Name
Capella University
FPX6410
Instructor’s Name
October 02, 2024
Exploration of Regulations & Implications for Practice
The benefits provided by nursing informatics can be summarized as the ability to bundle information and communication technologies into healthcare smoothly to enhance clinical outcomes in the corresponding area. Among all the informatics-related tools, the Electronic Health Record or EHR system is one of the best examples of how information technology can facilitate health care (Molina et al., 2020). Electronic record-keeping reduces workload since EHR takes care of the patient data hence avoiding errors associated with manual record-keeping. This results in less harm, better clinical collaboration amongst the caregivers, and better-ordered clinical processes which are important for patient safety and outcomes. In this paper, the author will discuss how EHR is used to mitigate safety-related issues of concern such as medication errors, and study how the implementation of informatics-based practice will improve patient care and decrease the incidence of burnout among the nursing staff.
Safety Issue Involved
With the advancement in technology and the prevailing treatments, various issues crop up such as medication concerns. The mistakes made when prescribing medication lead to between 7000 to 9000 deaths in the United States every year, most of which are not felt until the damage is done. Such mistakes stem from such areas as wrong prescriptions, wrong dosage, wrong identification of patients, and wrong information sharing among health professionals (Donnelly et al., 2022). Such toxic effects, including allergic reactions, increase patients’ length of stay, health care costs, and treatment dissatisfaction. It can be a result of poor doctors’ handwriting, mistakes, or confusion between closely alike medicine brands, coming with the realization of how important it is to enhance medication safety systems. Such measures as EHR can be of great influence in reducing these errors and improving patient safety as they introduce the prescription processes into an automated routine.
Informatics Model & Safe Practice
These practices can further be enhanced through the use of an informatics model to make the practices safe and devoid of any chance of yielding the wrong results. The models include Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER). This is an initiative that was begun by the HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) to provide all the necessary resources or tools to the workforce by integrating eHealth into education (Ansah et al., 2021). This involves partnership as well as an interprofessional approach to reformation of healthcare services. This model enables nursing staff to learn about safer ways of working to avoid cases of medication errors.
The medicine errors entailed a lot of discomfort and danger to the lives of the patients, the length of stay in the hospital due to medication mistakes would reduce patient satisfaction on the treatment enclosed in the cost of treatment. Because of this, there is nothing more important in the area of healthcare than a safe practice. A safe practice within nursing informatics that would allow the outcomes to be improved is the technology known as the Electronic Health Record or EHR (Khider et al., 2024). It facilitates a better recording of data that reduces the likelihood of error than the practice of handwriting prescription which may be burdensome and may lead to confusion. For the given study, EHR makes the data completion valid and reliable and also improves the sustainability of this approach. The specifics of each patient are available in an easier manner to make some decisions, and the workers can identify some gaps in the approaches. Patient data is stored, for instance, in EHR systems which those nurse informatics specialists employ as effectively and safely as possible.
Intended Goals
The key purpose of EHR is to decrease the rate of medical-related errors and the deaths caused by them. EHR is designed to make patient’s data more accessible ensuring that nurses and other caregivers can make some decisions and reduce chances of burning out. First, EHR reduces clinical workload along with enhancing data validity and decreasing the probability of communication breakdown (Labrague, 2022). Furthermore, EHR enhances patient-centered care since only the right medication is given to the correct patient at the right time. The overall goal is to enhance patient satisfaction, public confidence in the facility, and clinical effectiveness and avoid extra costs on healthcare due to adverse drug events.
Outcomes
Most of the healthcare organizations that have implemented EHR systems have experienced an improvement in the quality of care. Research suggests that automated EHR systems improve patient safety since most physicians are alerted with relevant checklists and medication doses that they fail to check for other physicians which may lead to medication errors (Chen et al., 2022). Doctors are no longer limited in the information they receive about their patients; nurses are now able to provide them with quite a detailed history of the patient before the consultation ensues, this means that nurses are now able to help their colleagues by pointing out where there are contraindications to the administration of certain drugs due to records of allergic reactions, etc.
Moreover, the EHR system improves the chances of quickly auditing making it easier for healthcare providers to quickly note the mistakes made in the prescription of medications (Chen et al., 2022). Additionally, in another study, authors found that EHR usage was linked to a lower level of burnout among different healthcare staff, greater efficiency, and better interaction among members of the healthcare team. Earlier research has also displayed that the use of EHR systems improves the care that patients receive and the functionality of staff and this in turn, would make patients and staff more content.
Applying the Standards of Practice
It has been emphasized that the adoption of standards of practice will help place compliance with protected professional practices into practice properly and thoroughly. ANA has outlined a series of guidelines that will help nurses to offer safe and ethical nursing care (Farzandipour et al., 2021). These standards describe methods or procedures by which health care personnel expect to address; they include needs assessment, data analysis, outcome identification, care planning, implementation, and evaluation and review of performance. ANA standards offer a framework by which care is serviced to help reduce mistakes and promote patient safety.
These are in addition to the following standards that embody the ANA Code of Ethics encompassing the cardinal principles of autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence (Kumah et al., 2022). They are entitled to autonomy which means the patient has the freedom to decide on their treatment, the principle of beneficence where treatment should be expected to benefit the patient, justice which dictates that the patient should be given equal treatment and that staff is not supposed to do any harm to the patient.
Impacts of Regulatory Constraints
Adherence to regulatory requirements can be recognized as one of the key components of safe delivery of health care services. There is guidance from institutions such as the Agency for Healthcare IT Research and Quality known as AHRQ on how to apply EHR systems correctly. For healthier system adoption, the category of personnel involved need to be trained intensively and qualified expertise to deploy the EHR system (Mozingo, 2021). If an EHR system is well implemented, then it will lead to the use of fewer papers, increased compliance with healthcare laws and rules, and a safer network Database for patient information.
However, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) provides guidelines of scope of protecting the identity and privileged status of patient information that held in EHR systems. HIPAA, as per the provisions, required that the patient’s information be encrypted and protected by password and available only to the certain personnel (Blanck et al., 2020). Any given failures resulted in a violation of the legal obligations and subsequently, patient trust in the healthcare facilities would be diminished. The implementation of these regulation is important to safeguard patient health and promote the right use of informatics system in the delivery of health care services.
Structure of Ethical & Legal Practices
Several issues arise as more healthcare organizations adopt EHR systems for ethical/legal-privacy/ security. An issue of ethical concern is the question of privacy of patient’s information. When security principles are not properly implemented/reported, and/or adopted by healthcare organizations, then patients’ health information might be compromised through intrusions or data breaches (Usberg et al., 2021). This can easily engage the firm in ethical dilemmas, for example, third party use of the sensitive information. Besides, when employing EHRs in clinical practice, lack of Healthcare staff knowledge and skills on how to effectively use the system may make EHR more of a frustration instead of a promotion tool.
To avoid these ethical issues, there are needed strict data access and data security policies in organisations providing health care. From the legal perspectives, the data that is Stored in EHR Systems has to be accurate and free from any manipulation (Usberg et al., 2021). Any errors or omissions in patient data could have serious legal implications, especially if they result in harm to the patient. Healthcare organizations must establish a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that EHR data is accurate, complete, and securely protected.
Information and Plans to key Stakeholders
These stakeholders include the patients, family members, health care settings, IT vendors and support organisations and government and regulatory bodies. Communication with such stakeholders must be done appropriately to ensure that the system adheres to healthcare objectives and patient safety (Donnelly et al., 2022). Key EHR implementers include the nursing personnel, the nurse informatics, the physicians, the IT auditors, the members of the board, and the billing department. The different groups have a certain part they are supposed to deliver when it comes to designing, put in place and the maintenance of the system.
One reason is that communication and feedback from nurses and nurse informaticists –who have direct patient interaction- give insights into EHR application. Such feedback is important in the process in order to establish areas in the system most likely to result in medication errors (Labrague, 2022). IT auditors are responsible for overseeing the aderrence to data security standards regarding the EHR system while the billing team is usually concerned with how the system interfaces with the organizations billing system. Most of the decisions relating to the implementation of EHR by the hospital require approval from the board of the hospital.
NURS FPX 6410 Assessment 3 Conclusion
The adoption of informatics by utilizing electronic health records leads to improvement of patients’ safety and, overall, healthcare results. Frameworks such as the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform initialized transforming the practice and preventing medication mistakes by providing healthcare professionals with necessary formulas (Mozingo, 2021). These models assist in decreasing the amount of nurses’ stress as well as maintaining the adherence to the requirements and norms of legislation and ethic in the same time. Stakeholder participation is important for overall EHR implementations and thereby, increases confidence and the effectiveness of care delivery among different groups of patients. The continued progression of the healthcare informatics still works to improve the effectiveness of the delivery and patients’ health.
NURS FPX 6410 Assessment 3 References
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