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Mitigating impact on disaster
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Evaluate the benefits and pitfalls of competition in health care and suggest alternatives if competition was not the primary driver of operations in t...
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Many hospitals and large healthcare organizations are competitive and are now leaning on EHR systems to help keep competitive. With the intensity of competition having a defensive strategy in place when a disaster occurs will help decrease loss revenue and promote a seamless transition of quality care in a disaster (book). On average downtime for a physician will cost $488 per hour. A large health care organization like a hospital that has a lot of physicians employed would be financially devastated by downtime loss (Brazelton & Lyons, 2016). Many healthcare organizations (especially hospitals) are not making enough revenue to cover their operational costs. Therefore, when a disaster occurs or not having a backup recovery system can negatively
"FAQ: Disaster Recovery Planning for Health Care Data." SearchHealthIT. Ed. Anne Steciw. TechTarget, May 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. .
The U. S government passed the American Recovery Act in 2009 that established incentives and penalties to promote EHR use. From this legislation the Meaningful Use Program for EHR’s s was created. Through The Meaningful Use Program the U.S. government is able to support the adoption and use of EHR technology to enhance and revolutionize health care. The goal of the program is to increase EHR adoption, improve quality, safety, reduce disparities, and improve public health (hmsa , 2012).
Portability can improve patient care. Patients no longer have to “tote” their cumbersome medical records around anymore. EHR’s give physicians and clinicians access to critical healthcare information in the palm of their hand, which ultimately leads to improved patient care outcomes. EHR’s also provide security to vital medical and personal healthcare information. Organizations like HIPPA defines policies, procedures and guidelines for preserving the privacy and security of discrete distinguishable health information (HHS.gov,
Hospitals are one of many health care agencies that HIPAA impacts. These agencies consist of health providers, consumers, and health insurance usage. There is such a strong impact between HIPAA and hospitals because of the provider to patient relationship. Also, there are ton of patient files that have private information. Therefore, the need for a data backup plan, disaster recovery plan, and critical analysis is very important.
Unfortunately, the quality of health care in America is flawed. Information technology (IT) offers the potential to address the industry’s most pressing dilemmas: care fragmentation, medical errors, and rising costs. The leading example of this is the electronic health record (EHR). An EHR, as explained by HealthIT.gov (n.d.), is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It includes, but is not limited to, medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. The EHR, then, serves as a resource that aids clinicians in decision-making by providing comprehensive patient information.
Resilience is an individual’s ability to properly recover from stress or adversity. It is the process of adapting well in the face of trauma, tragedy or threats coming from many sources including family and relationship problems, health issues and workplace or financial stressors. This essay shows the concept of resilience from the perspective of the consumer and health care professional. Working in healthcare is stressful, and it takes a toll a persons physical, emotional and mental levels. To effectively care for others, you must be able to care for yourself, showing resilience.
There are many challenges when it comes to our health care system that define the future strategic direction. The one chosen for this paper are reform and legislation, information technology advancements such as the electronic medical record (EMR)/ electronic health record (EHR), access to health care including the uninsured and those in the poverty levels, maintaining a skilled workforce and Pay for performance. These challenges pose threats to our health care system planning for the future.
However, despite the $24 billion of federal spending allocated towards EHR adoption, the benefits of EHR adoption still have not been even close to fully realized (CITATION 24 b). Specifically, duplicate and unnecessary medical testing, which EHRs were set out to address, still presents a significant financial burden and, more importantly, less efficient and effective patient care from a lack of care coordination and provider communication (CITATION issue brief). In fact, a recent Boston study found that 20% of the patients transferred between hospitals underwent duplicate, unnecessary medical tests that were performed within the last 12 hours (CITATION boston).
Preparing as a clinician for disaster begins with knowing one’s personal and family preparedness plan. The American Nursing Association (ANA) provides Disaster Competency guidelines for nurses, insuring nurses can make quick and effective decisions during such moments (Smith, 2010). These competency guidelines are found under the ANA Policy White Paper known as “Adapting Standards of Care Under Extreme Conditions: Guidance for Professionals During Disasters, Pandemics, and Other Extreme Emergencies.” The literature has six key recommendations as listed, “(1) Registered Nurses and other health professionals must prepare themselves and their families for potential emergencies, including the potential fort he health professional to be away for extended periods during an emergency. (2) Registered Nurses and other health professionals must use their professional competence to provide the best possible care given the resources and physical conditions under which they are working. (3) Health facilities and other practice sites must provide opportunities for professional decision-makin...
Studies have implied that, healthcare professionals who practice clinical features through EHR were far more likely provide better preventive care than were healthcare professionals who did not. (page 116). From 2004, EHR has initiated, even the major priority of President Obama’s agenda is EHR (Madison & Stagger, 2011). Health care administration considers EHR as the introduction of advanced technology which can improve patient satisfaction are can increase the financial incentives of the healthcare organization. Studies have pointed out that the federal policy is proposed to transform all medical records into EHR (Hebda & Calderone, 2010).
Yansoff (2014) states, “Advocates argue that patient control, in addition to being an effective approach to privacy, could also serve to ensure ongoing, consistent health care stakeholder participation. Of course, in order for this approach to be practical, the rights of patients to electronic copies of their records under HIPAA would need to be enforced”. In addition, patient’s information must be in an electronic format to comply with inter-collaboration amongst physicians. However, not every physician employs an EHR because it is not beneficial to them. It is the other stakeholders who reap the benefits. Implementing an EHR is extremely expensive and most times it is the physician who bears the brunt of the expenses and not receive the rewards. “It is unreasonable to expect physicians to shoulder 100% of the cost of systems while accruing only 11% of the benefits” (Yasnoff, 2014). Furthermore, initial reimbursements from HITECH for implementing an EHR is much appreciated; however, it does not cover the life of the physician’s practice in business. It takes money to continuously update an EHR as technology improves over time. Reimbursements are only an initial
Disaster Recovery Planning is the critical factor that can prevent headaches or nightmares experienced by an organization in times of disaster. Having a disaster recovery plan marks the difference between organizations that can successfully manage crises with minimal cost, effort and with maximum speed, and those organizations that cannot. By having back-up plans, not only for equipment and network recovery, but also detailed disaster recovery plans that precisely outline what steps each person involved in recovery efforts should undertake, an organization can improve their recovery time and minimize the disrupted time for their normal business functions. Thus it is essential that disaster recovery plans are carefully laid out and carefully updated regularly. Part of the plan should include a system where regular training occurs for network engineers and managers. In the disaster recovery process extra attention should also be paid to training any new employees who will have a critical role in this function. Also, the plan should require having the appropriate people actually practice what they would do to help recover business function should a disaster occur. Some organizations find it helpful to do this on a quarterly or semi-annual basis so that the plan stays current with the organization’s needs.
Corporate level: This level is top of all three and includes Executive Directors Medical, Surgical, health, Deputy Director’s main position of the health services.
Most health care providers currently utilize electronic health records (EHRs), or will in the coming future. Network collapses, glitches, power outages and flaws within the system all have the possibility of occurring. Due to the plethora of sensitive information contained within the health care field, health care providers need to form backup plans. These backup plans will serve as preventative measures in order to keep the integrity of the health care data intact. Therefore, contingency plans are a clear necessity within the field.