Introduction
Innovation and technology continue to influence healthcare and the nursing practice profoundly. Healthcare constantly evolves to cope with the growing and aging population and unprecedented public health emergencies. Subsequently, new strategies and data increasingly arise for safe, quality, and efficient care. Nurses serve at the forefront of applying healthcare technology for increased effectiveness and efficiency, from monitoring to communication. In particular, hospitals are increasingly integrating electronic health records (EHR) into their streamlined systems to facilitate decision-making among nurses (Desai et al., 2020; Taquet et al., 2021).
EHR continues to shift nurses’ roles in several ways, with the pace of change projected to grow. The future of healthcare is uncertain, but medical professionals and nurses will continue incorporating ever-evolving technology to deliver quality and safe care with complete confidence.
Application of EHR in Health Care
EHR has transformed the nursing landscape by improving the quality of care and nurses’ roles. With emerging innovations in electronic recordkeeping, patients can access their data with much ease. In the nursing field, EHR allows registered nurses (RNs), certified nursing assistants (CNAs), home care registered nurses (HCRN), and other professional nurses to make informed decisions about patients’ health and well-being.
Nursing is a fast-growing field that demands improved efficiency and communication among professionals. Schenk et al. (2018) asserted that EHR catalyzes change for nurses by making available patient data for clinical decision-making and support. In addition to eliminating legibility problems with paper records, EHR enables multiple nursing professionals to view patient records simultaneously. Furthermore, automated medication, treatment interaction, and error detection may reduce clinical errors (Yin et al., 2022). Although the EHR serves as a repository of patient information that can be searched and reviewed, it increases the efficiency of nursing practice.
EHR’s Impact on Quality of Decision Making
Clinically relevant information embedded in the EHR regarding patients’ medical history, present health status, immunization, diagnoses, and treatment may encourage nurses to access data on the patient’s problem in real-time. Apart from pretest probability calculators, scoring tools linked to the EHR can select information from specific patient records to assist nurses with treatment decisions and allow early intervention in the course of the health problem (Pishko & Cuker, 2021).
Further, EHR offers diagnostic considerations through artificial intelligence algorithms and real language screening of nurses’ entries. In a recent study, clinical decision support (CDS) tools were pilot-tested to examine their impact and usability on care quality (Gold et al., 2021). The scholars conclude that EHR-linked CDS tools improve health outcomes, support social-risk-informed care, and reduce disparities. Nurses can use health parameters like vital signs and test results found within the EHR to create alerts that trigger predetermined nursing pathways and therapeutic and emergency bundles.
Selection and Implementation of EHR
Given the increasing transition to reimbursement focused on quality measurement and risk measuring, EHRs are becoming the standard of nursing practice. In this context, the selection and implementation of EHRs are among the important decisions nurses face. Searching for an EHR fitting a nursing practice, and planning and implementing an EHR successfully is accomplished with an accountable and well-informed clinical team through project management techniques.
Pishko and Cuker (2021) and Desai et al. (2020) contended that central to leveraging the EHR that improves patient experience, care quality, and practice efficiency is a focus on compatibility between the needs of nursing practice and available commercial systems. Health departments have varying interests and needs concerning EHRs. Readiness to progress forward with the adoption of an EHR system is the initial stage of making it a reality. Therefore, the selection and implementation of an EHR necessitate careful organization and planning. The decision-making framework should be clearly defined at the outset, including the selection of a project team. Subsequently, it is essential to assign a resourceful team to steer the program after implementation.
Costs Associated with the Selection and Implementation of EHR Systems
Within the contract is specification on system costs and functionality. The primary cost associated with the selection and implementation of an EHR system includes personnel, training, infrastructure, and facilities. For example, nurses will have to undergo training to familiarize themselves with the new system and new staff with technical skills will be employed to maintain and upgrade the EHR system. Other costs include IT staff overtime to maintain EHR servers, electronic functionality, updates for identifier names and codes, infrastructure needed to connect the EHR with registries, and clinical decision support tools (Miller et al., 2019). Transitioning from current practice style to the new approach will drastically change workflows for higher efficiency.
Nurses Role in Selecting and Evaluating EHRs
In some cases, nursing may achieve its EHR objectives without involving a third party. However, some practices may collaborate with affiliate hospitals or another healthcare institution to use their EHR system (Vos et al., 2020). In such a case, EHR functionality may be restricted, thus, limited customization options. Understanding clinical needs like practice incentives and regulatory requirements before searching for an EHR is crucial in selecting the right system.
When the key goals of the EHR system have been specified, the team must identify required EHR functionality (Gold et al., 2021; Pishko & Cuker, 2021). During selection, nurses or tasked department should be allowed to attend demonstrations for informed final selection. Based on candidate EHR, vendor information and proposal can be obtained then evaluated before finalizing the EHR contract, which determines each party’s responsibilities as relates to the purchase, maintenance, and implantation of the system.
Conclusion
Technology creates new opportunities and challenges, which spur further research and development in the medical field to meet untapped potential for better health outcomes. An effective EHR selection and implementation process allows nurses to mitigate several issues that might arise during the process and choose and system with organizational objectives and strategy. Central to EHR selection is building a team representing the nursing practice, gathering critical and clear practice needs, outlining the budget that can deliver EHR requirements, short-listing vendors matching selection criteria, and identifying the specific EHR using demonstrations or requests for proposals.
The suitability of an EHR system for nursing practice depends on aligning organizational functionality with practice requirements. Successful selection and implementation of an EHR largely depend on involving nurses in all phases to facilitate a smooth transition to using the new system.
References
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