NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 1 Technology-Informatics Use in Your Practice Setting

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX 8012 Nursing Technology and Health Care Information Systems

Prof. Name

Date

Technology Informatics Use in Your Practice Setting

Hello everybody, I am Gloria. I hope you are doing well. In today’s video, I will discuss the use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for patient care at Cleveland Clinic’s acute care unit. Technology has significantly transformed every industry worldwide, and healthcare is no exception. In modern healthcare, almost all operations rely on advanced technologies, particularly EHRs, which have revolutionized in-hospital treatment and patient engagement (Uslu & Stausberg, 2021).

Cleveland Clinic, one of the top healthcare providers in the nation, has successfully integrated EHR technology into its cute care unit. This technology plays a crucial role in managing patient care quality. My recent experience working at Cleveland Clinic has given me valuable insights into the practical applications and benefits of EHRs. I will analyze the benefits of EHR technology in acute care, identify current obstacles to its optimal use, and propose a redesigned workflow to improve care coordination and patient outcomes. By understanding these aspects, we can better leverage EHR technology to provide superior care to patients. 

Benefits of Chosen Technology

Context

EHRs have become an integral part of modern healthcare systems, providing a digital form of a paper chart and making real-time, individual-centered records accessible to authorized users. The Cleveland Clinic acute care unit deals with patients requiring immediate and intensive medical attention. The complexities associated with acute care demand a robust, efficient, and comprehensive system for managing patient data (Uslu & Stausberg, 2021). Coordinating care among various healthcare providers is needed to ensure the highest patient safety and treatment quality standards. EHRs at Cleveland Clinic are designed to meet these demands by providing a seamless and integrated platform for healthcare delivery. 

Benefits of the Chosen Technology EHRs

There are several benefits of integrating EHRs in acute care units. Some include improved patient care and safety, enhanced coordination, increased efficiency and productivity, and patient engagement and improvement.EHRs provide healthcare professionals instant access to patients’ current data, including their health history, current intake of medications, and test outcomes. For instance, if a patient arrives at the care unit with a critical condition, doctors can quickly review the patient’s history and make informed decisions without delays caused by searching paper records.

EHRs include integrated pharmaceutical management systems that notify healthcare personnel about possible drug reactions, allergies, and dosage mistakes. These features improved patient care and safety concerns, mitigating the risks related to delays and medication errors (Borycki & Kushniruk, 2023). 

NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 1 Technology-Informatics Use in Your Practice Setting

EHRs facilitate better communication and collaboration among the multidisciplinary team involved in patient care. At Cleveland Clinic, specialists, nurses, and primary care providers can access and update patient records in real-time, ensuring everyone is on the same page. The EHR technology helps streamline administrative and clinical workflows by directly sending order entries for tests and procedures to the relevant departments. This coordination is particularly important in acute care, where timely and coordinated interventions can be life-saving (Upadhyay & Hu, 2022). EHRs help eliminate the need for duplicate tests and producers by readily making comprehensive patient records available. If the patient at Cleveland Clinic has undergone certain diagnostic tests, these results are easily accessible to the healthcare team, saving time and resources.

The EHR’s ability to provide accurate and thorough documentation helps identify trends in outcomes, improving efficiency and productivity through its features (Calduch et al., 2021). EHR systems often include patient portals allowing patients to view their health documents, test results, and treatment strategies. This transparency enables patients to play an active part in their healthcare. At Cleveland Clinic, patients can log into their portal to track their progress, schedule appointments, and communicate with their care team (Pawelek et al., 2022). 

Obstacles to Utilizing EHR

While EHRs offer significant benefits in enhancing patient care and improving operational efficiencies, their utilization in the acute care unit at Cleveland Clinic is not without challenges. The challenges arose from various perspectives, such as healthcare providers, administrative staff, and patients. The following are the concerns from different disciplines regarding EHR usability.One of the primary concerns among healthcare providers is the increased time required for documenting. Physicians and nurses often find that entering detailed information into EHRs can be time-consuming. For instance, during peak hours, balancing the need for thorough documentation and the urgency of attending to patients in an acute care setting becomes difficult.

The concern is due to the complexity of the EHR system, posing a significant barrier to efficient use. For instance, new staff members or those less comfortable with technology find it challenging to navigate the EHR system quickly and efficiently (Pierce et al., 2020). The other concern is excessive alert fatigue. EHRs are designed to alert providers to potential issues such as drug interactions or allergies. However, excessive alerts can lead to alert fatigue, where clinicians become desensitized and overlook important warnings. For instance, in an acute care setting where timely decision-making is critical, this can seriously affect patient safety (McGreevey et al., 2020). 

NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 1 Technology-Informatics Use in Your Practice Setting

Administrative staff have concerns regarding EHRs due to financial burden and resource allocation. The initial cost of implementing an EHR system is substantial, involving hardware, software, training, and ongoing maintenance expenses. Allocating sufficient resources for EHR implementation and maintenance can be challenging, especially in high-demand environments like acute care units (Tsai et al., 2020). Security and privacy concerns are also related to the risk of data breaches. For instance, EHR systems hold sensitive patient data, making them prime targets of cyber-attacks. A breach in the system could expose confidential patient data, leading to legal repercussions and loss of trust. Administrative staff at Cleveland Clinic must ensure compliance with regulations such as HIPAA, which can be resource-intensive (Li et al., 2021).

As far as patients at acute care unit are concerned, technology literacy is a critical barrier. Not every patient feel at ease using digital platforms. Aged patients with limited technology proficiency can find navigating patient portals and accessing their health records online challenging. This can lead to frustration and decreased engagement. Privacy and security concerns can create hesitancy among patients. For instance, due to fear of data breaches, patients might skip telling sensitive health information, compromising the personalized treatment plan. The patient can perceive impersonal care due to the focus on documentation and screen existence between the care provider and patient, affecting the patient-provider relationship (Pierce et al., 2020). 

Workflow for EHRs after Redesign

Improve the user interface, add specific features like voice recognition, and adopt a phased approach for EHR system cost-effectiveness at Cleveland Clinic’s acute care unit. These features will help reduce documentation time, making it easy for healthcare providers and patients. The workflow was typical before, with features that provided information, coordination, alerts, and access to online portals for patient engagement. An updated EHR system is introduced to reduce documentation time and usability and make it cost-effective through a phased approach in its maintenance, ensuring advanced encryption and multi-factor authentication to protect patient data and comply with HIPAA regulations (Singh & Natarajan, 2023).

The workflow diagram showcases the operations in an acute care setting, which has been redesigned to address the issues in its usability and effectiveness. In the updated system, the EHRs will allow for the dictation of information, saving time in typing, and with advanced encryption and multi-factoring, the patient will have assurance of confidentiality (Dinari et al., 2023). Moreover, the features are updated to make it user-friendly, which helps healthcare providers adapt easily to patients. 

NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 1 Technology-Informatics Use in Your Practice Setting

The workflow process at Cleveland Clinic’s acute care unit starts with nurses conducting an initial assessment and entering patient data using voice recognition software to expedite the process, addressing time constraints and improving efficiency (Dinari et al., 2023). Providers of acute care units will document patient information in real time using an intuitive EHR interface, enhanced with voice recognition, to reduce the time spent on data entry and improve usability. All care team members at Cleveland will access EHR for real-time updates and coordinated care. Automated alerts are optimized to reduce alert fatigue, promptly addressing critical information (McGreevey et al., 2020).

Then, physicians enter and track orders electronically, with real-time updates available to all relevant staff at the acute care unit, ensuring execution and reducing redundancy. Continuous monitoring of vital signs and critical parameters of acute care unit patients is automatically updated in EHR. Moreover, the interdisciplinary teams use the EHR for coordinated discharge planning. The enhanced patient portal to the acute care unit’s patients gives patients easy access to their records and discharge instructions, promoting engagement and transparency (Singh & Natarajan, 2023). 

Conclusion

In conclusion, integrating advanced EHR systems at Cleveland Clinic’s acute care unit has significantly enhanced patient care, streamlined workflows, and improved communication among healthcare providers. The redesigned workflow ensures efficient and secure patient data management by addressing the concerns of healthcare providers, administrative staff, and patients through user-friendly interfaces, voice recognition, and robust security measures. This comprehensive approach improves operational efficiency and elevates the overall quality of patient care.

References

Borycki, E. M., & Kushniruk, A. W. (2023). Health technology, quality and safety in a learning health system. Healthcare Management Forum, 36(2), 79–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704221139383 

Calduch, E. N., Muscat, N. A., Krishnamurthy, R. S., & Ortiz, D. N. (2021). Technological progress in electronic health record system optimization: Systematic review of systematic literature reviews. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 152(1), 104507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104507 

Dinari, F., Bahaadinbeigy, K., Bassiri, S., Mashouf, E., Bastaminejad, S., & Moulaei, K. (2023). Benefits, barriers, and facilitators of using speech recognition technology in nursing documentation and reporting: A cross‐sectional study. Health Science Reports, 6(6). https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.1330 

Li, E., Clarke, J., Neves, A. L., Ashrafian, H., & Darzi, A. (2021). Electronic health records, interoperability and patient safety in health systems of high-income countries: A systematic review protocol. BMJ Open, 11(7), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044941 

McGreevey, J. D., Mallozzi, C. P., Perkins, R. M., Shelov, E., & Schreiber, R. (2020). Reducing alert burden in electronic health records: State of the art recommendations from four health systems. Applied Clinical Informatics, 11(01), 001-012. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0039-3402715 

Pawelek, J., Motes, K. B., Pandit, J. A., Berk, B. B., & Ramos, E. (2022). The power of patient engagement with electronic health records as research participants. JMIR Medical Informatics, 10(7). https://doi.org/10.2196/39145 

NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 1 Technology-Informatics Use in Your Practice Setting

Pierce, R. P., Eskridge, B. R., Rehard, L., Ross, B., Day, M. A., & Belden, J. L. (2020). The effect of electronic health record usability redesign on annual screening rates in an ambulatory setting. Applied Clinical Informatics, 11(04), 580–588. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1715828 

Singh, B. M., & Natarajan, J. (2023). A novel secure authentication protocol for eHealth records in cloud with a new key generation method and minimized key exchange. Journal of King Saud University. Computer and Information Sciences/Maǧalaẗ Ǧamʼaẗ Al-Malīk Saud : Ùlm Al-Ḥasib Wa Al-Maʼlumat, 35(7), 101629–101629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2023.101629 

Tsai, C. H., Eghdam, A., Davoody, N., Wright, G., Flowerday, S., & Koch, S. (2020). Effects of electronic health record implementation and barriers to adoption and use: A scoping review and qualitative analysis of the content. Life, 10(12), 1–27. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761950/ 

Upadhyay, S., & Hu, H. (2022). A qualitative analysis of the impact of Electronic Health Records (EHR) on healthcare quality and safety: Clinicians’ lived experiences. Health Services Insights, 15(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/11786329211070722 

Uslu, A., & Stausberg, J. (2021). Value of the electronic medical record for hospital care: Update from the literature. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(12). https://doi.org/10.2196/26323