For this reason, other interventions, including patient education and monitoring treatment adherence by patients, should be incorporated into the treatment plan of patients.

Conclusion

Healthcare effectiveness, outcomes, and efficiency have proved to be improved by electronic health records as one of the clinical systems. The chosen studies show that electronic health records improve health outcomes by facilitating coordinated care provision, minimizing the medical errors rate, and improving documentation. It significantly results in the improvement of health results. Through healthcare providers’ collaboration and teamwork promotion, electronic health records improve healthcare efficiency. Electronic healthcare records have other advantages, including reducing costs and saving time; they indicate that they are efficient in the healthcare system. Electronic health records ensure accuracy in treatment and care because they provide patient information, which is utilized in designing the care plan and deciding the best treatment approach. It assists the nurses in tracking and monitoring a patient’s treatment progress and healing process from certain health conditions after treatment. Medical errors also reduce when electronic health records are utilized because complete patient information is available, so no approximation is made in treatment and care provision. This, in turn, increases the efficiency and effectiveness of care provided by the nurses.

References

Kruse, C. S., Stein, A., Thomas, H., & Kaur, H. (2018). The use of Electronic Health Records to Support Population Health: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Journal of medical systems, 42(11), 214. doi: 10.1007/s10916-018-1075-6.

Selvaraj S, Fonarow G, Sheng S, Matsouaka R, DeVore A, Heidenreich A, Hernandez A, Yancy W & Bhatt D. (2018). Association of Electronic Health Record Use with Quality of Care and Outcomes in Heart Failure: An Analysis of Get with the Guidelines—Heart Failure. Journal of the American Heart Association, 7(7), pii: e008158. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.117.008158

Urquhart, C., Currell, R., Grant, M. J., & Hardiker, N. R. (2018). WITHDRAWN: Nursing record systems: effects on nursing practice and healthcare outcomes. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 5(5), CD002099. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002099.pub

Wisner, K., Lyndon, A., & Chesla, C. A. (2019). The electronic health record’s impact on nurses’ cognitive work: An integrative review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 94, 74-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.03.003