Description of the Organization
The operations carried out at the Alpha Health Organization utilize an infrastructure that is based on electronic scheduling systems and paper documentation. The facility offers a myriad of activities based on their auxiliary service lines. Nonetheless, the formulation of new goals has driven the organization towards transitioning to an easily accessible, efficient, paperless, technological system that ensures the provision of optimal care. The system they seek should have the ability to facilitate the implementation of electronic health records as well as the use of disease registers capable of monitoring and tracking patient populations (Propp, 2012). These should be followed closely by the acquisition of knowledge and skills among the practice facilitators to operate the electronic health record and the registers effectively. Most importantly, the Alpha Health Organization provides an outpatient setting and thus the medical records implemented should cover the lifetime of their clients (Propp, 2012). Additionally, the facility requires a longitudinal record through which they will manage to generate reports over time.
The Certified Electronic Health Record for the organization
Certification of electronic health records plays an important role in facilitating the identification of suitable applications for a given medical facility. However, a certified electronic health record needs to adhere to various regulations and perform several functions. Some of these functions include storing information in a structured manner, offer benchmarks to facilitate the improvement of care and comply with the standards set by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and ONC (McCoy, Wright and Sittig, 2015). Most essentially, a certified EHR entails one that portrays the technological capability, security and functionality requirements stipulated by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). Its ability to store data in a structured manner indicates that the electronic health record system facilitates capturing and sharing of information in an efficient manner. Similarly, it enhances the ease of access and retrieval as well as the transfer of the information in a way that allows the provider to help in delivering care to the patients (McCoy, Wright and Sittig, 2015). One of the certified electronic health systems that provide such services and is appropriate for the Alpha organizations entails the AdvancedMd EHR software.
The AdvancedMd EHR Software
The essence of this software to the Alpha organization entails its ability to provide products such as the management of patient relationship, reporting of practice analytics as well as big data and telemedicine. These are also coupled with benchmarking of physicians’ performance, online reputation management and management of billing services for practices such as Alpha seeking to use third-party billing (McCoy, Wright and Sittig, 2015). Moreover, the system brings about tools and technologies with the ability to integrate patient and practice workflow together for small and large organizations. The features provided by the system are packaged in a fully integrated structure that allows users to access data through the centrally managed software cloud (McCoy, Wright and Sittig, 2015). Additionally, the AdvancedMd application occurs in a variety of guides that range from radiology information systems, medical software, patient portal software, and ONC Certified EMR software among others (McCoy, Wright and Sittig, 2015). These elements best suit the organization’s needs in that they address issues such as billing, customer support, just to mention a few in an intuitive and user-friendly manner.
Software’s adherence with CMS regulations
The CMS regulations necessitate electronic health record software to ensure the quality of patient care provided. The achievement of such initiatives occurs through the requirement of providers to utilize the capabilities of their EHRs in ensuring that they can lead to the improvement of patients care (McCoy, Wright and Sittig, 2015). Furthermore, qualification to the CMS regulations requires the use an electronic health record that has been certified for specific incentive programs. A certified electronic health record system offers assurance to users that the technology will provide the necessary technological capability, functionality, and security needed. These factors largely contribute towards helping the users in realizing the meaningful purpose criteria (McCoy, Wright and Sittig, 2015). Additionally, certification and adherence to the CMS regulations require a system that brings out confidence among providers and patients that the electronic health It products are secure and can maintain the confidentiality of data. The system should also have the ability to work with other applications and models in sharing information and producing relevant reports.
Completion of Data Entry and the efficiency of the approach to users
The use of electronic health record systems brings about significant data entry burdens upon the physicians working in a health care facility. Nevertheless, the completion of tasks such as data entry may be achieved through the use of voice recognition that helps in mitigating some of the burdens. For instance, the use of AdvancedMd EHR technology eradicates the use of paper documentation as the one applied at the Alpha Health Organization (Laing et al, 2013). Data entry through the software occurs through voice recognition that reduces the number of workflow interruptions. The physicians can use the system to enter a patient’s information without necessarily altering the amount of time spent on charting and performing direct care. Upon completion, the information is automatically processed into the patient’s file. The use of such software eliminates the reliance on traditional processes that required staff members to scan and file documents or shuffle through large files to retrieve a patient’s record (Laing et al, 2013). Additionally, the system provides other tools such as telemedicine, patient kiosk and an online portal that helps the organization in improving patient satisfaction. They also facilitate in the provision of better clinical outcomes through streamlining the experience of their patients. Furthermore, the AdvancedMd software entails the only all-in-one platform capable of integrating the organization’s electronic health record, patient experience, and medical billing systems into a single framework (Laing et al, 2013). The efficiency of this approach entails reducing time in front of computers and the amount of time medical practitioners spend interacting with them. The voice recognition approach would facilitate in increasing the time the practitioners spend with their patients and avoid any errors in entering data into the system.
An appropriate approach for testing the new EHR to ensure functionality and elimination of bugs
The best approach to test whether the new electronic health record ensures functionality and eliminates any bugs entails determining if it performs correctly under various operational conditions. The achievement of such objectives would necessitate understanding and addressing the major causes of defects and design quality (Propp, 2012). In this case, the system should be tested in terms of whether it would handle completion of functions such as data entry, storage, retrieval and processing of reports in an intuitive and user-friendly manner. The completion of such tasks would indicate that the system integrates all sectors of the organization and processes the information to ensure that a particular patient is identified appropriately. Besides, elimination of bugs would occur at the points where the system fails to function as expected through adjustments that suit the organization’s needs (Propp, 2012).
Education and Training
The implementation of an EHR system bring about challenges such as the optimizing the use of the technology to improve health care efficiency and quality. Additionally, training virtually all hospital staff and on how to use the EHRs brings about another challenge. However, to educate them on the essential components, the suitable approach entails on-the job-training that necessitates the accomplishment of tasks using the system (Propp, 2012). The electronic health record vendors should also assist in offering training to the employees on how to conduct various activities through the system.
Conclusion
The implementation of a new and modernized electronic health system necessitates consideration of various factors. These factors include adherence with the CMS and ONC regulations, identification of a suitable system, and realization of the organization’s needs, among others. The identification of such a system brings about a wide variety of advantages that range from easy, user friendliness to boosting patient care. Therefore, it is imperative that health care providers should understand the necessity of certified electronic health records before implementing them to their operations.
