Healthcare and Information Technology, Term Paper Example

Introduction

Movement Toward Paperless Records – Paperless medical records are one of the holy grails of information technology. Although not all healthcare facilities will achieve this goal in the coming decade, significant progress is expected. This will create important issues and opportunities related to coding and privacy, both of which are important topics for HIM administrators and technicians (Wing & Salsberg, 2002).

Body

Identify and describe the organization/s you selected including an overview of their structure and the services they provide.

The organization identified for this analysis is Aloha Nursing Rehab Centre. This is a 140-bed nursing home located in Kaneohe, Hawaii that offers both long- and short-term care for persons needing intermediate or skilled nursing care. The facility functions as a for profit partnership organization utilizing Medicaid, Medicaid and private health insurance policies to recover health care expenditure. Many additional services offered to the public by this organization (Alhola Nursing Rehab Center,2013).

They include an adult day wellness (ADW) program for which adults can register at a cost of $1,575 per month. Clients are provided with exercise and recreational therapy, educational, cultural andsocial activities. Registration fees are not included. Nursing services are fundamental to the organization’s program. Licensed registered nurses design patient care interventions along with primary care physicians and Nursing Home Medical director. A licensed registered nurse is assigned to each shift during the twenty four hour period. Nutrition, therapy, social and rehabilitations services are also offered in this facility (Alhola Nursing Rehab Center, 2013).

Identify and describe which trends from above that

I believe the organization has addressed.

This organization has adapted two major trends as outlined by Wing and Salsberg (2002).They are Movement Toward Paperless Recordsand New Information Technologies. The aim of these two improvement measures was to reduce inappropriate hospital readmissions and acute care transfers by implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems along with the clinical decision support system(CDSS) (Electronic Health Record (2013).

Both electronic devices were implemented by American Health Tech Post-Acute Care Information Technology. The vendors have reported that Aloha Nursing Rehab Centre was the first nursing home in the country to implement an electronic health record (EHR) system and clinical decision support system (CDSS). This was considered a bold giant step, which should be adopted by many other struggling health care organizations in the country (American HealthTech, 2013).

What were the historical factors that precipitated a need for change?

Aloha Nursing Rehab Centre had inculcated a history of inappropriate admissions along with transfers. which were not applicable to the institution’s service delivery profile. Prior to implementing the health information systems the organization carried a 30-day readmissions rate of 26.6% in Q1 2011. Preliminary experiments forged the change from cumbersome paper and nonscientific decisions to electronic health records (EHR) and clinical decision support system (CDSS). Staff established goals for reducing 30 day readmissions rate to 15% or less (American HealthTech, 2013).

What changes were made and what departments/staff did they affect?

At first training in database articulation was conducted whereby information from paper documents were transferred into electronic record software by establishing codes and a universal language system consistent with nursing home protocol and jargon. These changes affected all departments since inappropriate admissions were the responsibility of all workers in the institutions, but more importantly the health care staff (American HealthTech, 2013).

QAPI was launched in advance of CMS to ensure regulations regarding security and privacy according to HIPPA mandates were met. Then INTERACT 11 tools were launched to directly address readmissions irregularity. By utilizing a mix of AHT Outcomes Reporting and INTERACT tools (Care pathways, Stop and Watch and Situation/Background/Assessment/Recommendation (SBAR)) along with application of relevant training techniques, the organization successfully reduced their readmission rate down to an unbelievable 9.5% by Q4 2012, which surpassed their goal. These successful implementation experiments forged a total change from paper and guessing to electronic health records (EHR) and clinical decision support system (CDSS) (American HealthTech, 2013).

Describe the advantages and/or disadvantages recognized from the changes.

The vendor offered lessons leant from this intervention by reiterating that the role of technology in producing higher quality health care cannot be overemphasized. it cannot be overemphasized. Precisely, it facilitates accuracy data in data collection process along with comparable reporting techniques. Clinical decision support reporting tools are not just optional, but a means of accurately assessing a patient’s condition reducing error incidences (Alhola Nursing Rehab Center, 2013).

While the intervention produced a need for less manual labor less freed up one full time employee (FTE) especially registered nurse had more time to spend in more productive activities of planning patient care. It demonstrated a movement of health care providers into being more proactive participants in the health care delivery process. Consequently, improved relationships among hospitals, providers, pharmacies, laboratory technicians was experienced and the costs of managing unnecessary patient overload was reduced, which benefited both clients and the organization. Ultimately, the readmissions rates were reduced from 26.6% to 9.4% within a year (Alhola Nursing Rehab Center, 2013).

References

American HealthTech (2013). Post-Acute Information Technology.Retrieved on November 14th 2013 from http://www.healthtech.net/

Alhola Nursing Rehab Center (2013). Our services. Retrieved on November 14th 2013 from http://www.alohanursing.com/index.html

Electronic Health Record (2013).Clinical Decision Support, Interoperability and Health

Information Exchange: Provider Case Studies 2013. Retrieved on November 14^th 2013 From http://www.leadingage.org/uploadedFiles/Content/About/CAST/Resources/2013_CAST_EHR_Case_Studies.pdf

Wing, P., & Salsberg, E. (2002).The future of HIM: Employer insights into the coming decade of rapid change.. Retrieved on November 14th 2013 from http://providersedge.com/ehdocs/ehr_articles/The_Future_of_HIM-Employer_Insights_into_the_Coming_Decade_of_Rapid_Change.pdf