IMPLEMENTING EMR

Implementing EMR

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION3

ANALYSIS3

Regional health information organizations (RHIOs)3

EMR IMPLEMENTATION4

CONCLUSION6

REFERENCES8

Implementing EMR

Introduction

With increasing number of patients getting access to healthcare facilities, there exists a strong need for the management of individual patient data. And with the advent of information technology and electronic medical records, the procedure has become somewhat easy to handle. An Electronic Medical Record, (EMR) is a software program used by hospitals and other health-related organization to manage, organize and access patient information. In this paper, the fuctions of regional health information organizations is presented. The strategy for implementing an EMR system at the St.Bernard's Hospital is also discussed in this paper.



Analysis

Regional health information organizations (RHIOs)

RHIOs was introduced as a national health information system to share medical information by connecting hospitals, physicians, government agencies, insurance companies, laboratories, employers and consumers, as well as schools, public institutions and patients. More than 100 RHIOs have been established by 2007, with some still in the formative stage, to serve the health care stakeholders in specific regions or within the organization. Collaboration Connection general is changing, however, there are four basic types of connections RHIOs: 1) Point-to-point network, when patient information is common, and 2) a federal network of related health care through electronically stored patient information through a global network (WAN), 3) centralized systems that store information about a patient to access and 4) hybrid systems, which are a combination of federal and centralized systems (long and Dar, 2005).

Another example of the success of RHIOs in the State of Indiana, which is implemented by Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE). Introduced in 2004, IHIE links 13 health care organizations that include hospitals, health clinics, public health organizations and researchers, with thousands of patients, nursing homes, laboratories and imaging centers. In addition, IHIE joins messaging services, laboratory, transcription, radiology and other medical departments in hospitals (the longest and Dar, 2005).

EMR Implementation

The deployment of a full EMR use may take years for many organizations. Implementation at St. Bernard's hospital will require a team of professionals who will be guided by a clear project management structure. St. Bernard's will use the "leadership triad" consisting of senior management from the administrative, physician, and information technology practice areas (McCarthy, 2004). This guide is the triad will have to adopt project management structure that emphasizes the importance of defining the role of stakeholder participation, clear escalation path and a rapid resolution of the issue to continue ...