(Practice developement Strategies, 2012)Integrated electronic medical records have revolutionized the way that health care is practiced across the globe. Organizations that have made steps to integrated solutions are seeing areas of improvement within the EMR which would help physicians improve health outcomes, facilitate collaborative efforts and increase practice efficiencies (Electronic, 2011). All of these gains are making the practice of medicine cleaner, less costly, and more efficient which has directly led to gains in patient care. A side effect of these gains is that the medical community is seeing them and is more willing to take steps to further enhance their electronic systems, essentially building creating success built on past successes.
Best of bread systems, systems that were top of the line for their use but shared little data with the rest of the health system, have fallen out of favor in past years as cheaper, easier to maintain, and integrated platforms have emerges and delivered gains. Systems that were once silohed are being replaced with fully integrated solutions that allow all areas to share patient information which has led to huge efficiency gain across the board. Patients that once had to be registered into multiple systems can now be input into a single system and multiple users from different department can work in the patient chart at one time. This team approach has shown the biggest gains for the clinical users on the front lines of patient care.
While gains have been tangible there has still been considerable resistance to the integrated electronic movement, which led to government intervention through the HITech Act and meaningful use. Meaningful use is a metric of actionables that require certain measurable number to be hit in regards to a number of patient care and end user data entry objectives. The correlation to meeting those metrics and financial incentives set for in the HITech Act has caused a boom in the health information management industry (Bernd, 2011). Organizations large and small are clamoring to get in line with the government incentives to earn bonus money or at least not lose Medicare and Medicaid dollars when the bonus plan turns into a penalty plan in 2015.
Integrated systems have made best of bread systems obsolete. Systems that were once best of bread have had to adapt and create interfaces to larger systems. These interfaces often go through interface engines that utilize HL7 messaging standards. The majority of medical software systems now have the capability of sending and receiving HL7 messages which have further solidified the idea that singular complete systems benefits far outweigh the cost and risk of best of bread systems.
The success of integrated systems have led many to believe that one day there will be an integration of sorts on a national level. While there are many obstacles, namely structure, data warehousing, and privacy to a national medical record many still have hope that this will help to low costs of health care across the country. With a national health records patients would be able to walk into any participating health care organization and have best information be pulled from a national database and receive care that is tailored to the patient. This information would significantly raise the level of care provided to patients and potentially save thousands of live annually by helping to reduce mistakes caused by unknown past patient medical history.
New technology is continually redefining common medical practice. The most recent changes that have furthered the effectiveness of integrated systems is the widespread use of wireless technology, smart phones, and tablet computers. These three advances have combined to give clinicians unprecedented access to their patients and continue to reduce costs of patient care by shortening stays and creating more accurate and timely documentation. This constant change in the health information management field and integrated electronic medical records makes this the most exciting time in history to be involved in those technologies.
References:
Bernd, D. L., F.A.C.H.E., & Fine, P. S., F.A.C.H.E. (2011). Electronic medical records: A path forward. Frontiers of Health Services Management, 28(1), 3-13. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/892262278?accountid=32521
Electronic medical records; use of electronic medical records EMR by canadian physicians bodes well for future of patient care. (2011). Telemedicine Business Week, , 3962. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/878461542?accountid=32521
Practice development strategies. (2012). Retrieved from http://pdsmedical.com/
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