Assignment task:
Note: Please help me to reply to this discussion. It's from my Healthcare Management Legal and Regulatory Issue class. You can start with I enjoyed reading your post or I agree
What are the risks and benefits to both the patient and the provider/organization of having electronic health records that can be accessed by all health care providers?
Computerized systems for patient charts can help hospitals do a better job with care. But they also make the protection of information from prying eyes harder. Policymakers have taken measures to ensure the safety and privacy of patient data. All EHR systems must have an audit function that allows system operators to identify each individual who has accessed every aspect of a given medical record. Many hospitals and physicians are implementing strict, no-tolerance penalties for employees who access files inappropriately. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, is supposed to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of identifiable health information, among other protections.
Ex: A hospital in Arizona terminated several employees after they inappropriately accessed the records of victims who were hospitalized after the January 2011 shooting involving a US Congresswoman.
Ex: Farah Fawcett's cancer diagnosis and care at UCLA Medical Center leaked and was published in the National Enquirer. An investigation by the hospital found that one employee had accessed her records more often than her own doctors.
Pros
Patient-
- Transform the health care system from a mostly paper-based industry to one that utilizes clinical and other pieces of information to assist providers in delivering higher quality of care to their patients.
- Reduced medical errors: increased adherence to evidence-based clinical guidelines
- Effective care.
- Researchers found that computerized physician reminders increased the use of influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations from practically 0% to 35% and 50%, respectively, for hospitalized patients.
- Computerized records and order entry were associated with lower mortality rates, and CDS had fewer complications.
- Easy access to computerized records and the elimination of poor penmanship.
- Care to be delivered in a much safer and more efficient manner.
Organization:
- Increased revenue and averted costs
- Improved legal and regulatory compliance.
- Improved ability to conduct research.
- Increased job/career satisfaction among physicians.
- By making patient information more
- Reduced medical errors.
- Increased adherence to evidence-based clinical guidelines and effective care.
- The elimination of poor penmanship
- Secure and potentially real-time sharing of patient information,
- Reduce costly redundant tests that are ordered because one provider cannot access the clinical information stored at another provider's location.
Cons
Patient-
- privacy concerns-data breeches
- Information overload in EHRs may result in higher error rates and negatively impact patient safety.
- The electronic record system may not be accessible to all healthcare providers, impacting the patient's quality of care.
Organization-
- High upfront acquisition costs
- Ongoing maintenance costs
- Disruptions to workflows contribute to temporary productivity losses that result from learning a new system.
- Adoption and implementation costs
- Electronic record systems may not be user-friendly.
- Losses in productivity that are the result of learning a new system.