NURS 6051 The determination of patient outcomes significantly depends on big data sets, which are utilized in improving various results
NURS 6051 The determination of patient outcomes significantly depends on big data sets, which are utilized in improving various results
In health care industry, success is often determined by the patient outcomes. Positive patient outcomes can only be obtained through efficient practices and procedures. The determination of patient outcomes significantly depends on big data sets, which are utilized in improving various results. As such, health informatics is vital in ensuring positive patient outcomes. For instance, health informatics is essential in collecting, evaluating, and leveraging data, which is used to improve efficiency and processes in health care delivery and to identify at risk patients, thus, enhancing research to improve patient outcomes. Moreover, health informatics is associated with innovations and rise of new technologies that are crucial in clinical practice. Therefore, nurses should strive to acquire knowledge on health informatics to help them in improving patient outcomes in an era characterized my significant technological use (Kinnunen et al., 2019). The nursing informatics project identified is electronic health records (EHR). Consequently, this paper will examine how EHR can be used to enhance patient outcomes and health care efficiencies.
EHR refers to the digital version of the paper-based patient health records (Kohli & Tan, 2016). The adoption of the EHR was informed by the need to mitigate the challenges that emanate from the manual paper-based health records such as risk of duplication, illegible handwritings, and loss of records leading to errors in medication prescription, poor billing, and uninformed clinical decisions. The health care system is significantly evolving and technological use is evident in virtually all aspects of health care delivery. Therefore, the adoption of EHR is crucial in leveraging the delivery of patient care and improves the competitive advantage of the health care settings (Kohli & Tan, 2016). The EHR plays a vital role in the current health care system and so, it is imperative to consider their meaningful use. The meaningful use of EHR entails connecting important patient care devices such as I.V infusion pumps, vital sign monitors, and cardiac monitors to EHR to improve the capability of EHR in enhancing patient outcomes. It also entails sharing data and involving the patients in care with respect to HIPAA rules (Rathert et al., 2019). The adoption of EHR in clinical practice is supported by major players in health care industry including the ANA who advocate for standard EHR terminologies among its members to enhance the capacity of EHR solutions in nursing practice (American Nurses Association, 2018).
Stakeholders Impacted by the Project
The implementation of EHR impacts various stakeholders. The first stakeholders include the patients. The EHR was designed to help create efficiencies in patient health care delivery and improving the patient outcomes. The success of EHR is determined based on the patient health outcomes. The other key stakeholders are the health care providers such as nurses, doctors, and pharmacists who engage in providing care for patients. EHR is crucial for healthcare providers in accessing and reorganizing patient health records and facilitating the provision of accurate diagnosis and patient treatment, which ultimately ensure positive patient outcomes. EHR vendors are the other stakeholders responsible for the development of the EHR system to realize the institutional expectations failure to which the EHR dream may not be realized. The management of the health care organization is also a vital stakeholder who plays a critical role in the success or failure of the EHR adoption. Support from the management is crucial in ensuring the project resonates with the expectations of all players. The last stakeholders are the front office staff who are responsible for entering patient information such as medical history, contact information, billing, and patient demographics into the EHR system. An appropriate entry into the system is essential in mitigating dire consequences, thus, enhancing efficiencies in care provision and patient outcomes.
The adoption of EHR in the health care organization is expected to improve patient outcomes by guaranteeing quality health care delivery. EHRs play important roles in providing real-time, patient-specific health information, which are delivered safely and privately to the certified users only. EHR also provides various patient care options because of its ability to reach out to evidence-based tools that enable health care professionals to make informed decisions during point of care patient management. EHR also facilitates real-time communication at the point of care that is necessary in dealing with significant time wastage when going through the paper-based health records. Overall, therefore, adoption of EHR in health care settings is poised to ensure positive patient outcomes such as improvement in patient-oriented care, safe and quality health care, cost reductions, and reduction in number of hospital stay days (Kohli & Tan, 2016).
Technologies Required in Implementing this Project
Various technologies are required to implement the EHR. The first technological need includes virtual assistants to assist in enhancing the interoperability of systems and maximize the EHR system interface with other systems, and help in documenting patient information. The project also needs a standard server to blend with other systems in the health care organization. The existing resources such as computers may be used during the implementation process, but they must first be upgraded with the up-to-date operating system. The IT experts should ensure that the system is updated to be compatible with Windows server and OS to ensure compatibility. Also, there is need for IT professionals to create awareness on the technology on operability of the system and the nature of processes required at each phase of implementation.
The Project Team, their Roles and how Nurse Informaticists would be Incorporated in the Project Team
The first members of the team include IT experts who will be tasked with assessing the both software and hardware needs, maintenance and upgrade, testing of the system and operating them, and soliciting support and system services. The other team members include health care providers. Their roles include assessment of clinical workflows and suggest areas that need changes, setting goals for implementing EHR, and evaluating the impact of EHR on the productivity. Moreover, they will also appraise the clinical operability of the EHR software, propose how the future clinical workflow should operate with EHR, track the satisfaction level of the workforce, address clinical requirements, and play a part in identifying technology and defining the scope of the project. The project manager is also an important member of the team who will be tasked with responsibilities such as supervising the entire success of the project including ensuring that requirements for implementation are obtained and the deadline for implementing EHR is realized. The project manager will also ensure integration of different stages of implementation to work seamlessly. Moreover, the project manager plays a crucial role in planning, creating, executing and testing EHR phases for proper coordination and realization of the project goals. Frontline office employees also play roles of patient data entry into EHR system, coding, billing, and transferring data from manual paper records to EHR data.
On the other hand, nurse informaticists are crucial in this process to help in collecting and monitoring intricate patient data and communicating them to various relevant stakeholders within the EHR implementation process. Also, they instigate changes to the system and ensure improvements in such changes to ensure provision of quality health care services (Sipes, 2016). As such, nurse informaticists should be integrated in the process of EHR implementation to help in implementing the above functions.
The EHR technology is associated with improving patient outcomes by easily availing accurate patient health information and addressing the traditional issues associated with paper-based health records. The above include duplication, mistaken identify, eligibility issues, and loss of records. These aspects often led to dire consequences such as errors in drug administration, poor billing, and uninformed clinical decision at the point of care.
References
American Nurses Association. (2018). Inclusion of recognized terminologies supporting nursing practice within electronic health records and other health information technology solutions. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/official-position-statements/id/Inclusion-of-Recognized-Terminologies-Supporting-Nursing-Practice-within-Electronic-Health-Records/
Kinnunen, U. M., Heponiemi, T., Rajalahti, E., Ahonen, O., Korhonen, T., & Hyppönen, H. (2019). Factors Related to Health Informatics Competencies for Nurses—Results of a National Electronic Health Record Survey. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 37(8), 420-429. doi: 10.1097/CIN.0000000000000511
Kohli, R., & Tan, S. S. L. (2016). Electronic health records: how can IS researchers contribute to transforming healthcare?. Mis Quarterly, 40(3), 553-573. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2016/40.3.02
Rathert, C., Porter, T. H., Mittler, J. N., & Fleig-Palmer, M. (2019). Seven years after Meaningful Use: Physicians’ and nurses’ experiences with electronic health records. Health care management review, 44(1), 30-40. doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000168
Sipes, C. (2016). Project Management: Essential Skill of Nurse Informaticists. In Nursing Informatics (252-256).
New technology—and the application of existing technology—only appears in healthcare settings after careful and significant research. The stakes are high, and new clinical systems need to offer evidence of positive impact on outcomes or efficiencies.
Nurse informaticists and healthcare leaders formulate clinical system strategies. As these strategies are often based on technology trends, informaticists and others have then benefited from consulting existing research to inform their thinking.
In this Assignment, you will review existing research focused on the application of clinical systems. After reviewing, you will summarize your findings.
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and reflect on the impact of clinical systems on outcomes and efficiencies within the context of nursing practice and healthcare delivery.
- Conduct a search for recent (within the last 5 years) research focused on the application of clinical systems. The research should provide evidence to support the use of one type of clinical system to improve outcomes and/or efficiencies, such as “the use of personal health records or portals to support patients newly diagnosed with diabetes.”
- Identify and select 4 peer-reviewed research articles from your research.
- For information about annotated bibliographies, visit https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/annotatedbibliographies
The Assignment: (4-5 pages not including the title and reference page)
In a 4- to 5-page paper, synthesize the peer-reviewed research you reviewed. Format your Assignment as an Annotated Bibliography. Be sure to address the following:
- Identify the 4 peer-reviewed research articles you reviewed, citing each in APA format.
- Include an introduction explaining the purpose of the paper.
- Summarize each study, explaining the improvement to outcomes, efficiencies, and lessons learned from the application of the clinical system each peer-reviewed article described. Be specific and provide examples.
- In your conclusion, synthesize the findings from the 4 peer-reviewed research articles.
- Use APA format and include a title page.
- Use the Safe Assign Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.
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Next Module
Module 4: Technologies Supporting Applied Practice and Optimal Patient Outcomes (Weeks 6-8)
Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). Informatics Tools and Technologies [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Evaluate healthcare technology trends for data and information in nursing practice and healthcare delivery
- Analyze challenges and risks inherent in healthcare technology
- Analyze healthcare technology benefits and risks for data safety, legislation, and patient care
- Evaluate healthcare technology impact on patient outcomes, efficiencies, and data management
- Analyze research on the application of clinical systems to improve outcomes and efficiencies
| Due By | Assignment |
| Week 6, Days 1–2 | Read/Watch/Listen to the Learning Resources. Compose your initial Discussion post. |
| Week 6, Day 3 | Post your initial Discussion post. Begin to compose your Assignment. |
| Week 6, Days 4-5 | Review peer Discussion posts. Compose your peer Discussion responses. Continue to compose your Assignment. |
| Week 6, Day 6 | Post at least two peer Discussion responses on two different days (and not the same day as the initial post). |
| Week 6, Day 7 | Wrap up Discussion. |
| Week 7, Days 1-7 | Continue to compose your Assignment. |
| Week 8, Days 1-6 | Continue to compose your Assignment. |
| Week 8, Day 7 | Deadline to submit your Assignment. |
Learning Resources
Required Readings
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
- Chapter 14, “The Electronic Health Record and Clinical Informatics” (pp. 267–287)
- Chapter 15, “Informatics Tools to Promote Patient Safety and Quality Outcomes” (pp. 293–317)
- Chapter 16, “Patient Engagement and Connected Health” (pp. 323–338)
- Chapter 17, “Using Informatics to Promote Community/Population Health” (pp. 341–355)
- Chapter 18, “Telenursing and Remote Access Telehealth” (pp. 359–388)
HealthIT.gov. (2018c). What is an electronic health record (EHR)? Retrieved from
https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-electronic-health-record-ehr
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). Public Health Informatics [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). Electronic Records and Managing IT Change [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.