Nursing homework help

According Braunstein there are substantial historical and practical differences between the two dominant electronic medical records.  The electronic medical record is an “electronic medical record (EMR) used [almost exclusively] by licensed providers” in the primary physician domain whereas the electronic health record (EHR) “is a stakeholder-wide record of a patient’s complete health situation” (Braunstein, 2014, page 242).  What does this difference mean in the practical quotidian use of electronic records for patient documentation?  First, the EMR largely mimics the use of traditional paper records that dominated physician practices up until the turn of the century.  That is to say, even though they have data points, they exist for that bespoke place of care and are mostly intimate in that setting of patient/provider exchange and documentation.  They have little to no data hooks that could be mined or exported for the larger healthcare delivery system.

EHRs, by contrast are designed to track all data points of care and can be utilized by healthcare organization and informaticists to use it examine larger healthcare trends and adjust treatment accordingly.  We are talking single patient healthcare as the locus in the EMR and aggregation of healthcare aimed not only at the single patient but the patient population with the adoption and meaningful use f EHRs.  The healthcare delivery system in no longer strapped to geography limitations as curated electrons can be exchanged mush easier and frequently at much less cost and time.  First, let’s take a look to see if there is a place for EMR and EHRs to coexist and, second, let’s examine an example of how EHRs data can be used for much greater population health: medical surveillance.

EMR are not new and were invented to bridge the gap in the physician space between the cumbersome paper records and the digital record that corresponds to the analog-to-digital shift that has been taking place during the last couple of decades.  That said, most healthcare workers who utilize these records largely view it as a digital version of a paper record…with just a little more flexibility for edit, manipulation, update, and filing.  But there are numerous data sets that reside in these records that get unrealized.  Most of this has to do with lack of interoperability and the many different EMR systems for different vendor that do not matriculate with one another.  One Canadian study in 2018 examined 10 functional differences that exist between traditional paper records and seemingly similar electronic versions.  This was everything form health information to decision support to administrative process.  The researchers concluded that even though EMR were largely adopted three themes of use emerged to explain under-utilization of said features 1) general ceiling effect of current technology 2) lack of awareness of EMR capability and 3) perceived poor data quality.  EMR function for the patient and to document but struggle to “break out” (Price & Kim, 2013).

Contrast EMRs, which are the source of most data collected that is “aggregated across providers and form the patient, via health information exchanges, to create the HER [which] then also can be aggregated for population health management and for secondary use, such as clinical research and public surveillance” (Braunstein, 2014, page 38).  Public health surveillance is remarkably more effective and possible now that EHRs dominate the healthcare delivery system.  And such surveillance does not intrude on patient privacy.  In fact, there are at least 120 different conditions tracked, with the bulk being infectious diseases.  How is this done? Surveillance studies “leveraged ESP, which is an open-sourced surveillance platform developed in partnership with public health officials, researchers, and clinicians” (Willis et al, 2019). From this perspective health surveillance can examine previously unknown health population trends and react accordingly.  Mark 3:10 says “for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.”  EHRs continue to provide large data sets on public health that will provide public health initiatives going forward.

Needs help with similar assignment?

We are available 24x7 to deliver the best services and assignment ready within 3-4 hours? Order a custom-written, plagiarism-free paper

Get Answer Over WhatsApp Order Paper Now