Assignment: Adoption of Electronic Health Records

EHRs are an important focus of the HITECH Act. To comply with this legislation and to make the best use of their organization's resources, health care managers should develop a clear understanding of the nature of EHRs and of factors that promote or mitigate against their adoption.

Prepare for this Application Assignment as follows:

• Select a particular functional area within a health care setting. This must be an area that makes use of the types of patient data found in EHRs. Examples include: a hospital's admissions department, emergency room, pharmacy, or nursing unit; or the billing department or outpatient treatment department at a clinic or physicians' office.

• Review this week's Learning Resources and conduct a literature search to determine factors that promote and hinder adoption of an EHR system across this type of organization and within this area in particular. Look not only for technological, but also human factors that impact the adoption of EHRs.

Then write a 2- to -page paper that addresses the following:

• What are key problems related to the adoption of EHRs in your selected functional area?

• What factors promote the adoption of EHRs in this particular setting?

• Describe solutions that have been found to promoting adoption of EHRs and to overcoming barriers. Include specific examples, and be sure to address technological as well as human factors.

• What are specific steps management can take to facilitate the adoption of EHRs?

Your written assignments must follow APA guidelines. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week's Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the Essential Guide to APA Style for Ashford Students to ensure your in-text citations and reference list are correct.

Resources:

• Article: Thomas, R. L. (2006). Learning the alphabet of healthcare IT. Healthcare Financial Management, 60(3), 100-102.

This article studies the importance of adhering to industry-wide standard definitions for terms in health informatics, focusing in some detail on the EHR, EMR, and PHR.

• Web Report: Handler, T., Holtmeier, R., Metzger, J., Overhage, M., Taylor, S., & Underwood, C. (2003). EHR definition, attributes and essential requirements (v. 1.0). Retrieved from Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

This report, prepared by the HIMSS Electronic Health Record committee, presents an EHR definition model that includes an operational EHR definition, key attributes, essential requirements to meet attributes, and measures used to assess the extent to which an organization is using an EHR.

• Article: McKinney, M. (2009). HIPAA and HITECH: Tighter control of patient data.Hospitals & Health Networks, 83(6), 50-52.

This article notes the increased privacy considerations for EHRs stemming from amendments made to HIPAA by HITECH.

• Website: EHR Management and Legal EHR Resources

• Article: Thielst, C. (2007). The new frontier of electronic, personal, and virtual health records. Journal of Healthcare Management, 52(2), 75-78.