Introduction
Care delivery, illness diagnostic processes, and the reduction of medical errors may all benefit from a hospital or clinic adopting state-of-the-art electronic health record technology. Because of its usefulness in keeping track of vital details, including patients’ medical histories, the Epic Electronic Health Record system is becoming standard in the healthcare industry. High-quality EHR systems will only store and send data locally. As such, it is a safe place to keep track of any data associated with the building. The computerized system also aids doctors by letting them know about any known allergies their patients may have and any possible side effects from the medication—the warning light aids in decreasing drug-related threats. Everything related to a patient, including their history and any relevant test results, can be found in one central location, making this a realistic possibility. The efficiency of Villa Health Medical Centre may be improved by upgrading its electronic health system.
Having up-to-date electronic health records may assist Villa Health Centre in avoiding legal trouble by providing evidence to support any claims they might want to make in court. In addition, an EHR may keep track of the demographics of the facility’s most frequent visitors, giving public health officials a deeper understanding of the illnesses that keep cropping up. Steps in this process include figuring out things like:
- Which demography or sex is usually impacted by a given ailment;
- What recurrence and medicine has been provided;
- Which subsequent health risks are impacting the majority of patients?
This suggestion will shed light on the following. For instance, new approaches which are being developed will be incorporated into the Villa health information system to better the institution and its clients. Second, it will examine therapeutic, managerial, and decision-making management and support technologies within the context of information technology. Finally, it will go through the procedures that will be followed by Villa health medical Centre when they deploy Epic EHR.
Current Practices in Villa Independence Medical Care
Everyone from athletes to the elderly may get help at Villa Health Medical Center. There are several treatment-focused divisions inside the hospital. A variety of services are available to patients, including radiology, coding and billing, nursing, and a laboratory. Opus, the incumbent electronic health record system, was introduced at the institution in 2008. But even after ten years of using EHRs, the hospital still has certain operational inefficiencies. Villa Medical Centre’s current health information system needs to be improved, efficient, reliable, and too expensive (Mittal, 2018). The division is aware that the EHR system must provide the promised public benefits. Currently, health professionals may use computers to enter orders, but the EHR often needs to catch up in other areas. There have been no concerns about the CMS’s suitable usage from any of the hospital’s departments yet (Mittal, 2018).
The goal of implementing purposeful utilization at Villa Health Centre was to improve operational effectiveness, patient security, and customer satisfaction. To achieve this goal of effective collaboration, confidentiality, and security of patient’s medical information, patients must be actively involved in their care. The Meaningful Use regulations are often broken into three distinct phases (CDC, 2017). In 2011, the first phase of Meaningful Usage was introduced, mandating EHR use by all healthcare providers. Patient’s medical records would be entered into the EHR and shared. This is now the second phase. In 2014, the institution implemented meaningful usage. It formulated revised standards and objectives. To serve a larger patient population, EHR has to be enlarged. Easing into EHR adoption was the goal of Meaningful Use Stage 3. The focus at this point was shifted to enhancing the final result for the patient. Substantial application incentives in healthcare increased total financial return when all applicable rules were followed (CDC, 2017).
Recommendations for Best Information Management Strategy
Analysis of the EHR system’s implementation will provide recommendations for technical and logistical modifications to address the improvements identified as a requirement by the HIM system. The Villa Medical Center’s adoption of and adherence to meaningful adoption of innovative electronic health record data is to enhance the quality of treatment provided to patients. The Villa Medical Centre has been using Opus, a conventional electronic health record system, since 2008. Both the CPOE (computerized Physician Order entry) and the PACs (picture archiving and communication systems) handled the various digitalized pictures with care. The system works as intended most of the time, but it cannot support a network with varying levels of homogeneity. This is a unified system made up of several smaller networks. The facility’s present status is imperfect, inefficient, unreliable, and high-priced. The majority of divisions have issues with comparability.
Due to this dissimilarity, the problem of data retrieval is hampered. Departments such as neurology, pharmacy, radiology, audiology, and laboratories will benefit greatly from the new EHR. Villa Health Care’s clinical and managerial aims are consistent with the data outputs and results from the deployment of an enhanced electronic health record. That’s because, for things to get better, Villa medical facility has to have the capacity to schedule testing. Therefore, it will be necessary to devise strategies for conveying the findings to the appropriate medical professionals and other service providers. While electronic health records have many benefits, their misuse is a major issue. Care professionals in general have learned unpleasant methods or short cuts for dealing with an emergency situation, which creates difficulties for the billing office. The goal of meaningful use was to improve care quality, streamline medical processes, and protect patients from harm. Meaningful use also encouraged people to have a say in how their data was used.
Implementing the established principles via the usage of an electronic health record platform is the beginning step of meaningful use. A doctor will need to enter the patient’s medical history into the database and then share that data with other sections. In the guidelines’ second iteration, additional metrics and goals were established. Because of the increase in patients, medical staff had to upgrade their electronic health record (EHR) systems to keep up with demand. Villa Health Treatment’s clinical objective is to deliver high-quality, cost-efficient care to its patients, therefore this is in line with the organization’s overall aim. Therefore, it will be easier for the institution to care for a big population if the antiquated EHR that is the source of much inefficiency is replaced. The third set of meaningful use standards focuses on making it simpler to utilize EHR since more credit is given for improving patient outcome via the utilization of this information. Significant usage incentives in healthcare work best when all of their requirements are met.
Instruction in the use of the automated health record framework and other clinic equipment is mandatory for all staff. Integrating these systems in a way that increases safety and fills in gaps in knowledge is essential. The process of implementation is among the most important subsets that restrict the facility’s potential. The process entails hiring staff who will presumably uphold the organization’s values and standards, demonstrate competence in their roles, and be invested in the success of the building. All of the employees in the establishment should receive training. To guarantee that healthcare is keeping pace with technological developments, an audit will be conducted to determine what kind of exercise is necessary. Team members will be integrated into the institution, and they will work collaboratively with managers to ensure that the institution is moving in the direction of achieving its vision. Hospital policies will be updated to reflect the organization’s commitment to cultural diversity and to upholding the values of all patient populations. Incentive metrics and completed facility-wide objectives will also be available.
Outcomes from Recommendations Aligned with Administrative Goals
According to the American Medical Association (AMA), the Electronic Health Record technology is the leading cause of healthcare practitioner discontent. Most of these problems have not been addressed by the institution since no answers have been found. Limited compatibility, difficult user interface, and elaborate software architecture all contribute to a slower and less efficient workflow in hospitals.
Current efforts are more often directed at meeting legislative goals than providing high-quality medical treatment. Integrating the system so that it is interoperable with all other systems in the institution is necessary, according to studies on the efficient use of EHR. By doing so, we can assure that information is sent without any hiccups. Diane St. John’s research led the chief nursing officer to the conclusion that readmission rates inside the system needed to be reduced. The re-admission was detrimental to profitability in a number of ways. Increased unfavorable attention from self-pay consumers and health insurance is one result. Most healthcare providers consider readmission numbers as a proxy for customer satisfaction (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2019).
In order to keep healthcare costs down, the CEO at Villa Medical Centre places special emphasis on keeping patients from having to be readmitted. Discharging patients, however, may be a highly inefficient method; thus, the institution takes precautions to minimize both hazards and inefficiencies associated with the process. The facility’s COO is worried about making up for lost time after the introduction of the new information technology in Villa healthcare. She suggests adding a bariatric unit to the institution to meet this need. But if Villa health spends all of its money on IT upgrades, they may not be able to afford to add this unit. Maintaining paperless medical records is challenging because of the time and money required to switch to an electronic framework (Yuan et al., 2018).
About 500 healthcare professionals would need to be dedicated to transitioning and retraining, and each medical practitioner will need an average of $168,000. According to the institution’s finance director, the biggest problem that would cost the facility money is preparing for ICD-10. According to the commercial director, physician involvement is necessary for Villa Medical Healthcare to prepare and resubmit claims that have been refused by insurance providers. The facility’s pharmacy director is anxious about rising prescription prices and what can be done to bring them under control. When an efficient medication management plan is not implemented, medicines are often lost or used beyond their expiry dates. Interfaces inside the building are also a potential security risk. There is no way to monitor drug use inside the institution. Many individuals in the institution need access to the drugs, and it might be difficult to track who received which doses. Due to the difficulty in recording, accounting for, and billing for these drugs, Villa Medical Centre is constrained in its ability to provide optimal patient care.
Best Practices
When the opinions of those with a vested interest in Villa Medical Centre are taken into account, it becomes clear that there is a hole in the services currently being provided. What has to be done to the current OPUS system to improve the quality of treatment offered to patients is crystal evident after reading the study. By coordinating the operation of all of the hospital’s systems, the Villa group, its investors, and its stakeholders can better keep track of patients’ medical histories. By bringing these systems together, we can improve communication and collaboration amongst departments. Appointment scheduling and patient record access are two examples of missing features that need to be introduced. Medical professionals also encourage people to ask inquiries about their health (Olayiwola et al. 2017).
By using the Epic technology, Villa Healthcare will have access to efficient computerized medical filing and refilling that is integrated with the technology already in place in the PACS imaging department. In addition, the system will aid in making sure all medicine tabs are properly maintained to save pharmaceuticals from being squandered, expiring, or causing patients to develop allergies. Because the new system does not need either electronic or paper charting, patient records will no longer be duplicated. Using the granularity afforded by Advanced OPUS, the facility may tailor insurance claims to the specific requirements of each insurance provider. As a result, the institution will be able to finish all the accusations in a shorter amount of time. More enhanced OPUS integration also helps the institution meet Medicare and Medicaid programs’ meaningful use standards across all three levels.
Although the Epic system has a high up-front price tag, it pays for itself in the long term. Investors are obligated to update in order to keep up with the rapidly evolving healthcare sector, and the proposed program will serve the needs of all units in the building. After the technology is in place, at least two people from each health department will be required to be trained as treatment navigators. The HIM and IT departments will rely heavily on these navigators to organize and design the workflow. In all, the project took about six months to complete before becoming live. Hospitalization is the first sector to get the new scheme, which will eventually replace Opus and other incompatible technologies. There will be a smooth transition into functioning and the ironing out of any bugs in the system before to launch (Yuan et al., 2018).
Go-live won’t really begin until after it’s been live for a year. Investor feedback will be included in any future system updates. The staff will next get training to improve their facility use and patient education in an effort to decrease readmissions. Villa Health Medical Center’s goal is to improve the lives of the patients and their loved ones through compassionate treatment. We as a facility aim to understand and meet the medical requirements of many populations, and we are dedicated to treating our patients with love, empathy, and compassion.
Conclusion
All stakeholders and stockholders will benefit from the implementation of the cutting-edge OPUS technology. Employees are the primary stakeholders who stand to gain from the new system’s implementation, since they will have a more pleasant working environment while they key in patients’ data. When patients’ medical records are centralized and protected, everyone wins. Their service quality will improve, and patients will have fewer delays in receiving their services. This will result to less waste, lower costs, and more profitability for the business.
References
CDC. (2017). Introduction/ Meaningful Use. Retrieved 6 August 2019, from https://www.cdc.gov/ehrmeaningfuluse/introduction.html
Mittal, R. (2018). Frail Elderly, Inconspicuous Finance System, Complex Healthcare: Are We Realists or Optimists? Journal of The American Medical Directors Association, 19(8), 721-722. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2018.04.007
Olayiwola, J. N., Rubin, A., Slomoff, T., Woldeyesus, T., & Willard-Grace, R. (2017). Strategies
for Primary Care Stakeholders to Improve Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 29(1), 126-134. doi:10.3122/jabfm.2016.01.150212
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2019, August 7). Introduction. Retrieved
From https://www.cdc.gov/ehrmeaningfuluse/introduction.html
Yuan, C. T., Bradley, E. H., & Nembhard, I. M. (2018). A mixed methods study of how clinician
‘Super users’ influence others during the implementation of electronic health records. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 15(1). Doi: 10.1186/s12911-015 0154-6
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