Lancaster General Hospital, founded in 1893 is a not-for-profit hospital. They are a part of Lancaster General Health and a member of Penn Medicine. This hospital has been recognized regionally and nationally for clinical excellence and patient safety. LGH offers patients some of the most advanced health care technology available. The hospital also has the county's only trauma center and provides a wide range services that are normally found in large urban setting. Their mission is to “advance the health and well-being of the communities we serve” (Health, 16). They use a system called EPIC to record patient medical records.
Description of “Lancaster General Hospital”
Lancaster General Hospital is located in downtown Lancaster County. They
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A physician directs your treatment at the hospital. Doctors can easily access patient information, test/lab results, and send out E- prescriptions to pharmacies. Registered nurses wear navy blue and white scrubs. They are responsible for planning, coordinating and providing for a patient’s care. They use the information system daily to update, evaluate and record patient symptoms, review patient treatment plans and their measure progress. Other members of nurses that use the health system are licensed practical nurses, and student nurses. They are all managed by the RN and oversee all the patient care and activities. Allied health professionals wear tan and black scrubs. They perform diagnostic tests and therapy required for the care and treatment a patient needs. These allied health professional include laboratory staff, radiology techs, physical therapists, and respiratory therapists. “They may play roles in evaluating and assessing a patient’s needs, keeping the physician and others informed of the patient’s progress and caring for the patient” (Association, 2012). Clerical Assistants are volunteers at this hospital and does not provide care for patients but they do have access to information systems under the supervision of administrators. They answer telephones, proof-read, perform data entry, and sort …show more content…
One external user includes Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In order for Medicaid and Medicare to cover a patient’s bill, they need to have access to their health information so they know what care or treatments the patient received. Private insurers need access as well to cover the patient’s bill. The Joint Commission is another external user who has access to this information. They have “standards” and all hospitals and providers are to abide by these standards. “The Joint Commission’s hospital standards address important functions relating to the care of patients and the management of hospitals” (Health, 16). They also have unannounced “on site surveys” to evaluate how well hospitals are managed and review medical reports to see how patient quality and safety is performed in order to renew or give the hospital’s accreditation. “However, to ensure compliance with all health information-related standards, review of all sections and monitoring of all pertinent standards that are found is important” (Sayles, 2013). The Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) also has access to LGH’s health system. It is needed to track EMR progress used at this hospital. With the advancing technology, LGH has completely transitioned from the use of paper records to Electronic Records. They
Although the overall state of compliance for the organization is good, there are several areas that have been identified as “Priority Focus Areas” due to a past history of nonconformities. All these areas are related to Information Management and Record of Care, Treatment, and Services, in particular:
Several years ago, a mandate was ordered requiring all healthcare facilities to progress from paper charting and record keeping to electronic health record (EHR). This transition to electronic formatting has pros and cons associated with it. I will be describing the EHR mandate, including who initiated it, when it was initiated, the goals of the EHR, and how the Affordable Care Act and the Obama administration are tied into it. Then I will show evidence of research and discuss the six steps of this process as well as my facilities progress with EHR. Then I will describe meaningful use and how my facility attained it. Finally, I will define HIPAA law, the possible threats to patient confidentiality relating to EHR, and how what my facility
The federal requires the healthcare organizations to adopt and demonstrate the use of electronic medical records (EMR) or the electronic health records (EHR). They contain patient’s medical history and it
It is important to understand that, meaningful use regulation established objectives that healthcare organizations such as hospitals and other healthcare facilities have to meet in order to be qualified for the center for Medicare and Medicaid services. Many healthcare organizations are making progress when it comes to meaningful regulations. There was a recent survey that shows that a lot of healthcare organization began using some type of electronic health record so as to be able to input patients, data, information, allows healthcare providers to establish clinical notes and to be able to write prescription and transfer patients’ information from one provider to another (Lopez, 2014).
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the electronic health record mandate. Who started it and when? I will discuss the goals of the mandate. I will discussion will how the Affordable Care Act ties into the mandate of Electronic Health Record. It will describe my own facility’s EHR and what steps are been taken to implement it. I will describe the term “meaningful use,” and it will discuss possible threats to patient confidentiality and the what’s being done by my facility to prevent Health Information and Portability Accountability Act or HIPAA violations.
But as noted previously, more is needed than standardizing these processes. Health care providers (physicians and hospitals) should embrace electronic health records (EHRs) and should integrate appropriate information from billing systems with clinical information (the recording and analysis of clinical services) from EHRs (Wikler et al., 2012; Cutler et al., 2012). To address concerns that occur due to accessing medical records, the secretary of health and human services could expand criteria under the Health information Technology for Economic and Clinical
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made an investment in the year 2009 to encourage the adoption and implementation of the electronic health records (EHRs)(Cite). EHRs incentive payments were authorized through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals when they privately and securely used EHRs for achieving improvements in care delivery by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). The healthcare organizations are expected to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs. This rule of meaningful use has been implemented to strike a balance between acknowledging the urgency of adopting EHRs for improving the healthcare system and identifying the challenges that would be put forth
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 identified three main components of meaningful use: the use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of care, and the use of technology to submit clinical outcomes and quality measures (Heath Resources and Service Administration, n.d.). ARRA includes many measures to modernize our nation’s infrastructure, with the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act” being an example. The HITECH Act is an effort led by Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) in support of electronic health records and meaningful use (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC 2016). According to Galbraith (2013), the HITECH Act aims to promote the use of EHRs by providing over $27 billion in monetary incentives for health care providers that become “meaningful users”. CMS uses these core objectives to determine if a health care provider has satisfied meaningful use and is eligible to receive financial incentives (Galbraith, 2013).
General Hospital - offers various services like emergency, general, critical and intensive care to various
“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an
Well, the sitting on 4 acres the hospital encompasses Ronald Regan UCLA Medical center, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA and Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. Some key features I found extremely helpful is their organization. Every floor of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is devoted to a specific specialty and equipped with all of the essential support equipment and supplies. Every floor has its own satellite pharmacy, dialysis storage, respiratory therapy workrooms, and resident doctor sleep rooms. Additionally; each patient room has the ability to convert into an intensive care unit (ICU) to allow for the continuous care of a critically ill patient in one room. This makes caring for patients extremely easy as everything they need is made available to them at the exact moment of a potential emergency. (Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center, 2013)
An Electronic Health Record is a computerized form of a patient’s medical chart. These records allow information to be readily available to authorized providers during a patient’s encounter with the healthcare system. These systems do not only contain medical histories, current medications and insurance information, they also track patients’ diagnoses, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images and lab tests/results (source). The fundamental aspect of EHRs is that they are able to share a patient’s information quickly across service lines and even between different healthcare organizations. Information is at the fingertips of lab techs, primary care physicians, pharmacies, clinics, etc. The
Electronic health records can provide many benefits for providers and their patients, but the benefits depend on how they 're used. Meaningful use is the set of standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Incentive Programs that governs the use of electronic health records and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria. The goal of meaningful use is to promote the spread of electronic health records to improve health care in the United States. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provides the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) with the authority to establish
Although the EHR is still in a transitional state, this major shift that electronic medical records are taking is bringing many concerns to the table. Two concerns at the top of the list are privacy and standardization issues. In 1996, U.S. Congress enacted a non-for-profit organization called Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This law establishes national standards for privacy and security of health information. HIPAA deals with information standards, data integrity, confidentiality, accessing and handling your medical information. They also were designed to guarantee transferred information be protected from one facility to the next (Meridan, 2007). But even with the HIPAA privacy rules, they too have their shortcomings. HIPAA can’t fully safeguard the limitations of who’s accessible to your information. A short stay at your local
Electronic health records (EHR’s) have many advantages, but there are plenty of disadvantages. EHR’s were created to manage the many aspects of healthcare information. Medical professionals use them daily and most would feel lost without it. Healthcare organizations were encouraged to adopt EHR’s in 2009 due to the fact that a bill passed known as The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). “The HITECH Act outlines criteria to achieve “meaningful use” of certified electronic records. These criteria must be met in order for providers to receive financial incentives to promote adoption of EHRs as an integral part of their daily practice”, (Conrad, Hanson, Hasenau & Stocker-Schneider, 2012).