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The Use Of Electronic Health Records ( Ehr ) Aims At Improving The Quality And Safety Of Patient Care Essay

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The use of electronic health records (EHR) aims at improving the quality and safety of patient care. An electronic health record (EHR) is an electronic version of the patient’s entire medical history including past diagnoses, treatments, and current medications being taken. There has been a rise in the conversion to EHR from paper records because these electronic records can track patient data over time and monitor parameters such as trends in vital signs over time or vaccination history, all which contribute to the improvement in the quality of patient care being delivered (Department of Health and Human Services, 2014). EHR’s are used currently to make more efficient, comprehensive decisions about patients, because there is more information available at the fingertips of the providers. By adopting EHR’s, it can provide health care providers accurate, more comprehensive information about the patient’s health to enhance the ability to provide quick and efficient care, to better coordinate patient care, and to provide a way to share this comprehensive set of information with both the patient and their families (Department of Health and Human Services, 2014). The purpose of this paper is to explore EHR’s in entirety including the EHR mandate, who started it, when it was started, and what the objectives and goals of the mandate are. The connection between EHR’s and The Affordable Care Act will also be explored. Each facility has their own implementation of the use of EHR’s;

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