Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Bowles, K. H., Ratcliffe, S. J., Naylor, M. D., Holmes, J. H., Keim, S. K., & Flores, E. J. (2017). Nurse-generated EHR data supports post-acute care referral decision making: development and validation of a two-step algorithm. In AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings (Vol. 2017, p. 465). American Medical Informatics Association.
Electronic health record data can be used to increase support for discharge referral decision-making in a healthcare facility. The case study by Bowles et al. shows how the use of a two-step algorithm guides decision-making for patients who need post-acute care referral. Using this system, healthcare providers can determine the best settings for these patients to ensure they match the needs of the acute care patient. The prediction algorithm design incorporates the health record data and the opinions of healthcare experts. The system was later embedded into the EHR of a hospital to ensure that every patient discharged from acute care engage in the evaluation by using the algorithm to determine if they needed post-acute care and the best type of care. The use of this customized EHR system for acute care increased patient satisfaction rates. It also ensured the increased patient outcome post-discharge from an acute care unit. The system also improves service delivery for post-discharge.
Dalal, A., Bates, D., & Collins, S. (2017). Opportunities and challenges for improving the patient experience in the acute and post–acute care setting using patient portals: the patient’s perspective. Clinical Care Conundrum, 12(12), 1012.
The study evaluates how EHRs are used to increase patient experience by linking them to the patient portal. The study established that to increase patient experience, the patient portal needed to be more than a place where they only accessed healthcare information. The design of a more responsive patient portal required the team to ensure that the information from the EHR was accurate and reliable before designing the communication tools. The design of the portal was made in the reflection of the patient’s needs to be able to communicate with healthcare providers regarding their health information. The responsive patient portals proved to be more effective in increasing patient experience and in reducing medical errors. When patients communicated with the healthcare providers furnishing the information in their EHRs, they could ask questions in areas where they felt that the information was incorrect, leading to better patient outcomes. Therefore, healthcare providers must use EHRs accurately if these patient portals are to give the right outcomes in increasing patient outcomes for acute care patients. They must also consider the patients as equal partners in the healthcare process. Using responsive patient portals, they are able to offer consistent feedback on processes such as diagnoses and test results.
Bersani, K., Fuller, T. E., Garabedian, P., Espares, J., Mlaver, E., Businger, A., … & Schnipper, J. L. (2020). Use, perceived usability, and barriers to implementation of a patient safety dashboard integrated within a vendor EHR. Applied clinical informatics, 11(1), 34.
The study focuses on how EHR systems are used for clinical decision support in acute care. Using the integration of a dashboard tool into the EHR, healthcare providers can discuss health issues and raise concerns in certain areas of healthcare. The dashboard, which is designed for inter-disciplinary use, increases interprofessional collaboration because it allows healthcare providers in different areas to brainstorm on issues and improves the healthcare decision-making process. The dashboard also acts as a platform to raise work issues for healthcare providers. These are issues that might affect healthcare delivery, and when they are addressed, the healthcare team can reach their goals in harmony. Healthcare delivery in acute care requires a lot of attention and dedication to prevent adverse effects that might come from the actions of a healthcare provider. When healthcare providers can communicate more through the dashboard, they can cross-check the effectiveness of the healthcare action they are planning to take. The dashboard embedded in the EHRs also made it easy for healthcare providers to access the patient information of discussion simultaneously to offer their insight on the matter increasing the swiftness in which clinical decision support was made in acute care units.
Schnock, K. O., Snyder, J. E., Fuller, T. E., Duckworth, M., Grant, M., Yoon, C., … & Dykes, P. C. (2019). Acute care patient portal intervention: portal use and patient activation. Journal of medical Internet research, 21(7), e13336.
The study evaluates the use of patient-centered tools as a way to increase patient use in acute