New health care innovations offer the advanced registered nurse an opportunity to apply emerging technologies in practice to improve quality and patient outcomes. For this assignment, research an emerging health care technology that you think has the potential to overcome current or emerging barriers to care.
Write a 500-word brief that provides an overview of the technology, its purpose, and how it would function in a health care setting, including any ethical or legal issues that would accompany the incorporation of the technology. Discuss how this technology could improve access to care and promote patient safety and quality.
Electronic Health Records (EHR) Technology – Emerging Health Care Technology with Potential to Overcome Current or Emerging Barriers to Care
Overview of the Technology
The selected emerging technology likely to address the current barrier of care in a health care setting is the electronic health records (EHR) technology. EHR is an electronic form of a patient’s health record that was traditionally stored, used, and created in a paper chart. According to McMullen et al. (2014), the EHR refers to longitudinal patient health information electronic records, created by a single or more encounters in a particular care delivery environment. The record includes information such as patient demographics, radiology reports, vital signs, laboratory data, progress notes, immunizations, medical issues, medical history, allergies, and medication reports (McMullen et al., 2014).
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Technology Purpose
The EHR technology is used in tracking and collating sets of information, changes monitoring in patients’ results following the implementation of a novel procedure or practice, and establishing which patients are in line for specific procedures such as immunization, theatre, and physical exams among others. EHR are particularly created for sharing of information not just among different forms of providers that are situated in various settings such as the emergency department, in-patient, and primary care, but also between patients and providers (McMullen et al., 2014).
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How the Technology Would Function in a Health Care Setting
EHR technology enhances easy access to patient data at the point of care. This permits nurses to always confirm various patients’ details to avoid errors. EHR also makes it easier to monitor patient’s progress, and enhancing the provider’s ability to make treatment plan changes, in a situation where the patient is not responding as anticipated in the first defined treatment approach. EHR also makes information directly available to nursing, giving them a chance to access evidence-based tool, which they can use to make patient’s care decisions. EHR also helps in enhancing the integration of care in a health care setting with discrete units all needed for successful patient care. This makes it easy for one unit to use information generated from the last unit to promote patient care (Robin, 2016).
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Ethical or Legal Issues Related to the Technology Incorporation
The EHR technology incorporation is faced by electronic data security, confidentiality, and privacy issues. EHR involves sensitive patients’ information that needs to be safeguarded from any security issues (Kruse et al., 2017). As a result, the government has imposed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that protects the security and confidentiality of electronic health records of a patient, which is among protected health information. This Act is based on three security pillars which include technical, physical, and administrative safeguards of protected health information (Balestra, 2017). EHR is also guided by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act that insists on the importance of reporting any data security breaches when they occur (Kruse et al., 2017).
How the EHR Improves Access of Care, Promote Patient Safety and Quality of Care
EHRs have highly enhanced the quality and safety of health care delivery by information access, lowering illegibility, and permitting closer clinical care processes oversight. EHRs have also enhanced collaboration and multidisciplinary teaming in the health care settings, eliminating medical errors and enhancing efficiency in care. This has played a great role in improving safety and quality of care, resulting in improved patient outcomes (Manca, 2015).
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EHRs have also played a great role in allowing patients to access their medical information when they need it (Mcmillen et al., 2014). This includes patients under telemedical or telehealthcare, such that they can easily manage their health condition and get updates through the EHR system. This has enhanced care access for patients in a great way.
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