According to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the American Nurses Association, nursing informatics is “the specialty that integrates nursing science with multiple informational and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage and communicate data, information, knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice” (“What is nursing informatics?”, 2020). Today I present an in-depth analysis of electronic health records and its implications compared to paper documentation in healthcare. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The electronic medical record, which is a digital form of paper records, was developed in the 1960s by Lockheed. The electronic medical record contains patient history, vaccinations, medication lists, treatment plans, allergies, diagnoses, laboratory tests and results among many of its features. The electronic health record allows healthcare providers to use evidence-based practices to make clinical decisions. It also automates and simplifies supplier workflow. The electronic medical record has numerous advantages. Healthcare providers in the United States are mandated by law to establish electronic health records by 2014. The electronic health record provides better patient care and greater patient participation in their care plan, better healthcare coordination between various providers healthcare. Furthermore, electronic medical records cannot be lost as is the case with paper medical records and improve patient diagnostic and health outcomes. For all its advantages, however, electronic health history has many disadvantages. As employers and many healthcare providers attempt to increase their reimbursement dollars from Medicare and Medicaid, charting has become too important for employers in maximizing their lion's share of dollars. The old bedside patient care has been put aside and more emphasis is placed on ensuring that nurses and assistants document. My typical day, depending on whether I'm supervising on the floor or I'm on the cart giving medications to my patients, I spend less time interacting with my patients or listing their concerns and more time clicking and clicking. Even though I am a supervisor in the field and not on the cart, I spent more time clearing User Defined Assessments (UDAs), updating the patient care plan, and less time with my patients. Nursing shortages and nurse burnout also create employers using shortcuts in recruiting and providing necessary training to new employees in the use and application of electronic health records. In the facility where I work, no more than 3 days of training are given to new hires, of which possibly one hour on the electronic medical record. New nurses are expected to orient themselves and learn from their colleagues. It's surprising to hear many nurses, especially older ones, want paper charting. These nurses identify the ease of paper charting compared to electronic health records and time spent clicking rather than patient care as the reason. However, for me, I don't miss spending an hour trying to clarify the doctor's prescription because some doctors' handwriting is not suitable. It is true that Hebda, Hunter, and Czar (2019) have identified some data that is monitored byorganizations because they claim that they concern patient care in every way. In my facility, owned by the organization called Accordius Health, there is some data that is monitored remotely on a daily basis and reported to the director of nursing or clinical liaison. One of the data that is monitored is called User Defined Assessment (UDA). These are computer-generated triggers or assessments that healthcare professionals need to investigate. These triggers may include weight loss risk assessment, dehydration risk assessment, diet assessment, pain assessment, and much more. They must be completed daily. Let's say the assessment is scheduled to go black today prompting nurses to complete it. If it is not done today, tomorrow it will turn red and you will hear a phone call from the organization representative wherever he is. The second piece of data the organization looks at remotely is MDS and Resource Utilization Group, or RUG score. This indicates the level of patient care and the amount of reimbursement the facility expects if certain criteria are met. If the evaluation of a particular patient is completed accurately and timely and based on the complexity of the patient's care, the facility expects a certain dollar reimbursement for the work performed. Requested assessments are monitored remotely and communicated daily with the Director of Nursing or MDS Coordinator. The third aspect of organizing data remotely is web browsing, sending private emails on the facility's computer and while working. Nurses are not permitted to use facility computers for private use. I think this is understandable as it has important implications for patient safety and privacy and is monitored remotely. There are obviously some ethical concerns about data tracking by organizations even if health data is protected by law. According to Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, a scholar at the Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Center and a professor at the Yale Center for Medical Informatics at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, medical record and prescription data is used, and even sold, for a variety of ("Big data in healthcare: privacy is a major ethical concern", 2017). According to Dr. Kaplan, patients may have no idea what is being done with that data. He further stated that various medical devices, wearable devices or smartphone apps can also generate information and not all of this is covered by HIPAA. Another implication of remote data monitoring by organizations concerns patient care. The person monitoring the system remotely may not have complete information about what is happening in the field, such as the patient's needs in activities of daily living or clinical emergencies. A nurse may prioritize helping a fallen patient or attending an acute clinical intervention over documentation. Therefore, in my opinion, less emphasis is placed on the actual needs of the patient and more on the documentation and evaluation related to increased reimbursements by insurance companies. In this week's discussion I identified the electronic health record as the topic of my project. At my workplace we are still in the process of transitioning to the electronic health record. Six months ago, the patient's medical records were permanently removed from the nursing station. So, relatively speaking, the electronic health record is new to our facility and, believe it or not, many healthcare facilities in the Deep South states/
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