The technological advancement being witnessed in the 21st century has greatly revolutionized various aspects of life. However, there is no sector that these technological advancement has changed rapidly than the healthcare system. Today we can proudly say that technology has made it possible for doctors to perform different medical services which were complex and extremely difficult to be achieved in the past. For example, medical services such as heart and kidney transplant are today considered normal operations because of technological advancement which has enable scientists to develop tools and machines that enable doctors to effectively undertake these critical surgeries.
This paper aims to analyze and elaborate on one of the project plan which can be undertaken to increase the quality of healthcare services in hospital. This paper analyzes the adoption of Electronic Medical records as a way of keeping patients record in various hospitals.
Definition of EMR
An electronic medical record (EMR), which is also referred to as electronic health record (EHR), is defined as a process of collecting patients and population essential data and storing them using electronic means hence making it easier for future reference (Kierkegaard, 2011). The invention of computers is considered as the major contributor for the realization of electronic medical records since in most cases these data are collected and stored in a computer which makes these stored information to appear in a digital format for future reference. EMR enable medical professionals to share these stored records across various healthcare settings. Some of the most areas where the use of EMRs is greatly encouraged include demographics of patients in the hospital, medical history of each patient, various medication to be given to these patients, immunization status of the patients, laboratory test results, radiology images of the patients and the bills incurred by every patient in the healthcare institution.
The implementation of the EMR in any healthcare institution needs to be approved and accepted by both the medical staffs, the management of the institution and even the government. The medical staff which comprises of the nurses and the doctors are influential stakeholders in the implementation of any medical policy in a hospital since they are the one use these policies and machines directly while performing their activities. Another important stakeholder in this project plan will be the management of the hospital in which the EMRs will be used. The management are the one to decide whether the EMRs will be installed into the hospital or not. They will therefore determine whether the proposed EMRs implementation will be undertaken in the first place or not.
The management of the project will involve the implementation of various phases of the project. The initial step in the management of the project will be to determine the feasibility and viability of the use of the EMRs as an alternative to the normal keeping of medical records. The second phase of the project will entail the training of doctors and nurses on how to effectively use this new technology in their operation (Smaltz et al, 2007). After successfully training the medical staffs and convincing them of how the adoption of the new technology will be beneficial to the institutions, the management will the get the approval from the government to purchase these new equipment. The purchase and installation of the machines will set the way for the implementation of the use of the EMRs by the staffs and later thorough monitoring and evaluating of the performance of the EMRs will be done to determine how effective the new technology has helped the hospital in achieving its desired goals and objective of providing high quality and affordable medical services to patients.
This project fits within the above phases of the plan as it clearly indicate all the major steps that must be undertaken to make the project be effectively implemented. It is evident that the implementation process of each phase of the project depend on the proceeding process. That is, the implementation and the use of the EMRs in the hospital will depend on how efficiently the staffs are trained on how to use the new technology. In this project plan of concerning the adoption and the use of the EMRs, it is empirically evident that only two steps in the project are the most critical. This is because the result of whether the project plan will be effectively achieved or not depend on how well the staffs are trained on how to use the EMRs and how effectively they perform their roles using the EMRs. These two steps are therefore the most critical part in the effective accomplishment of the project’s goals.
The success of the project will be measured on the cost-benefit analysis on using the new technology. The cost-benefit analysis will help the management to determine if the use of the EMRs is profitable or not. Also, an analysis on how the adoption of the new technology would have reduce the time taken by any staff in serving the patients will be another criteria that will be used in order to measure the success of the project. This means that the time taken in attending to each patient using the EMRs and without using the technology will be determined and its difference will help in establishing whether the implementation of the project was a success or a failure. To effectively make the implementation of the project plan be successful, some changes will be undertaken on the phase of training the staff such that each staff member will be educated on a personal platform on how to effectively use this new technology (Maekawa, 2006). Also, the monitoring and evaluating stage will be examined thoroughly so as to get the correct result on the success of the plan.
References
Maekawa, Y; Majima, Y (2006). “Issues to be improved after introduction of a non-customized Electronic Medical Record system (EMR) in a Private General Hospital and efforts toward improvement”. Studies in health technology and informatics 122: 919–20.
Olhede, T; Peterson, HE (2000). “Archiving of care related information in XML-format”. Studies in health technology and informatics 77: 642–6.
Kierkegaard, Patrick (2011). “Electronic health record: Wiring Europe’s healthcare”. Computer Law & Security Review 27 (5): 503–515.
Smaltz, Detlev and Eta Berner.(2007). The Executive’s Guide to Electronic Health Records. (2007, Health Administration Press) p.03.
