Advanced Healthcare Management - Essay Example

Advanced Healthcare Management is an engrossing example of a paper on the health system. It is apparent that the overall aim of the adoption and implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) is to improve patient care. Nevertheless, there are several factors that could be attributed to the realization of this goal. In essence, with continued development in technology and the need to reduce healthcare costs, the need to have EHR put in place came in. It is also indispensable to note that the continued workload involved with the paper record was also another factor that called for the implementation of EHR (Kulkarni, 2006).

 Since the whole issue of EHR revolves around moving from paperwork to technological innovation, every other challenge that comes with paperwork could as well be termed as a driving force towards adoption and implementation of EHR (Burns, Bradley & Weiner, 2012). This is arguably true because the need to overcome such challenges lies with the implementation of EHR. For example, the penalties resulting from failure to have accurate health records was considered as an issue to be solved when EHR is implemented. In addition, some medical practitioners argue that implementation of EHR would act as a factor for stimulus funding that comes along with the implementation of EHR. This comes in terms of maintenance fees and other related costs of ensuring EHR works effectively.

In another dimension, Kulkarni, (2006) posits that the need to improve clinical processes and workflow efficiency also acts as a driving force towards the adoption and implementation of EHR. This is a crucial concept because efficiency in clinical processes is termed as one of the ingredients of quality healthcare provision. Health organizations with ineffective clinical processes tend to record poor quality in terms of service provision. When it comes to attending to patients with chronic diseases, EHR has been considered to act as a means of improving communication or urban and remote hospitals. This is especially with instances where several caregivers are required in attending to the patient. The issue of getting health records from the previous health institution has been considered to be a great challenge whenever a patient visits a new and probably far from the previous institution. With the help of EHR, it is believed that such a challenge would be solved since physicians can easily obtain health records from the EHR (Burns, Bradley & Weiner, 2012).

  Another driving force has been related to the need to have medical errors reduced. In essence, it is apparent that, with the use of paper records, several errors could be evidenced as a result of inaccuracy during data entry. This could lead to serious consequences including subjecting patients to wrong medication. In addition, there have been unnecessary costs emanating from multiple personnel in charge of keeping paperwork records in the health information departments (Kulkarni, 2006). With the coming of EHR, it is believed that such costs would be reduced since very few personnel would be needed to oversee the smooth running of the EHR.

Conclusion

Just like Kulkarni, (2006) asserted in his study, it is arguably correct to assert that adoption and implementation of EHR are aimed at improving the quality of health care. This could be both to patients and health provision officers. Patients would be attended to effectively without taking long queues for their records to be checked. Nevertheless, specific driving forces for adoption and implantation of EHR include, avoiding penalties, improve clinical processes, a need to have reduced costs in the EHR department, and reduced medical errors.  

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