Trends In Health Policy: Health Care Reform Electronic Health Records (Essay Sample)

Trends in health policy: Health Care Reform -Electronic Health Records
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Objectives
The purpose of this paper is to (a) identify some of the most common trends in the public health care policy (b) define the structure, content, use and impacts of electronic health records (c) to review the currently available quality requirements of electronic health data records in the public health care system (d) to determine how electronic health records can be used to improve public and population health outcomes.
Brief content outline
An electronic health record is a soft copy version of a patient’s chart detailing their biographic data and details of their sickness. Electronic health records are updated on a real time basis; they can quickly and instantly be retrieved (Ambider, 2005). Besides, it is easy to secure them so that they do not gain access to unauthorized persons. Electronic health record systems are superior to the conventional health record systems because they go beyond containing patient medical data and disease histories to a wider spectrum of the patient’s care. The electronic health record system can contain the patient’s medical history, previous regimens that the patients has used, past diseases, allergies, details of immunizations, laboratory images and other test results. The records may also provide tools of evidenced based practices that can be used by the medical practitioners to respond to the patient’s conditions. In addition, it is possible to streamline provider workflow by automating the entire process (Jha et al, 2009).
The structures of earlier versions of electronic health records were either time oriented, source-oriented or problem oriented. However, modern electronic health records encompass all the three elements. Time oriented electronic health records are arranged systematically and chronologically. Problem-oriented medical records assign problems to each patient and each problem given a description and assessment plan for it. For, source-oriented records, the contents of the records are arranged based on the sources from where the information was obtained.
Electronic health records are both used in patient care and hospitals in many countries. They are used in primary care by general practitioners, secondary care upon referral by other physicians and tertiary care provided by specialists in bigger medical facilities.
Epidemiological considerations
Electronic health records can be used to provide information for epidemiological research (Blumenthal and Tavenner, 2010). They have become common in pediatric research. However, the challenge with electronic health records as sources of data for clinical research is their nature. Most of them are prepared for billing purposes as opposed to be viable tools for research. The records also vary in different settings hence leading to issues of accuracy and completeness.
The use of electronic health records for epidemiological research in the United States and other countries has not been fully adopted because of issues of cost versus benefit. Substantial capital investments should be made in order to enable them to function effectively. In addition, it has been found that electronic medical records show only a moderate correlation between the data stored electronically and what actually happened to the patient. Vital information is sometimes not captured during recording in the electronic system(Desroaches et al, 2009).
Theoretical and Research Support on the Topic
Various studies have been conducted on electronic health records and their role in the healthcare system. Research has revealed that an effective electronic health record system should be able to summarize information, it should be able to import and export data to them, should provide data import functions, and be able to offer timely reminders. Besides, the practitioner should be able to add self reported health information to the system, offer print functions in order to print out transcripts of patient data and also provide a definition of terms (Hoerbst and Ammenwerth, 2010). Designers of electronic health record systems should be able to meet the above requirements so as to ensure they function independently.
Other research studies have revealed that information stored in electronic medical records is reliable compared to that in manual records (Jamison et al, 2001). The information can also be tailored to meet specific needs of the users (Stratmann et al, 1982). Electronic systems offer healthcare professionals opportunities to document their facts in a complete manner. To assess the impact of electronic health records on information quality, various researchers have offered conflicting information with respect to completeness and accuracy of the information. For instance, according to Hayrinen (2008), the completeness of the information stored in electronic records indicates the probability of missing information, which is often less compared to manual records. However, other studies have revealed that the probability of missing vital information is higher in electronic health records.
Implication of electronic health records on public health outcomes and policies
The use of electronic health records can improve public health policy in the sense that it speeds up data surveillance, analysis and dissemination to the relevant stakeholders for implementation. Information on patient health can be retrieved with ease and trends determined especially among populations at risk. This ensures that timely interventions are put in place to prevent the spread of infections or placing more people at risk (Jha, et al, 2009).
Electronic health records are sources of reliable information that can be used in clinical research, which is the basis for the design and implementation of important public health policies. Since the information is updated on a real time basis, it can save researchers lots of time and resources that would otherwise be used to plan and conduct investigations. Electronic health records can also be used to develop decision support systems that offer professionals with viable treatment options for patients based on their problem oriented medical records. Electronic health records also have drug prescription component that enables professionals to determine the dosa...