Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper
Competing Needs Impacting my Selected Healthcare Issue
The two competing needs impacting my selected healthcare issue includes insufficient healthcare training and communication and lack of education in nursing and medical sector.
Communication is needed to impact effective EHR. However, there have been issues on whether EHR is developed to replace paper records. The inconveniences caused by the different reasoning on the objectives of EHR are massively leading to medical errors (Barett, 2018). Additionally, the full implementation of an EHR system requires proper training of medical practitioners. The need that arises in this is the capability of nurses to learn. Appropriate paradigms have not been put in place to determine if group training or individual training is the best when it comes to EHR Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
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Lack of education of nurses and medical practitioners is an impact on EHRs developmental issues. Appropriate measures have not been put in place to ensure computer literacy in the field.Some nurses have no computer skills rendering EHR ineffective in the medicalsector. The assumption that every nurse has computer knowledge is a mistake that should not be ignored. The proper measure should be put in place to address the issue to facilitate the smooth shift from paper records to an effectiveelectronic hospital record system (Chung & Cho, 2017).
The Relevant Policies in the Organization that may Influence the Selected Healthcare Issue
The relevant policy that may influence EHRs developmental issues includes the development of informed consent as a security measure. Informed consent is designed to prevent possible demands on the system (Abdel-Kader & Jhamb, 2020). The policy ensures that medical information is not extracted from these databases and used against the patient’s will. With the policy, the content of the medical records go to the cloud and are stored through the Internet. Additionally, with this policy, the assignment of a password to users is only limited to personnel in charge of the patient, with which some information filters were avoided Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
Policy Critique for Ethical Considerations, and the Policy’s Strengths and Challenges in Promoting Ethics
The informed consent policy stems from an ethical point of view. By obtaining informed consent, the issue of respecting privacy and autonomy while allowing verified research access to health records can be sorted out. Hence, the medical data of the patient will be kept private. Privacy is an ethical issue that has been created by the organization to safeguard the disclosure of any patient healthcare records that involves all their details. Protecting this right is crucial in the delivery of healthcare as it creates trust between the organization and the patients (Jalali & Kaiser, 2018). Our organization displays the best care concerning dealing with patients’ both medical and personal information by allowing access to, and the use of this information is heavily limited to what is vital for provision of quality healthcare to patients.
However, despite the development of security measures, another problem arises, which is the possibility of penetrating this barrier and accessing information through viruses. Due to this, the design has required constant updating to avoid information leakage, with antivirus and new barriers. It is therefore important to evaluate the professional ethics of each worker; it can involve the patient in situations that may put their integrity at risk. Ethical principles must be based on four fundamental pillars that are privacy and confidentiality, security violations, system implementation and data inaccuracies. Hence, in order to avoid it to correct future adverse events, it is expected that along with the advancement of technology, education of the health worker in ethical principles is developed Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
Recommendation of Policy Changes Designed to Balance the Competing needs of Resources, Workers, and Patients, and the Possible Ethical Shortcomings of the Existing Policies
One policy that I recommend is the adoption of EHR reporting program, which aims at improving the safe use of EHRs. This policy will bring positive outcomes, compared to the informed consent policy. Effective reporting on the role of EHRs can help in fixing the existing gaps common across several services. The policy will also encourage developers to deal with deficits, and will provide relative data for the organization. Therefore, transparency will be achieved in the organization.
Evidence That Informs the Healthcare Issue/Stressor and/or the Policies, and Two Scholarly Resources in Support of Your Policy or Practice Recommendations
The article “Effective Reporting Could Improve Safe Use of Electronic Health Records”, by Pewtrusts org, (2020), gives an overview of how effective reporting can help address several developmental issues regarding EHRs. It suggests that EHR reporting program provides an opportunity to identify industry-wide opportunities and gaps. The data aggregation on EHR performance in a single location can assist in elucidating gaps across several services. Moreover, according to the article, effective reporting encourages developers to handle problems. Transparency on EHRs functionality highlights the developers that employ the greatest approaches to enhance system performance Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
Another article is “Setting the Standard: EHR Quality Reporting Rises in Prominence Due to Meaningful Use” by Dolin et al. (2014). The authors claim that reporting approaches are likely to enhance the healthcare providers’ ability to assess the care quality received by patients. They add that in determining the quality of care, it is necessary to examine all HER processes (from capturing of data to electronic reporting) and standardized data functionality in establishing care quality. The authors conclude that for EHRs quality reporting, standards are a requirement for performance and are a fundamental element of the approach.
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References
Abdel-Kader, K., & Jhamb, M. (2020). EHR-Based Clinical Trials: The Next Generation of Evidence. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Barrett, A. K. (2018). Electronic health record (EHR) organizational change: explaining resistance through profession, organizational experience, and EHR communication quality. Health communication, 33(4), 496-506.
Chung, J., & Cho, I. (2017). The need for academic electronic health record systems in nurse education. Nurse education today, 54, 83-88.
Dolin, R. H., Goodrich, K., Kallem, C., Alschuler, L., & Holtz, P. (2014). Setting the standard: EHR quality reporting rises in prominence due to meaningful use. Journal of AHIMA, 85(1), 42-48.
Effective Reporting Could Improve Safe Use of Electronic Health Records. Pewtrusts.org. (2020). Retrieved 19 June 2020, from https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2020/03/effective-reporting-could-improve-safe-use-of-electronic-health-records Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
Jalali, M. S., & Kaiser, J. P. (2018). Cybersecurity in hospitals: a systematic, organizational perspective. Journal of medical Internet research, 20(5), e10059.
Assignment: Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly. Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of staffing ratios, use of unlicensed assisting personnel, and employer reductions of education benefits are examples of practices that might lead to conflicting needs in practice. Leaders can contribute to both the problem and the solution through policies, action, and inaction. In this Assignment, you will further develop the white paper you began work on in Module 1 by addressing competing needs within your organization. Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following: Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor. Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics. Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples. Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations. will attach my module1 assignment, as a requirement Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper
EHR Developmental Issues
Electronic health records are electronic forms of the patient’s medical data preserved by healthcare providers. It entails critical administrative data, including patient demographics, medical history, past immunizations, vital signs, and progress notes (Mantas et al., 2019). According to the World Health Organization, there has been a steady increase in the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) by healthcare organizations in the past fifteen years. In the last five years, there has been a 46 percent global increase in the adoption of EHR systems. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 was signed to encourage the widespread adoption of EHRs by health facilities. Electronic health records profoundly impact health care systems by improving clinical tasks and overall delivery of quality care. Its functionality streamlines clinical decision making and workflow, improves communication, and allow advanced planning to improve outcomes. Despite the positive impact of electronic health records in healthcare organizations, they still present huge concerns. There are poor instructions on available features of EHRs, low security associated with the system, and the increased number of logins to reduce the efficiency of the system as physicians have to log in to view patient charts repeatedly. Such developmental issues negatively impact the technical functioning of the system.
Impact on My Organization
The above EHR developmental issues have affected my Organization negatively. Poor instructions on the available features have made it difficult for physicians to use the system efficiently. Security concerns associated with electronic health records and the high number of logins by physicians have limited the efficiency of the system in our Organization. The increased number of physician logins to the system to obtain patient information has been time-consuming. As a result, the network has been slow, ultimately increasing the waiting times for physicians.
These present potential disadvantages of EHRs, which include loss of productivity after the system’s adoption, changes in the workflow of physicians, security and privacy concerns, and other unintentional consequences. In my work organization, electronic health records pose a high risk to the violation of patient privacy. The facility has recorded increased concerns by patients as their health information is exchanged electronically by different healthcare professionals. Despite the legislations put in place to prevent a patient data breach, requirements set forth by these legislations increase the risk of inappropriate access to data Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
The adoption of electronic health records in my work organization has also created some unintended impacts. These include high rates of medical errors, undesirable emotions, disruptions in the power hierarchy, and overreliance on medical technology (Wright et al., 2016). The facility has recorded a sharp increase in the rates of clinical errors, mainly due to poorly constructed system interfaces and inadequate healthcare staff training. Lack of better instruction on available features of the system has partly contributed to these inefficiencies. The change in the power structure occurred after physicians lost their autonomy in making critical patient decisions.
Two Articles on Developmental Issues of EHRs Affecting its Efficiency
A study by Tutty et al. (2019), the authors revealed that physicians devote additional time navigating administrative operations in the electronic health records than in providing direct patient care. The challenges of navigating electronic health records remain to be significant complaints from physicians. While research has demonstrated numerous benefits of electronic health records, various developmental problems make physicians unsatisfied and frustrated with the system. Here, the authors found that the EHR user experience is linked to numerous physician complaints. While the end-users control some influences, some are beyond their control. The authors also discuss EHR system interoperability, which causes countless regulatory problems to the system. Often, physicians are unable to access patient records that originated in other health organizations. This results in care delays, frustrations, and risks to patient safety. This study posits that working to enhance interoperability by allowing health information exchanges is warranted. It also discusses end-user training as a critical component of improving EHR system usability Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
Tai-Seale et al. (2017) also conducted a study that revealed that physicians divide time between direct patient care and desktop medicine. High numbers of logins required for physicians to access electronic health records is time-consuming. Notably, this study highlights that time spent by physicians is a crucial resource in healthcare delivery. In this study, the authors utilized data on physician time allocation captured by electronic health record transactions to determine how the split direct patient care and desktop medicine. Desktop medicine entails communicating with patients through portals, responding to online requests, and online prescribing. While these activities improve health outcomes, they also showed to decrease face to face engagement with patients. Further, the processes were complicated as the user interface was not favorable to most patients. The study recommends that the user interface of electronic health records should be designed in a manner that supports easy access.
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How Other Organizations are addressing the Issues
Most health organizations address EHR developmental issues by purchasing electronic health records from reliable vendors. They also cross-check functional support structures to determine whether the user interface is planned to maximize the system’s efficiency, acceptability, and usability. The security of electronic health records in other healthcare organizations is enhanced by ensuring no unauthorized access to patient information by third parties. According to Kruse et al. (2017), cryptography has been highly used to safeguard patient data in electronic health systems, specifically during health information exchanges. Here, the exchange process is recorded to maintain transparency Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
Strategies my Organization can employ to Address EHR Developmental Issues
A key strategy to overcome the issues above is to ensure that the Organization purchases reliable systems from reputable vendors. It should confirm the user-friendly system before purchasing as systems that are non-user friendly have the potential to disrupt productivity and workflow. Selecting a reliable EHR vendor is also an aspect that our Organization should consider. To do this, the Organization should determine the type of electronic health system that best aligns with the facility’s needs and decide on the features it considers most important. Such an approach will eliminate poor instruction features that make it frustrating and confusing for physicians to effectively use the system to improve patient outcomes (Boonstra et al., 2014). Overall, the facility should ensure the alignment of features, fit, support, and cost. As an effort to overcome security issues linked to the use of electronic health records, our Organization should have an audit function to the EHR to enable operators to detect individuals who accessed medical records at a given time. It should also execute a stern no tolerance policy for staff accessing patient information inappropriately. Electronic health records have a huge potential to transform the face of healthcare despite these developmental issues and other unintended consequences. Selecting the most appropriate system from a reliable vendor and integrating it into the existing workflows will improve efficiency and quality of care Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper.
References
Boonstra, A., Versluis, A., & Vos, J. (2014). Implementing electronic health records in hospitals: a systematic literature review. BMC Health Services Research, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-14-370
Mantas, J., Hasman, A., Gallos, P., Kolokathi, A., Househ, M., & Liaskos, J. (2019). Health informatics vision: from data via vision to knowledge. Washington, DC: IOS Press.
Tai-Seale, M., Olson, C., Li, J., Chan, A., Morikawa, C., & Durbin, M. et al. (2017). Electronic Health Record Logs Indicate That Physicians Split Time Evenly Between Seeing Patients And Desktop Medicine. Health Affairs, 36(4), 655-662. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0811
Tutty, M., Carlasare, L., Lloyd, S., & Sinsky, C. (2019). The complex case of EHRs: examining the factors impacting the EHR user experience. Journal Of The American Medical Informatics Association, 26(7), 673-677. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz021
Wright, A., Ash, J., Singh, H., & Sittig, D. (2016). New Unintended Adverse Consequences of Electronic Health Records. Yearbook Of Medical Informatics, 25(01), 7-12. https://doi.org/10.15265/iy-2016-023 Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Essay Assignment Paper