Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, allows saving the patients’ records digitally. It takes away the hassle of keeping records manually and then sifting through each to find the relevant documents. This is also known as Electronic Health Record (EHR). This can be time-saving especially, in larger healthcare organizations where time is of the essence. This paper will present the benefits of implementing the EMR system in a five-hundred bedded nursing home.
The Purpose of the Quality Improvement Initiative
The purpose of this study is to relay the benefits of the EMR system and how it can improve the quality of healthcare. It has been observed that many nursing homes have still not implemented the EMR system, although; there has been evidence that implementing this system has improved the working of many healthcare facilities making record-keeping more efficient and hassle-free (Aguirre et al., 2019). In a nursing home with the capacity of five hundred patients; it is very important to keep all the records and be able to retrieve said records promptly, however; the traditional method of record-keeping is obsolete and slows down the record-keeping procedure. EMR system will increase efficiency, quality of healthcare, increase the accuracy of data, facilitate the accurate and timely assessment of patients’ health. Thus implementing this system can help provide optimal healthcare for the patients (Bjarnadottir et al., 2017).
The Target Population or Audience
The primary target audiences of this system are the healthcare admiration offices and patient care providers. The administration offices are responsible for making sure that the record-keeping is done correctly and this system will make this task easy for them. Care providers need to be able to access patients’ history quickly; this system will allow efficiency in this regards as it allows to search up specific records in an instant (Parasrampuria & Henry, 2019).
The Benefits of the Quality Improvement Initiative
Implanting this system will improve the quality of care provided in the nursing home tremendously as it will provide complete and accurate data to the patient in an instant. Accessing any information about the patients’ health history will be extremely quick and efficient allowing for better care quality. This system also allows a secure method of sharing information with insurance companies and patients. It will allow the caregivers to assess the patients’ condition quickly which in turn will make the diagnosis and treatment effectual. It will also make the billing process more accurate. It will improve work-life balance and increase productivity as the time that used to be spent in data keeping could be spent elsewhere. Decreasing the paperwork will reduce costs, reduce test duplication, and improve safety and health. This will allow the caregivers to provide better healthcare that will contribute towards the better health of the patients. It is also financially more viable as compared to other record-keeping methods (Hoover, 2017).
The Inter-professional Collaboration Required for Implementation
The EMR system is a very intuitive system that was designed to enhance the collaboration between all the healthcare providers and professionals. The collaboration required for successful implementation will be primarily between the administrative personnel, the care providers, and the physicians. This, however; will be the initial collaboration as when the system has been implemented successfully; it can be used to share patients’ data among different departments for the patients’ diagnosis and treatment. The EMR was designed to make the collaboration and sharing of information easier and more secure (Vos et al., 2020).
The Cost or Budget Justification
The implementation of the EMR system is often met with uncertainty as the initial cost is about 32,000 dollars which can seem to be a big investment. However; this is a one-time investment and after implementation, this amount can be easily earned back in one to two years. Other than that, the EMR can significantly reduce other costs like paperwork cost, record upkeep costs, safety costs, etc., and these saved costs in turn help in increasing revenue. It also makes the processing time-efficient and this time can be used elsewhere which also helps in increasing revenue. The implementation of this system ensures increased revenue over the years so this one-time investment is justified and in the organization’s interest (Green, 2022).
Evaluation Criteria
For the implementation of the EMR/EHR, a checklist is provided for criteria evaluation. This includes guidance for using the software, task management, charting, note-taking and diagnostic, order management, medication management, business and administration, continuity of care, patient engagement, reporting, compliance, and security. Before implementation, all of the items on the checklist should be tested so that the healthcare organization can define their needs and then choose the vendor accordingly. This can make the implementation more successful as the users of the software will be able to adapt the software according to their needs before buying the software and not have to pay for the features that they do not need. This will further reduce the cost of the software and implementation (Jamble, 2022).
Conclusion
The implementation of an EMR system is necessary for a large nursing home as it will make data and time management more efficient. This will also improve the quality of healthcare provided by the caregivers and the patients’ outcomes could be achieved. The initial investment may seem daunting but it will help in cost reduction and overtime increase revenue. This will improve the overall quality of the nursing home as many aspects of the care will be improved.
References
Aguirre, R. R., Suarez, O., Fuentes, M., & Sanchez-Gonzalez, M. A. (2019). Electronic Health Record Implementation: A Review of Resources and Tools. Cureus, 11(9), e5649. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5649
Bjarnadottir, R. I., Herzig, C. T. A., Travers, J. L., Castle, N. G., & Stone, P. W. (2017). Implementation of Electronic Health Records in U.S. Nursing Homes. Computers, Informatics, Nursing : CIN, 35(8), 417–424. https://doi.org/10.1097/CIN.0000000000000344
Green, J. (2022, February 7). How much EHR costs and how to set your budget. https://www.ehrinpractice.com/ehr-cost-and-budget-guide.html
Hoover, R. (2017). Benefits of using an electronic health record. Nursing2020 Critical Care, 12(1), 9–10. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.CCN.0000508631.93151.8d
Jamble, R. (2022, January 24). EMR/EHR Evaluation Criteria Checklist For Platform Selection. https://www.selecthub.com/medical-software/ehr/ehr-evaluation-checklist/
Parasrampuria, S., & Henry, J. (2019). Hospitals’ Use of Electronic Health Records Data, 2015-2017. 46, 13.
Vos, J. F. J., Boonstra, A., Kooistra, A., Seelen, M., & van Offenbeek, M. (2020). The influence of electronic health record use on collaboration among medical specialties. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 676. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05542-6
