The application of Electronic Dental Records is being evolving for a while now. In its beginnings, it was merely paper records being faxed over between one or more entities. Today, we count with Electronic Dental Records management systems that are powerful enough to even store complete sets of radiographies and Cone Beam Computer Tomography’s (CBCTs). Some applications of these systems include but are not limited to the reading, edition, and storage of patient’s information, dental needs, history of dental treatments, etc. An Electronic Dental Records system's ability to capture detailed clinical information in a highly structured manner can enable analysis for quality assessment, identification of areas for improvement, and the design of …show more content…
decision support tools. Also, some of these systems have functionalities that are HIIPA compliant and can alert users via email or other ways of upcoming events. During a patient's visit, a dentist with an Electronic Dental Records information system can enter relevant clinical documentation, electronically prescribe medication, and capture relevant charges for billing purposes. In those systems that count with the radiography functionalities, users with the appropriate permissions are able to take, view and enhance the resolution of the radiographies, either partially or completely, in order to be able to diagnose certain diseases with more accuracy and precision. As we have outlined, the applications of this technology are many, and it should be no surprise the great amount of benefits that this technology has brought along. Among these benefits, it is important to highlight the improved diagnostics and patient outcomes.
When dental care providers have access to complete and accurate information, patients receive better dental care, and Electronic Dental Records have proven to improve the ability to diagnose diseases and reduce errors, improving patient outcomes. Furthermore, a national survey of doctors’ evidence that 94% of providers report that their Electronic Health Records makes records readily available at point of care, 88% of providers report that their Electronic Health Records produces clinical benefits for the practice, and 75% of providers report that their Electronic Health Records allows them to deliver better patient care (HealthIT.gov, n.d.). Another of the great benefits to highlight is the improved care coordination provided with Electronic Dental Records. This is achieved by decreasing the fragmentation of care as Electronic Dental Records have the potential to integrate and organize patient dental information and facilitate its instant distribution among all authorized providers involved in a patient's care. This is especially important when a patient is seeing multiple specialists, making transitions between care settings, or receiving treatment in emergency …show more content…
settings. The benefits highlighted before, among many others that the Electronic Dental Records and Electronic Health Records technologies have brought along with them, give solid competitive advantages to practices that are using it.
One of the main competitive advantages, if not the main one, is the integration of medical and dental practices. According to Okuji (2016), “[...] the advantage of this model is that it fully integrates medical and dental practices for the benefit and convenience of it patients. The patient care is coordinated in a one-stop shopping experience with presumably better health outcomes [...]”. The ideas of bringing dental care and medical care together under the same roof can also be seen as a big competitive strategy to gain an edge over practices that only offer one service or the other. Another of these competitive strategies that is greatly influenced by Electronic Dental Records and Electronic Health Records is the creation and maintenance of a patient-centered care environment. This strategy revolves around the idea that each individual patient is a customer who needs to receive a service and utility from their experience in the care delivery system. As far as competitive forces go, the only ones associated with Electronic Dental Records are buyer power, competitive rivalry, and threat of new entry. Buyer Power refers to an assessment of how easy it is for buyers to drive the prices down, competitive rivalry refers to the number and capability of
competitors in the market, and threat of new entry refers to how profitable markets attract new entrants, which erodes profitability.
Jha, A. K., Burke, M. F., DesRoches, C., Joshi M. S., Kralovec P. D., Campbell E. G., & Buntin M. B. (2011). Progress Toward Meaningful Use: Hospitals’ Adoption of Electronic Health Records. The American Journal of Managed Care, 17, 117-123
When you take the socialistic perspective towards implementing this system in Canada, you can see the advantages it brings to improving health care. If the government plays a larger role in funding the development of electronic health records for private and smaller organizations the benefits will immediately result in better quality of health care. As shown in a study done by the University of California in San Francisco that focused on expensive costs that make it difficult for smaller practices to incorporate electronic health records, “need policies designed to provide incentives and support services to help practices improve the quality of their care by using EHRs.” (Miller, West, Brown, Sim & Ganchoff, 2005) In this article they explain that electronic health records improve quality of health care, but the costs are too expensive for small practices to incorporate them.
Historically, physicians and nurses documented patients’ health information using paper and pencil. This documentation created numerous errors in patients’ medical records. Patient information became lost or destroyed, medication errors occur daily because of illegible handwriting, and patients had to wait long periods to have access to their medical records. Since then technology has changed the way nurses and health care providers care for their patients. Documentation of patient care has moved to an electronic heath care system in which facilities around the world implement electronic health care systems. Electronic health records (EHR) is defined as a longitudinal electronic record of
Many new technologies are being used in health organizations across the nations, which are being utilized to help improve the quality of health care. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) play a critical role in improving access, quality and efficiency of healthcare ("Electronic health records," 2014). In order to assist in expanding the use of EHR’s, in 2011 The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), instituted a EHR incentive program called the Meaningful use Program. This program was instituted to encourage and expand the use of the HER, by providing health professional and health organizations yearly incentive payments when they demonstrate meaningful use of the EHR ("Medicare and medicaid," 2014). The Meaningful use program will be explored including its’ implications for nurses, nursing, national policy, how the population health data relates to Meaningful use data collection in various stages and finally recommendations for beneficial improvement for patient outcomes and population health and more.
In 2009 President Obama, through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, pledged to provide incentives to the nation’s physicians and hospitals to convert to an electronic healthcare system in attempt to improve the quality of care and reduce cost (Freudenheim, 2010). By converting to an electronic system, we have the opportunity for improved communication between all healthcare providers and decreased cost to our healthcare system. The goal is to improve communication across all aspects of the service chain (Horan, Botts & Burkhard, 2010). Almost two years later, the conversion progress continues to be slow. Only one in four physician’s offices, mostly large groups, have implemented the electronic record system (Freudenheim, 2010).
The Faculty of General Dental Practice is responsible for continued professional development of dental clinicians. It is committed to improving standards of patient care within dentistry by providing up to date publications and guidelines for clinicians. The standards and guidelines by the FGDP are evidence based and are recognised as authoritative statements of good practice within the profession (REF). The FGDP have produced standards and evidence-based guidelines detailing the Selection Criteria for Dental Radiography (REF).
The objective of the MCEG is to provide channels to exchange information between managed care/health plan information systems executives and to provide opportunity for personal networking. MCEG provides a forum to develop policy which relates to the use of information technology and healthcare. MCEG provides feedback to vendor sponsors and other vendors on the trends and types of technology needed to ensure that their products and strategies meet their customer’s present and future managed care needs. Additionally, their objective is to “educate executives on clinical and administrative trends in health care, new and emerging technologies, and other pertinent information to assist in achieving the key goals of cost containment, effective service and high quality health care.” (Why We Matter, 2011)
Miller, R., & Sim, I. (2004). Use of electronic medical records: Barriers and solutions. Retrieved June 29, 2011, from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/23/2/116.short
“There are two concepts in electronic patient records that are used interchangeably but are different-the electronic medical record (EMR/EHR) and the electronic health record. The National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT) defines the EHR as the electronic record of health-related information on an individual that is accumulated from one health system and is utilized by the health organization that is providing patient care while the EMR accumulates more patient medical information from many health organizations that have been involved in the patient care. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has been urging the healthcare industry to adopt the electronic patient record but initially
Retrieved from: Ashford University Library Boaden, R., & Joyce, P. (2006). Developing the electronic health record: What about patient safety? Health Services Management Research, 19 (2), 94-104. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/236465771?accountid=32521.
Electronic medical records not only effect health care professionals, but the patients of those health care providers as well. However, nurses spend the most time directly using electronic medical records to access patient date and chart. Nurses now learn to chart, record data, and interact with other health care providers electronically. Many assume that electronic means efficient, and the stories of many nurses both agree, and disagree. Myra Davis-Alston, a nurse from Las Vegas, NV, says that she “[likes] the immediate access to patient progress notes from all care providers, and the ability to review cumulative lab values and radiology reports” (Eisenberg, 2010, p. 9). This form of record keeping provides health care professionals with convenient access to patient notes, vital signs, and test results from multiple providers comprised into one central location. They also have the ability to make patients more involved in their own care (Ross, 2009). With the advancement in efficiency, also comes the reduction of costs by not printing countless paper records, and in turn, lowers health care
Over the past decade, technological advances have paved the way for nurses to provide, quality, safe, standardized and individualized patient care (Saba & McCormick, 2015). The use of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) to manage patient data is quickly becoming widespread in the healthcare industry. The emerging use of the Electronic Health Record, is transforming how nurses care for patients. By creating and implementing an electronic, comprehensive, standardized method of recording patient data, nurses can facilitate and coordinate patient care with members of the multidisciplinary healthcare team. The use of the Electronic Health Record will promote positive
Dentistry is a health science that includes the study and application of measures designed to prevent damage of the oral structures and the use of clinical procedures that that restore the normal masticatory function of teeth and esthetics, correction of speech resulting from loss of natural teeth, satisfaction and comfort of the patient, preservation of alveolar bone and tempromandibular joints. Other goals are to relief pain, treatment of a disease and maintaining the restoration for a long time in the denture without distortion or fracture.
Nowadays the practice of dentistry is becoming more challenging and complex because of the information explosion regarding dental materials and equipment, increasing need for continuous professional development and an increasingly litigious society. Hence there has been a paradigm shift towards evidence-based healthcare .
Electronically entering medical information helps ease the space taken up by paper records, especially from patients that have large files. Another advantage is being able to access records from another doctor without having to fax information or the previous method of carting around paper copies of your chart. Sending a prescription electronically also has a major benefit, as a patient no longer would need to drop a paper script off to the pharmacy and wait. The script would be sent directly to the pharmacy and from there the pharmacist would go over the prescribed drug and error check then process the prescription. It allows the patient to drive directly to the pharmacy after a doctor visit and their medication would be ready and waiting. Most of all the software for the electronic records provide a doctor to accurately enter a diagnosis and sub diagnosis without having to look it up codes in a medical book. It also allows a doctor to enter notes much easier because it takes the guess work out of questionable handwriting. I agree that medical records will be very beneficial once I feel they are safe. I still feel there needs to be a lot worked out with the safety of my health information and making sure I won’t ever feel like I can’t trust my own doctor. I enjoy the ease of having all my information in one spot and knowing if I were to