Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

The identified healthcare issue identified for this assignment is information and service integration. Despite the radical clinical service delivery advancements brought by the medical and technological revolution, the healthcare setting is still experiencing challenges with information and service integration. This assignment describes healthcare service and information integration, its impact in my clinical setting, how the issue is addressed in academia, exiting benefits, and challenges.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Information and service integration in healthcare is mainly concerned with collation and systemize separate clinical data and technical services through electronic health records (EHRs), personal health records (PHRs), or electronic medical records (EHRs) (Stoeva, 2020). Management support systems are therefore delivered efficiently and assessed collectively or coordinatedly. Integrated clinical information and service are crucial in providing early clinical diagnosis, avoiding clinical deterioration, providing appropriate treatment intervention. According to Wang et al. (2018), current technology advances have improved safety and efficiency in maintaining patient and clinical data through computer systems. Despite the benefits, most clinical settings have been unable to fully implement technologies to integrate clinical information and services such as electronic health records.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

The first article by Adler-Milstein et al. (2017) purposed to determine the advanced use of EHRs in USA hospitals. The article found that extensive adoption of Hospital EHR, and most hospitals use EHRs to enhance performance monitoring and patient engagement. US hospitals first embraced the EHRs for financial incentives provided by Medicare and Medicaid. Hospitals have increasingly adopted EHR for advanced activities including capturing and adminstering individual patient care.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

The second article by Janett & Yeracaris (2020) purposed to review relevant research and present examples and recommendations on adopting EHR in primary care to assist doctors in managing clinical processes to assist patients in achieving positive health outcomes. The article found that EMR is a revolutionary technology that potentially transforms patient care. The EMR was found to increase quality and dependability in providing healthcare services when adequately deployed. Healthcare personnel should pay attention to the influence of EMR on clinical processes to maximize the potential of EMR to enhance patient care. Hospitals employ EMRs to eliminate fragmentation in the care system, improving care excellence and effectiveness by decreasing treatment gaps. An EMR can provide reminders of crucial tasks needed during an initial appointment, monitor and report patients who do not show up quickly for follow-up therapy.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

As highlighted in the two articles, healthcare and information and service integration strategies include implementing Electronic Health Records and Medical Health records to collate patients and medical data. Using integrated health systems allows for collaboration between healthcare personnel to provide treatment to patients and improve overall wellbeing. The articles elucidate the basis for healthcare information and service integration using HER and EMR, which are often used interchangeably but are usually exclusive in purpose.  (Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

According to Adler-Milstein et al. (2017), electronic health records system implementation is a significant way of health information and service integration. A basic HERs system consists of clinical characteristics, physician comments, nurse evaluations, patient issue lists, discharge instructions, radiology and diagnostic tests findings, and order entries for medicines. Moreover, a inclusive EHRs supports other advanced functions such as support for advance directives, lab reports entry, and significant clinical tests. These functions are encoded into the EHRs systems and updated to remain relevant to the current population health needs.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

When adopting an EMR system, universally accepted care protocol and physical-patient interactions are encoded into the EMR software and used to identify targeted medical conditions and apply appropriate clinical interventions (Janett & Yeracaris, 2020).  Modern EMRs are composed of digital applications that actively engage clinicians and patients and consist of several data fields that assist communication analysis, processing and reporting, appropriate therapeutic actions, quality improvement, and patient safety.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

The articles also highlight the positive and negative facets of the highlighted healthcare information and service integration. According to EHR Adler-Milstein et al. (2017), EHR systems are leveraged for their data collation to facilitate performance monitoring and to engage the sick through enhanced access to their clinical data and enabling other patient-centered care initiatives. This allows a healthcare organization to get performance feedback on inferior performance domains via dashboards. With the EHRs system, patients are guaranteed participation in their treatment, enabling self-management.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Moreover, Janett & Yeracaris (2020) argue that EMRs systems play a crucial role in enhancing the interoperability of clinical standards, thereby increasing monitoring of clinical aspects, managing patients’ diseases, and strengthening the preventive capabilities of a clinical setting of common patient infections. Essentially, implementing MHRs reduces documentation time, increases adherence to clinical guidelines, and reduces medical errors. These strategies support the American government’s plan for healthcare improvement, i.e., digging up the data (Martinez et al., 2016).(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Despite the significance of EHR and EMR systems, some healthcare entities have not wholly implemented these strategies. Besides, they pose a negative influence on the traditional healthcare delivery mechanism.  Adler-Milstein et al. (2017) posit that the adoption of EHR is influenced by the availability of structural resources, including IT capabilities. Without these resources, EHR cannot be effectively adopted in a healthcare facility. Furthermore, effective EHR adoption required technical and analytic skills, which are not usually readily available in small healthcare facilities. Technical and analytical skills are necessary to extract and manage data into a piece of meaningful and accurate information. Besides, patient engagement capabilities or EHR require a redesign of the existing workflows before adopting an EHR, and dedicated clinical staff to help patients understand the functionality of EHR, respond to patient’s messages, data, and retrieve patient records.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Janett & Yeracaris (2020) argue that the use of information and service integration technologies such as EMR has been criticized for their adverse influence on physician-patient interaction. Equally, EHR adoption has been blamed for the decrease in patient privacy, as exemplified by the increase in the administrative burden of a health system and consequent physician burnout. In essence, EMR reduces the physician-patient contact time, which predisposes the patient to adverse effects on inadequate patient-centered care. EMRs systems are also associated with increased implementation costs that smaller health facilities cannot afford. The associated disruption in workflows, associated decrease in patient visits, and revenue reduction are also EMRs systems’ crucial concerns.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Significantly, EMR systems violate patient data confidentiality and breach personal information against the nursing code of ethics (Janett & Yeracaris, 2020). Similarly, the inability to critically standardize clinical protocols can impede sharing of crucial clinical information among medical personnel caring for a particular patient. Lastly, the clinical environment influences the adoption of the EMR system. For instance, the presence of multiple EMRs systems, including paper, impeding the system’s potential to facilitate collaboration and effective coordination of clinical information and services through vertical integration.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

In sum, healthcare information and services’ integration remains a significant health issue in the United States. However, significant steps have been made by adopting EHR and EMR systems to collate clinical information and services, thereby leveraging big data analytics. Therefore, health facilities should aim at adopting these systems to enhance data management and improve service delivery.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

References

Adler-Milstein, J., Holmgren, A. J., Kralovec, P., Worzala, C., Searcy, T., & Patel, V. (2017). Electronic health record adoption in US hospitals(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example): the emergence of a digital “advanced use” divide. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(6), 1142-1148. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocx080

Janett, R. S., & Yeracaris, P. P. (2020). Electronic Medical Records in the American Health System: challenges and lessons learned. Ciencia & saude coletiva, 25, 1293-1304(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example). https://doi.org/10.1590/141381232020254.28922019

Martinez, J. C., King, M. P., & Cauchi, R. (2016). Improving the health care system: seven-state strategies. National Conference of State Legislatures. (Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)https://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/Documents/Health/ImprovingHealthSystemsBrief16.pdf

Stoeva, M. (2020). Technological advancement as a driving factor of contemporary healthcare(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-020-00434-5

Wang, Y. Kung, L., & Byrd, T. A. (2018). Big data analytics: Understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 126(1), 3–13.(Information and Service Integration in Healthcare Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example) https://doi.10.1016/j.techfore.2015.12.019