Solving Workflow Chalenges in Health Sector Case Study

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Synchronizing the Patients' Medical Information between Institutions

With the advancement of information technology into the medical field, the healthcare industry is continuously becoming reliant on the salient contributions that the IT brings into the field and it has shown exemplary reception of the IT. One of the latest contributions of the It in the medical field globally is the electronic health records (EHR) which has been globally received as a solution to various challenges that the medics have been facing including the scheduling challenges, information storage, making orders for the hospital, retrieval of patient information, allocation of rooms for patients, admitting and discharging patients and having a well scheduled rounds and medication for the patients (Menachemi N. & Collum H.R., 2011).

However, the introduction of the electronic health records came with a number of challenges that still need to be solved so that the systems can effectively help the health care facilities. The large volumes of data stored through the EHR can only be very meaningful and useful if the relevant information can be easily shared cross the relevant medical institutions when need arises and in the process not compromising on the integrity or confidentiality of the information. There have been significant challenges among the institutions that use the electronic medical records system in terms of the inability to synchronize or interface the patients' medical information from one institution to another. The institutions hold large volumes of information that are pertinent in treatment of patients whenever they may be in the U.S., particularly those with chronic diseases or conditions that need specialized treatment in which the medication history is very important, yet passing of information from one institution to another has become a big challenge. There is need hence to have an alternative system or system adjustment that would ensure these challenges are overcome and the sharing of information is not just enabled across institutions but also made efficient and timely, upon request. As a project manager, there are steps that shall be forwarded and explained in order to ensure the bureaucratic and structural barriers that exist in the current information sharing platform are overcome and a more efficient system is instituted, taking lessons from the existing system to solve the challenges experienced by the current electronic medical records system (EMRS).

The case study will first analyze the current EMRS and find the weak points that make it impossible to have an effective system. The effect of these faults will be highlighted, other systems used in other developed nations will be discussed and an alternative system suitable for the U.S. situation will be highlighted and discussed in details. The implementation plan will be discussed and the necessary personnel and the accompanying training that they will need in order to effectively implement the new EMRS within the health care facilities and the relevant institutions. The significance of this intervention will go a long way in solving workflow challenges that institutions may be facing occasioned by the introduction of the EMRS hence creating backlog of assignments within the facilities and institutions or inefficiencies and poor service which may lead to lack of safety for the patients. There is need to have a data exchange system that not only functions effectively within the respective states but also has the ability to deliver data of Americans who may choose to move from the North to the south for vacations and may need medical attention while there.

The current EMRS used in institutions

The system that is currently being used in the EHR is still widely seen to be a stumbling block in the process of data exchange between stakeholder groups. From the perspective of the provider, the most important service or provision of the electronic record is the ability to avail the information when it is needed and to the person who needs it. The current electronic system however lacks in this since the health information exchange is faced with several challenges some of which are technical and yet others regional nature of the healthcare system and the laws which leave the country with a fragmented healthcare market.

A typical EMRS consists of the central data storage and access point being the center of focus for the users, and the stakeholders who rely on the data collected and stored at the central data bank being at the periphery. The stakeholders in this case include the hospital administration, hospital medical departments, doctors, patient, laboratory, pharmacy, hospital medical department and the insurers as well.

Source: IBM.com (2010)

The EMR system above which is the predominant system used in the management of patient information was actually meant for patient's billing and insurance data management.

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However, with time, the rate of exchange of data fro one department to another increased and the systems were consequently developed for clinical use hence the above EMR system that is being used currently in many hospitals. This is a system that is seen to be significantly better than the previous file system and hand written records that used to be piled in the hospitals. The EMR is versatile, easier to access, enhances communication, has data accuracy and can also be considered to be long-term cost reduction measure for the institutions that have adopted it.

The EMR system databank stores specific details on the patient and these include the patient registration which includes the problem list and encounters, it also has the care plans for the patient and related orders for the patient. The EMR system stores the service instances like the procedures and any legal documents that may arise. It also has schedules for attending to the patient and supplies and equipment that the department may make orders for. The data also includes the surgical procedures, outpatient procedures, invasive diagnosis study, the bedside procedures, imaging, physiologic tracings, special studies, practitioner notes, provider discrete observations, identifying information, health history, physical exams. It also had data on physical exams for instance on general status, vital signs, skin, head, ears, throat, nose and the other parts (Carte J.H., 2016). These form part of the vital information that is stored in the central data bank in the EMR.

System challenges

The institute of medicine in 2003 recognized the centrality of the EMR and the role that it can play in the transformation of the health care. This prompted this agency to give out 8 key functions that are targeted at safety, care efficiency and quality that the EMR needs to support. These were the physician access to the information which may include the allergies, lab results, diagnoses, and medication among others. Secondly is the EMR needs to enhance access to previous and new results among the providers in a multiple care situation. Thirdly was that it needed to computerize the provider entry system. EMR also needed to prevent drug interaction through establishing of computerized decision-support system and in the process improve compliance with the best practices in the medical field. Set a secure system around the electronic communication among the providers and the patients. Enhance patient access to the disease management tools, health records and health information resources. Initiate a computerized administration process for instance used I scheduling, and lastly have a standards-based electronic data storage reporting to relevant departments for the sake of patient safety and disease surveillance efforts.

Despite thee above being the ideal intended purposes of the EMRS, they have not been fully realized, with the situation spiraling towards more inefficiency particularly in the face of the gradual changes that are coming into the health care system with the implementation of the affordable care system recently introduced. In order for the providers and the payers to effectively serve the patients in the new health care system, there is need for more interaction among the stakeholders in the health care sector. This can only be facilitated using a more interactive system that can be based on the existing system with significant improvements.

The current system seem to direct all the concerned stakeholders to a central depository where they go to get the information that they need. This information may not be as comprehensive as the doctor or the hospital may need and there would be little recourse to this. They will have to notify the relevant person and wait for the information to be made available on the common database. There is no room for the doctor to directly go for the information from the source or even to pass the information to athird party, but to just input it into the common data base and then the third party to access it from the common pool. This proves to be time consuming and inconveniencing since there could be an emergency that needs faster relaying of information and yet the person to make the information available may not see the urgency as he will be communicating with a database not another human being. This raises a serious challenge of interoperability where interaction is not between two stakeholders directly to expedite the care for the….....

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