With the advancement of technology and the new Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, it is imperative that the Gilbert Hospital Facility invest in an electronic medical record system. With the new electronic medical record the facility will be able to maintain higher reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid, improve both nursing and physician charting requirement, and have a reduced amount of medication order errors and medication administration errors. President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in the year 2009 (N. A. , 2013).
This typical law has many different sections that are meant to improve health information technology as well as decrease the increasing costs of healthcare (N. A. , 2013). As part of the electronic medical record system there are certain requirements that need to be in place for the system (N. A. , 2013). The system must be certified to meet all the federal governments requirements for the EMR system (N. A. , 2013). Also the program must meet all meaningful use requirements (N. A. , 2013). The meaningful use tool ensures that facilities are using the system to their full advantages as well as help with reimbursement rates(N. A. 2013).
The requirements in the use for meaningful use are divided into three different stages: Stage 1 Data capture and sharing started in 2011-2012 for reimbursement, Stage 2 2014 Advance clinical process, Stage 3 2016 Improved Outcomes (N. A. , 2013). One section that is important in the meaningful use category is the CPOE system portion. The use of the computerized physician order entry system is a great tool for the facility in decreasing the chance of an order entry error. The CPOE requires the physician to enter the order themselves in the system, instead of telling a third party to, therefore decreasing the chance of error reatly (N. A. , 2013).
According to the Journal of the American Medical Information Association the use of the CPOE systems can reduce drug errors by almost half (N. A. , 2013). Medication errors unfortunately are common in the hospital setting and can be very expensive to the facility, as well be fatal to patients (N. A. , 2013). According to Suzanna Hoppszallern of Detroit Medical Center her facility saw a 75 percent reduction in medical errors with CPOE and closed loop medication administration.
But the use of an EMR system not only decreases order errors but also increases charting information (N. A. , 2013). Both nurses and physicians have errors when completing there charting practices, even though the importance of charting has always been imperative. One common error is the legibility of ones handwriting can be like looking at a set of Egyptian hieroglyphics or the person may have nice legible handwriting but there charting does not give the full picture of how their day was or of the event that occurred.
Because of the creation of Medicare Bill CMS 1533P it is important for the facility to have all staff document the necessary things for proper reimbursement (Miller, Leshko, & McCambridge, 2008). This particular bill states that if a patient develops a hospital acquired infection the facility will receive a reduced reimbursement rate or no reimbursement at all (Miller, Leshko, & McCambridge, 2008). The use of electronic charting provides both nurses and doctors the tools to complete this task more efficiently as opposed to the paper charting system.
Also, the use of electronic charting not only increases charting efficiency but also allows for faster chart audits. In one example is when the facility audits when a patient is extubated if the spontaneous breathing trial was performed and documented. The person charting this certain procedure would be required at the time to chart the reason for the extubation, how the patient tolerated, and if the spontaneous breathing trial was performed.
This would greatly reduce the search in finding the information because everything would be in a certain section as well as all the requirements would be in place. An average EMR system can cost anywhere form $5000-$45,000 dollars, depending on the requirements the facility needs. Since Gilbert Hospital is a small facility the lower end EMR system should suffice for the facilities requirements. Also the cost of implementing an good emr system would eventually pay for itself, since reimbursement rates would be effected depending on the information required for Medicare/Medicaid.
The plan in instituting the EMR system would be to first have super users trained in the program first, then slowly implementing in on each individual floor as people are comfortable with it to make the transition as smooth as possible. The use of technology in the healthcare setting is increasing steadily. Not only for patient safety but also in the use of facility reimbursement by Medicare. It is imperative that this facility, Gilbert Hospital, implement the use of an EMR system to ensure that we keep our patients safe as well as get the reimbursements that the facility is entitled to.