Epic Systems Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Essay

Epic Systems Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Essay

General Instructions

Electronic health records (EHRs) provide a database for an individual’s healthcare data during healthcare encounters and the ability to exchange health information electronically. Consider an EHR with which you have had experience.

Include the following sections:

Application of Course Knowledge
: Answer all questions/criteria with explanations and detail.

Identify one EHR with which you have experience as a nurse. Provide the name of the system and the practice environment in which it was used.

Describe three key features of the system that supported positive client or organizational outcomes.

Describe one concern with the system specific to the organization. Discuss the impact of the concern and how it can be addressed.

Epic Systems Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Essay

Epic Systems Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Essay

Electronic Health Records

Application of Course Knowledge

There is one particular example of an Electronic Health System (EHS) that I am familiar with working as a nurse and that system is called Epic Systems. I use this platform in my current practice amongst other hospital and outpatient settings (Mullner, 2021). Epic is a comprehensive, centralized support for many facets of patient care documentation, and communication among healthcare providers.

Key Features Supporting Positive Outcomes

Patient Chart Integration is one key feature supporting positive outcomes. Epic provides a single patient chart integrating lab results, imaging, medication history, provider notes. By removing the need for cross referencing to various systems, this reduces the time to decision making and continuity of care for the patient Epic Systems Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Essay.

Another one is Interoperability, this interoperability between Epic that enables healthcare providers to securely swap patient data across EHRs — the choice provider for the pursuit — improve patient care by enabling healthcare providers to coordinate care for patients that have ongoing, complex needs (Kok et al., 2016). This feature enables providers in a patient’s care to access the most current data.

Lastly, Clinical Decision Support (CDS) of the HER is another key support. The Epic CDS tool also alerts and reminds of critical issues (potential drug interactions, missed preventive screenings, allergy checks, etc). Timely guidance of this feature is offered to minimize errors and helps enhance patient outcomes Epic Systems Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Essay.

Concerns and Impact

A big concern about Epic in my organization is the provider ‘click fatigue’, where you have to click and navigate through screens to complete documentation. Such can be inefficient, professional frustration and burnout, as well. The complexity of the system itself also slows down care. To solve this, the organization could invest in tailored training sessions around how to optimize workflow efficiency and dig through built in shortcuts and customizable templates within Epic. Other possible means by which the user experience could be refined and the even greater administrative burden on nursing staff could be reduced, is through regular feedback sessions with the nursing staff.

References

Kok, O. M., Basoglu, N., & Daim, T. U. (2016). Adoption factors of electronic health record systems. 
Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management
, 189-249. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17975-9_8

Mullner, R. (2021). Health services data: The centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) claims records. 
Electronic health records (EHRs) basics.
, 1-16. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7673-4_5-1 
  Epic Systems Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Essay