Electronic Medical Records Information Technology For...

In 2009, one of the largest US initiatives to date put place under Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act was electronic health records. The main initiative of this act was to encourage widespread use of electronic medical records also known as EHR. EHRs are defined as â€Å"a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting. (Menachmi, 2011) Government continues to incentivize the industry with new healthcare objectives based around quality and technology. One can only think that the basis of these initiatives start with the electronic medical records as the foundation. The implementation of electronic medical records can result in many†¦show more content†¦(Bennett, Douv, soleman) These type of data driven decision applications offer numerous advantages in measuring outcomes. This allows physicians to avoid difficulties of paper charts with the ability to access an int egrated system to better collaborate with other physicians. Ongoing published data available due to electronic medical records allows better implementation of research amongst physicians. The data presented shows EHR’s are closing the gap between standardization of care utilizing clinical based research from real population data. EHR’s have assisted in increasing quality of patient care across the board because various variables these programs offer. Most programs promote preventative care and consistently send reminders for appointments, screenings, and vaccinations. This allows agencies to eliminate human error and improve best practices; as it has been seen that these tools have increased the widespread use of influenza and pneumococcal vaccine rates by 35%. In the hospital setting you hear countless stories about individuals coming in after multiple calls for a screening, where cancer is identified at the earliest stage and is prevented; all because of consistent reminders generated from an EHR system. Another reduction I can account for by working in the hospital setting is the reduction rate of medication errors. This happens more often than any organization would