In 1968, hospital researchers launched a project called the Computer Stored Ambulatory Record. It contained a modular design that gave room to various clinical vocabularies and enabled vocabulary mapping. In 1972, the Regenstrief Medical Record System was created and automated clinical information and data, integrated and structured them as they are gathered from pharmacies and laboratories.
These systems may have varied descriptions, but all of them have the been developed to serve a purpose. It may have been described differently over the last fifty years up to its present day description of Meaningful Use certified EHR. But these systems exist because of the need to eradicate logistical issues, to reduce the time consuming clinical bookkeeping, and to have access to medical and healthcare information readily available to healthcare professionals.
EHRs went mainstream and commercial when technology did as well. The systems bred by academic medical centers developed together with the IT industry. When personal computers arrived in the 1990s and Internet became available, EHRs were challenged with the increasing heterogeneity of its users.
You might be thinking that the increasing heterogeneity is still an issue we are facing today with EHR. You heard the news about EHR being blamed for the death of the latest Ebola victim. Despite having told the nurse that he had just arrived home from the country where Ebola was present, the doctor dismissed his symptoms and sent the patient home. You be the judge, but first let us examine the design of EHRs when they were made in order to address the exclusive needs of ambulatory givers.
Electronic health records were designed to have simple footprints, integrated billing, physician specific workflows, and the ability to connect with diagnostic tools and equipment anywhere. The EHR sellers wanted systems that can be dealt with minimal IT manpower. It was only in the late 2000s when CPOE or computerized physician order entry became the norm.
The lesson to be learned in the Ebola case was that the routine use of EHRs might have bred a leniency with regards to healthcare professionals treating cases as routine and not something of grave danger. According to research, it was a case of misdiagnosis and the inefficient and ineffective usage of electronic health records. Although errors in diagnosis would typically only affect one patient at a time, sometimes, it only takes a single mistake to ruin its public health reputation.
Those speculations are still open to debate. However, the more pressing issue is that we have to make our move in making electronic health records more effective, not counterproductive, counter logic, and ironic. If it was a lack of communication between nurse and doctor in the Ebola news, then it was more of a training and awareness problem. Technology will be there, but without proper safety guidelines and trained users, they are prone to becoming a means of pain rather than prevention.
Check if your device hardware and software are all working fine. A glitch or bug or any malfunction can impair not just a department but can cripple the entire community. Use the EHR appropriately, that is, to comprehensively monitor and improve patient safety. CPOE should be implemented.
It has been suggested that all orders should be entered via CPOE to maximize safety. Stage One of the Meaningful Use declares that at least thirty percent of these orders should be entered through CPOE, while Stage Two should have at least sixty percent. Institutions that have not yet implemented this coding should already make their move.
These systems may have varied descriptions, but all of them have the been developed to serve a purpose. It may have been described differently over the last fifty years up to its present day description of Meaningful Use certified EHR. But these systems exist because of the need to eradicate logistical issues, to reduce the time consuming clinical bookkeeping, and to have access to medical and healthcare information readily available to healthcare professionals.
EHRs went mainstream and commercial when technology did as well. The systems bred by academic medical centers developed together with the IT industry. When personal computers arrived in the 1990s and Internet became available, EHRs were challenged with the increasing heterogeneity of its users.
You might be thinking that the increasing heterogeneity is still an issue we are facing today with EHR. You heard the news about EHR being blamed for the death of the latest Ebola victim. Despite having told the nurse that he had just arrived home from the country where Ebola was present, the doctor dismissed his symptoms and sent the patient home. You be the judge, but first let us examine the design of EHRs when they were made in order to address the exclusive needs of ambulatory givers.
Electronic health records were designed to have simple footprints, integrated billing, physician specific workflows, and the ability to connect with diagnostic tools and equipment anywhere. The EHR sellers wanted systems that can be dealt with minimal IT manpower. It was only in the late 2000s when CPOE or computerized physician order entry became the norm.
The lesson to be learned in the Ebola case was that the routine use of EHRs might have bred a leniency with regards to healthcare professionals treating cases as routine and not something of grave danger. According to research, it was a case of misdiagnosis and the inefficient and ineffective usage of electronic health records. Although errors in diagnosis would typically only affect one patient at a time, sometimes, it only takes a single mistake to ruin its public health reputation.
Those speculations are still open to debate. However, the more pressing issue is that we have to make our move in making electronic health records more effective, not counterproductive, counter logic, and ironic. If it was a lack of communication between nurse and doctor in the Ebola news, then it was more of a training and awareness problem. Technology will be there, but without proper safety guidelines and trained users, they are prone to becoming a means of pain rather than prevention.
Check if your device hardware and software are all working fine. A glitch or bug or any malfunction can impair not just a department but can cripple the entire community. Use the EHR appropriately, that is, to comprehensively monitor and improve patient safety. CPOE should be implemented.
It has been suggested that all orders should be entered via CPOE to maximize safety. Stage One of the Meaningful Use declares that at least thirty percent of these orders should be entered through CPOE, while Stage Two should have at least sixty percent. Institutions that have not yet implemented this coding should already make their move.
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