Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System Business Plan Paper

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System Business Plan Paper

The purpose of this assignment is to write a business plan for a new process, change, or piece of equipment needed at your place of employment. A business plan is a proposal, so it must be carefully thought out, and the need must be clearly understood and justified.

Refer to the “Business Plan” document to successfully complete the assignment.

Include 3–4 peer-reviewed resources.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System Business Plan

            The COVID-19 pandemic exposed myriad barriers to safety and quality care in healthcare organizations. One system with limitations is the electronic medical record (EMR) system. It is important to mention its benefits to healthcare provision, such as enhanced care coordination and improved access to healthcare information. However, there were some barriers, especially during the pandemic. These include swift alerting of suspected infection cases and tracking these infection cases. Additionally, the system does not have to initiate automatic implementation of isolation orders. This project outlines a proposal for implementing an improved Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System Business Plan.

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Proposal

            The current electronic medical record (EMR) system significantly impacts the healthcare system. For instance, it enhances the quality, accuracy, and timeliness of accessing patient data during treatment. It also offers an understanding of the healthcare outcomes and costs (Uslu & Stausberg, 2021). The system also enhances quality care, minimizes healthcare costs, promotes patient mobility, enhances information reliability, and offers information access to multiple healthcare providers (Uslu & Stausberg, 2021). However, EMR was limited in its application during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, changes to the systems need to promote the response of EMR to similar global pandemics. First, the system should have real-time adjustable patient lists or tracking boards that can be availed when required, containing appropriate safety information. It is important to understand that various stakeholders require real-time patient status updates (Pryor et al., 2020). Second, the automatic creation of necessary isolation orders according to the pandemic order and patient symptoms. It prevents manual entry of precautions by nurses. Lastly, automatic alert of the positive diagnosis irrespective of the placement of the order. It ensures consistent awareness of pandemic cases.

Rationale

The electronic medical record (EMR) system is needed by the healthcare organization. The new system will provide real-time updates to various stakeholders. It will enable automation provision of necessary isolation orders in case of a global pandemic such as COVID-19. The system will also provide automatic alerts in case of positive cases. A study by O’Reilly-Shah et al. (2020) indicates the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted some issues in the country’s healthcare informatics infrastructure. For instance, it is reported that there were reduced data acquisition problems during the pandemic due to increased traffic. The change achieved by improving the EMR is essential to healthcare delivery, especially during the pandemic. Research by Upadhyay & Hu (2022) shows nurses are concerned with EMRs due to reduced data accuracy and reduced interoperability. As a result, the change is necessary. The advantages of this system include operations in real-time, automated processing, and automatic alerts. The advantage is that it is expensive to implement the changes.

Implementation Plan

            There is a need for an EMR implementation plan. It will be categorized into three main stages, namely pre-implementation, implementation, and post-implementation.

Pre-Implementation Phase

The pre-implementation phase will include three tasks. It will be essential for the project team to communicate with the medical staff concerning the EMR requirements. There should also be a mapping of critical workflows, formulation of a project plan, and outlining pertinent estimates. Lastly, it is essential to determine an appropriate data governance strategy to promote effective and sustainable change to the new EMR system.

Implementation Phase

The EMR solution is developed to meet the specific organization’s requirements. Integrate the healthcare organization software tools. The data is then migrated from the current system to the new system. It is also important to conduct all-round quality checks. Additionally, it is critical to ensure the healthcare organization complies with the HIPPA standards and other pertinent regulations.

Post-Implementation

There are critical operations to be completed post-project implementation. It includes monitoring the performance of the EMR system. After the evaluation of the system, operational issues should be addressed. There is also the need to perform personnel training.

The implementation of the system will take eight months from start to completion.

Costs/Benefits

The project cost will entail both the project’s monetary and non-monetary resources, as illustrated in Table 1.

Table 1

Economic Components for the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System

Note: The economic components of the electronic medical record (EMR) system

The project has various costs that are critical in its completion. The costs include system upgrades, customization consultancy, training fees, cloud migration, and consultancy costs, as shown in Table 1. These are the project’s monetary costs. The project also has non-monetary costs, such as the time to develop the EMR system.

Evaluation

Implementation evaluation is critical and requires the selection metrics and definition of the success criteria. First, evaluation will be done by monitoring the employees and patients. Their feedback is vital in informing on the performance of the system. Second, metrics will be used, which entails the selection of the target area for evaluation. Return on investment (ROI) metrics and clinical quality measures will be used.

Conclusion

COVID-19 has had significant implications for society. It has exposed areas of weaknesses for various systems. One such system is EMR, which necessitates some changes. The changes will help improve its performance in the healthcare organization.

References

O’Reilly-Shah, V. N., Gentry, K. R., Van Cleve, W., Kendale, S. M., Jabaley, C. S., & Long, D. R. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic highlights shortcomings in US Health Care Informatics Infrastructure: A Call to Action. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 131(2), 340–344. https://doi.org/10.1213/ane.0000000000004945

Pryor, R., Atkinson, C., Cooper, K., Doll, M., Godbout, E., Stevens, M. P., & Bearman, G. (2020). The electronic medical record and COVID-19: Is it up to the challenge? American Journal of Infection Control, 48(8), 966–967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2020.05.002

Upadhyay, S., & Hu, H. (2022). A qualitative analysis of the impact of electronic health records (EHR) on Healthcare Quality and safety: Clinicians’ lived experiences. Health Services Insights, 15, 117863292110707. https://doi.org/10.1177/11786329211070722

Uslu, A., & Stausberg, J. (2021). Value of the electronic medical record for hospital care: Update from the literature. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(12). https://doi.org/10.2196/26323