In this assignment you will finalize your plan for the proposed healthcare facility by incorporating your work from Weeks 1 through 4 along with new content as described below Combine the work that yo

Financial and Health Benefits of implementing EHR

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Healthcare Management Capstone in relation to Medical Technology

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Date

Q1: the benefits.

Over the past few years, medical information storage and retrieval have become seamless due to the introduction of the EHRs used in recording patient information like diagnosis, medication, allergies, histories, and so forth. According to Yadav et al. (2018), the financial benefit of EHRs is related to the reduced cost of paperwork and the time healthcare practitioners take to retrieve a patient's databases. At the same time, the practitioners may use historical data to understand the best form of treatment to reduce healthcare-acquired illnesses. Additionally, medical errors and malpractices have decreased drastically due to EHRs implementation because matching patients' data has become increasingly seamless. I believe that is due to the integration of the exponentially vital EHR systems.

According to Ahmad et al. (2021), another financial benefit is the reimbursement perspective by private and public insurance companies. Where EHRs ensure that correct coding is used, which leads to preventing errors that would lead to delayed or rejected reimbursement requisitions. The final benefit is the safety of patients' healthcare information since, unlike the physical charts, the electronic database is always available, especially when patients have emergency conditions. However, the paperwork may often get misplaced or worn away, making some words unclear and illegible. Therefore with EHRs, repeated tests are not done if the previous diagnosis was made.

Q2: the cost of EHRs

The costs of EHRs implementation require proper planning due to several perspectives like hiring technicians, staff training, purchasing hardware, software, regular system maintenance, and etc. According to reports by the Health IT website, in California, each facility spends about $10,000 on EHRs implementation. The internet, cables, and switches are included in the cost. However, other scanning equipments, printers, and computers cost about $8000 per physician. At the same time, the software costs $15,500 and requires $3200 for maintenance annually. Each institution costs 440 hours for software installation, costing $27,900. Generally, these figures differ based on one's geographical location and the provider; however, the price ranges between $33000 and $43000 for each physician, while the maintenance cost annually is $33000.

Q3: the security concerns

The major EHRs and HIT concerns are the security of data and privacy. According to HIPAA, a patient's information should not be disclosed or shared without facilities without consent from the patient. However, over the past few years, cybercrimes have increased significantly, marked by vast losses of data and the breaching of databanks. The second challenge of using EHRs is system errors and downtimes. At times the data may not be accessible, which may put the patient's life at risk, especially during emergencies. The final concern is the system breakdown which may be fatal, mainly because most facilities are using few manual records and going for EHRs records which may be devastating if lost.

Q4: EHRs for decision-making and problem-solving

The EHRs ensure that healthcare practitioners make swift but correct decisions in healthcare since they contain patient details like treatments, diagnosis, medication administered, allergies, and etc. Therefore, one must clearly visit these patients' details to determine the type of medication or treatment that can alleviate the current conditions. Consequently, the records dictate the decisions that healthcare workers make. For example, if on the EHRs, the patient has recently developed positive results for pregnancy, the practitioner administers medication that ensures both the mother and unborn child are safe; to still treat the patient thoroughly and not negatively impact the unborn child.

Q4: The HIPAA act

According to Gaia et al. (2020), among the significant acts seeking to control and govern the usage of EHRs is the HIPAA; which was implemented in 1996 to ensure the healthcare facility guarantees patient data safety. According to the act, healthcare workers must undergo formal training to understand how data and information should be handled to maintain privacy. However, without the patient's consent, the data cannot be shared between facilities and third parties. Consequently, the act ensures that the patient's database is corrected, edited, stored, backed, and encrypted to prevent a potential cyber breach.

The HIPAA act controls the healthcare organization's best practices when handling patient information, such as hardware, software, and hardware disposal regulations. There is a restriction on the people that can access the information and measures taken when upgrading the hardware. For maximum data security to be maintained, there are regulations forcing workers to change their passwords routinely, and healthcare organizations should take insurance to incase data breach liabilities occur. In conclusion, HIPAA is patient-oriented by ensuring patient information is adequately protected against malicious access. HIPPA standards are ensured to be maintained by healthcare agencies and within 100% compliance by each and everyone of its staff members.

References

Ahmad, F. S., Ali, L., Khattak, H. A., Hameed, T., Wajahat, I., Kadry, S., & Bukhari, S. A. C. (2021). A hybrid machine learning framework to predict mortality in paralytic ileus patients using electronic health records (EHRs). Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 12(3), 3283-3293. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12652-020-02456-3

Gaia, J., Wang, X., Yoo, C. W., & Sanders, G. L. (2020). Good News and Bad News About Incentives to Violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): Scenario-Based Questionnaire Study. JMIR medical informatics, 8(7), e15880. https://medinform.jmir.org/2020/7/e15880/

Health IT. (2022). How much is this going to cost me? From: https://www.healthit.gov/faq/how-much-going-cost-me#:~:text=Several%20studies%20estimate%20the%20cost,%2415%2C000%20to%20%2470%2C000%20per%20provider.&text=Costs%20vary%20depending%20on%20whether,or%20web%2Dbased%20EHR%20deployment.

Yadav, P., Steinbach, M., Kumar, V., & Simon, G. (2018). Mining electronic health records (EHRs) A survey. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 50(6), 1-40. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3127881

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