The EMR Technology In Health Care Organizations

Today, the EMR technology becomes more and more popular and many health care organizations shift toward the wider use of EMR in their regular performance and information management. EMR bring a number of benefits, such as the fast and effective information processing, easy information retrieval about patients’ health history, and others. On the other hand, the implementation of the EMR technology raises some issues, such as the elaboration of nationwide standard of EMR and the protection of the patient privacy and data security.  The current research focuses on the evaluation of the possible refusal form the EMR technology by the health care organization and consideration of the further enhancement of the EMR technology within the organization. The purpose of utilizing research in health administration is very important because EMR contributes to consistent changes in the information management in the health care organization. This is why the development of EMR is strategically important for the health care organization. In such a situation, the refusal from EMR is not the best decision to take. Even though the reduction of EMR technology may save costs and bring some other benefits, this decision will increase technological gaps between the health care organization and other health care organizations that use EMR on the regular basis as well as between the health care organizations and high expectations of patients, who expect to have information technologies at their services to keep their medical records.

Problem

The introduction of EMR has raised numerous challenges but the idea of EMR and its introduction in the health care organizations apparently open great opportunities for the effective information processing and using the information for the treatment and diagnosis of patients and provision of effective health care services. Health care professionals will not need conventional medical records. Instead, they will use electronic ones which provide the information about the history of the patient and his/her health problems. In such a way, health care professionals may find the relevant information about the patient by using EMR. The development of EMR provides health care professionals with detailed information which they cannot always access, if they use conventional medical records.

One of the major advantages of EMR is the faster information processing. EMR allows processing information in the matter of seconds or minutes at the most. In case of emergency, such fast speed of information processing may be vitally important for patients (Menachemi, 2011). For example, if a patient has a stroke or another serious health issue that requires the urgent medical aid, health care professionals may need medical records to find out whether the medication they are going to use will be safe for the patient health to use or not because some patients may have allergic reactions and other side-effects. These side-effects may be identified easily with the help of EMR because health care professionals can find the information about cases or allergy and other issues that are relevant to the specific case of the specific patient. In this regard, the availability of all information concerning the health of patients is another advantage of EMR compared to conventional medical records which often lack important information or this information is difficult to find fast.

The possibility of electronic data transmission becomes particularly important today and it is only EMR that provide such a possibility. EMR information may be transmitted between health care professionals and patients that facilitates the treatment of the patient and increases the effectiveness of the treatment (Ekmekci & Turley, 2008). Also another advantage of EMR is the low risk of errors caused by the lack of medical records or misinterpretation stored in medical records. As EMR are made in electronic form, all the data recorded are concise and clear, while conventional records may be difficult to read or interpret properly that increases the risk of errors made by health care professionals.

However, often health care organizations and health administration refuse from the wide introduction of EMR out of sheer fear of problems and challenges associated with EMR. In this regard, the problem of the patient privacy and the need of technological changes with the possibly required training of the medical staff are the major challenges that discourage health care organizations from the wider introduction and use of EMR.

In addition, in the time of scarce financial resources, many health care organizations view EMR as expensive and unnecessary tool which costs outweigh benefits (Fleming, 2011). The high costs of the introduction of EMR discourage managers of health care organizations from their wide use because they may prefer to invest financial resources in the enhancement of training or acquisition of the new equipment.

However, such a view on EMR introduction in health care organization is superficial and inaccurate. The overall effectiveness of EMR is high, especially with regard to the enhancement of the quality of health care services and their effectiveness delivered to patients. Therefore, the essence of the problem the health care organization faces at the moment is the decision whether to enhance the introduction of EMR or withdraw EMR technology from the health care organization. In its essence, it is the choice between the leap forward in the future health care driven by EMR and benefits they bring to the health care organization and patients or the step backward in the development of the health care organization.

Recommendation

Taking into consideration benefits of EMR for the health care organization and patients, it is possible to recommend the further introduction and wider use of EMR in the health care organization. In this regard, managers of the health care organizations should take into consideration the influence and importance of stakeholders in the current research utilization and the use of EMR in the health care organization. As the matter of fact, EMR is not just the matter of the technological innovation being introduced in the health care organization. Instead, it is the matter of the quality of health care services being delivered to patients. In a long-run perspective, it is the matter of the quality of standards of living of patients because EMR allow increasing consistently the quality of health care services and their effectiveness, while the quality of health care services defines not only the quality of health of patients but also the quality of their living at large.

The implementation of EMR may be costly and challenging for the health care organization, but the successful implementation of EMR will increase the effectiveness of the employee performance and provide patients with health care services of the higher quality. EMR is the technology worth implementing and the refusal from this technology will put the future successful development of the health care organization under a threat and, what is more important, the refusal from EMR will doom the health care organization to backwardness and low quality of health care services compared to rival organizations that use EMR technology to the full extent.  

Conclusion

Thus, the introduction and further implementation of EMR is an essential step toward the successful development of the health care organization and provision of patients with effective health care services, while the decision to refuse from EMR will be disastrous for the organization in a long-run perspective. The wide use of EMR contributes to the improvement of the quality of health care services and accelerates the information processing. The development of EMR allows health care professionals to obtain information about each patient fast and concisely. This is why EMR is worth implementing.

References:

Ekmekci, O. & C.L. Turley. (2008). “Duplicate, Replicate Speculate, or Innovate? How Health Care Managers Solve Problems.” SAM Advanced Management Journal. 73(2), p. 4-11.

Fleming, N. S. (2011). “The Financial and Nonfinancial Costs of Implementing Electronic Health Records in Primary Care Practices”. Health Affairs, 30 (3): 481–489.

Menachemi, N. C. (2011). “Benefits and drawbacks of electronic health record systems”. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 47.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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