Scholarly activity summary
My research focus was on advocacy and activism, particularly to highlight and address the health needs of vulnerable groups who are typically overlooked during health policy development and implementation owing to underrepresentation. My basic research was on the position that documentation play in facilitating nursing care. Besides that, I presented a summary of the merits and demerits of electronic health records (EHR) system for the patients, nursing personnel and other medical personnel. My research was intended to improve the acceptance and implementation of EHR among medical facilities and adoption among medical personnel. In particular, how can EHR be leverage to improve the provision of nursing care services?
My work on the area of EHR first identified the need for such systems. I determined that although EHR systems are costly during the implementation phase, it is an imperative for medical facilities to implement the system so as to be compliant with HITECH Act. The Act offers incentives for medical facilities to implement EHR having noted that it improves security protection and privacy with regards to how patient information is handled. This includes introducing mandatory penalties for facilities that have contravened the HIPAA with the intention of enhancing the enforcement of HIPAA and public confidence. Secondly, it improves patients’ involvement in the care process. Thirdly, it facilitates patients’ access to their medical records. Finally, it defines the information that is protected and what can be freely shared with third parties (Feldman, 2012). While determining that EHR systems are intended to improve protection and authorized access of medical records, I also identified that the system has some demerits. Of particular concern is the fact that medical facilities are largely motivated by the need to be compliant with HIPAA and HITECH Act, and not the need to improve care provision (Mennemeyer et al., 2016). My current work looks at how to bring about an attitude change so that medical personnel and facilities are motivated to implement EHR systems as a strategy for improving care outcomes and not a need to be compliant with the legal requirements for information protection.
References
Feldman, A. (2012). Understanding health care reform: bridging the gap between myth and reality. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Mennemeyer, S., Menachemi, N., Rahurkar, S. & Ford, E. (2016). Impact of the HITECH Act on physicians’ adoption of electronic health records. J Am Med Inform Assoc., 23(2), 375-379. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocv103
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