The Electronic health records system is a crucial element in innovating the healthcare service. Implementing EHR can affect the workflow and operations at the Vila Heath Independence Medical Center. As such, it is necessary to recognize the external and internal stakeholders impacted by the change. It is important to address and discuss the recommended EHR functions, the training required for the stakeholders, and the workflow’s redesign.
The process of analyzing the current EHR systems together with the feedback from the employees was used to arrive at recommendations related to a health information management system. With the assessed information, several barriers preventing the successful implementation of EHR were formed. As such, the current technical and functional knowledge of an EHR system that the stakeholders possess should be improved through training. The resource allocations and the existing workflow can be adjusted to ensure the safety of the EHR implementing process.
The timeline of implementing Amkai Solutions or Allscripts EHR systems can be estimated at around a year due to the complexity of the transition. Overcoming the difficulties of forming and executing the educational plan for the employees, allocating the required resources, and altering the workflow to fit the transition would be prolonged. However, the transition may prove worthwhile despite the duration, introducing better outcomes for employees and patients.
Implementing an EHR system will affect the stakeholders and require their involvement. Since inputting the data into the EHR system requires accuracy and precision to ensure the best outcome, the staff responsible for it is a relevant stakeholder. This work is usually done by the Chief Nursing Officer and Nurse Manager-IC; their ability to incorporate EHR into their work can prove vital. Integrating EHR and other systems with less damage to the current workflow is essential. Thus, enabling Medical Center CEO, CMO, and COO to ensure the work efficiency of all departments renders them as yet another relevant stakeholder. Receiving payments faster should improve the hospital’s financials and approved claim rates. This requires the Director of Finance to obtain a flexible EHR system and proficiently implement it at work. The Director of Finance is yet another example of stakeholders impacted by the integration of EHR. Accessing patients’ data faster would ease the work of the Pharmacy Director and Laboratory Tech. Altogether, the Medical Center CEO, COO, CMO, Director of Finance, Pharmacy Director, Chief Nursing Officer, Nurse Manager-IC, and Laboratory Tech can be considered prime stakeholders.
For a successful implementation of such EHR as Amkai Solutions or Allscripts in a hospital’s workflow, the personnel’s initial training is required. The training should be accompanied by meeting the staff’s needs through proper assessing feedback and criteria to ensure their engagement and buy-in in the process. The most challenging part regarding the training might involve developing an education plan for the stakeholders and the process of transitioning to the new system, which may negatively affect the workflow. According to Fragidis & Chatzoglou (2018), the most significant success element of implementing EHR is the stakeholders’ commitment and involvement. Thus, ensuring the stakeholders benefit from the training could increase their interest and involvement, leading to the successful integration of EHR.
The resources needed to integrate a fully operational EHR system may be costly. However, according to Fragidis & Chatzoglou (2018), a low budget or poor resources can be considered not the most crucial element of the EHR implementation process, in contrast to common beliefs. It is doubtless that financial resources and their proper allocation are necessary to include the purchase, but it is less important and challenging than ensuring the stakeholder’s involvement and support. Thus, the latter should be prioritized to achieve success in integrating EHR.
The most affected aspect of implementing an EHR system can be considered to be the workflow. The initial period of the transition is the most challenging for the stakeholders in consideration of workflow. Daily operation efficiency could be enhanced to mitigate the impact of the changes. Creating alert systems, designing EHR tools to help employees, and engaging the patient portals for data collection are recommended to adjust the changes in the workflow for the transition (Gold et al., 2017). All of this can seem laborious; however, it would regulate the workflow and accelerate the EHR implementation process.
EHR system is doubtlessly a valuable tool in modern health care. It can ease the work of the staff and improve health services for the patients. However, implementing an EHR system could result in reduced patient safety due to technological errors or inappropriate usage of the system (Dhillon-Chattha et al., 2018). With thorough training of the employees and a correctly configured system, such issues may not arise, but it is a risk to consider for future improvements.
In conclusion, implementing an EHR system at the Vila Heath Independence Medical Center significantly influences workflow design, stakeholders, and resource allocation. The challenges caused could be overcome by acknowledging the affected stakeholder, such as Nurse Manager-IC, Laboratory Techs, Medical Center CEO, et al. Developing an engaging and beneficial training plan would secure their support and lead to a successful implementation of EHR. The workflow and resource allocation must be addressed and adjusted during the initial stages. Altogether, the recommended EHR systems could be effectively integrated promptly.
References
Dhillon-Chattha, P., McCorkle, R., & Borycki, E. (2018). An evidence-based tool for safe configuration of electronic health records: The eSafety checklist. Applied clinical informatics, 9(04), 817-830.
Fragidis, L. L., & Chatzoglou, P. D. (2018). Implementation of a nationwide electronic health record (EHR). International journal of health care quality assurance, 31(2), 116–130. Web.
Gold, R., Cottrell, E., Bunce, A., Middendorf, M., Hollombe, C., Cowburn, S.,… & Melgar, G. (2017). Developing electronic health record (EHR) strategies related to health center patients’ social determinants of health. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 30(4), 428-447.