Electronic Health Records in Hospitals: Challenges, Benefits, Prospective, and Nurses
Abstract
This research focuses on main organizational, developmental, and innovative aspects of electronic health records (EHR) in hospitals, and investigates the role of the proficient nurse in the implementation of this technology. The review of scholarly literature and peer-review articles complemented with evidence gathered by face-to-face interview with EHR end-users in hospitals shows that implementation of EHR have always faced certain obstacles. Moreover, new issues related to technology usage and human resources emerge. The study proves that some EHR utilization and user experience problems may be addressed proactive leadership practices of informatics nurses. Moreover, it was revealed that the current vector of development of health information technology is aimed at user experience improvement and performance enhancement. The research argues that adoption of innovations and proactive leadership as mitigation strategy of EHR issues will increase the efficiency and quality of healthcare services provided in hospitals.
Electronic Health Records in Hospitals: Challenges, Benefits, Perspective, and Nurses
The technologies and informational processes of medical record systems have always been a challenge for medicine. Practicing clinicians, scientists, and I.T. developers are still seeking for the best solution for the goals established ages ago. Since hospitals introduced the first medical records in the middle of XIX century (Siegler, 2010), the primary purpose of clinical documents as an information system was to “describe how information and bodies moved through the institutional spaces of medicine” (Banner, 2014, p. 1). Moreover, the evolution of the records was focused on achieving the integrity of the form, purpose, and organization, which would result in the information system that allows the most efficient treatment (Banner, 2014). In 2005, when the implementation of modern electronic health records (EHR) was discussed and estimated, some scientists believed that the development of health information systems (HIT) are likely to resolve numerous healthcare issues (Hillestad et al., 2005). However, scientists also claimed that the shift from paper records to EHR would require significant changes in the traditional processes (Hillestad et al., 2005). Thus, one may conclude that implementation and management of EHR in hospitals require certain modifications of existing HIT.
Understanding and command of EHR as an informational system (IS) is crucial for any qualified DNP-nurse who seeks to meet the standards of regulatory authorities and changing industry. According to Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice, “The goal of nursing informatics is to improve the health … by optimizing information management and communication” (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2014, p. 56). Moreover, EHR has already conquered healthcare in the U.S. Following official statistics (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology [ONCHIT], 2016), over 96 percent of non-federal acute-care hospitals in U.S. have implemented EHR systems in 2015. 83,8 percent of them supported and operated nursing assessments, clinician notes, and diagnosis information too. Moreover, 40 percent of EHR included advanced HIT solution with multimedia options and decision-making support (ONCHIT, 2016, para. 5), which allowed integrating local IS into the nation-wide medium. In consideration …