Implementation Strategies for Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) An electronic document management system (EDMS) is a computer-based system used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents, electronic documents, and other knowledge used by the organization. According to Johnston and Bowen (2005) EDMS is "…an automated system which supports the creation, use and maintenance of paper or electronic documents and records for the purposes of an organization's workflow and processes" ( p. 133). This paper familiarizes the organization executive and information technology (IT) teams about the purposes for which EDMS is used, describes the key functions supplied by EDMS, and assists the organization to successfully implement and maintain EDMS. An EDMS includes record keeping functionality and the management of documents of informational and evidential value. The scope of an operational EDMS includes multiple elements. These may include documents, records, methods, procedures, tools, knowledge, means, and persons with which an organization operates and fulfils its requirements to preserve evidence of its activities, maintain its memory, and preserve its knowledge. Migrating to an EDMS is more than installing new hardware and/or software. The organization must be aware that not only executive support is vital, but the end user's involvement and buy-in is of critical importance as well. The components of EDMS include the capture, integration, indexing, storage, retrieval, distribution, security, workflow, collaboration, and publishing of the organization's knowledge base. The concept and definition of knowledge is a good place to start when referring to EDMS, as all organizations should seek knowl... ... middle of paper ... ...ement Journal, 37(4), 58. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Johnston, G, & Bowen, V. (2005). Electronic Document and Records Management Systems. Bradford, GBR: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, 2005. p 131-135. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ncent/Doc?id=10103442&ppg=14 Knowledge. (n. d.) In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary (11th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knowledge Mooradian, N. (2008). Keys for Securing Private Information in an EDMS. Information Management Journal, 42(2), 42-50. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Paperless office. (2009). In BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/ultimatebusiness/paperless_office Weiss, P. M. (2007). Managing electronic records. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 95(3), 361-361-362. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203479533?accountid=28180
For years now, the healthcare system in the United States have managed patient’s health records through paper charting, this has since changed for the better with the introduction of an electronic medical record (EMR) system. This type of system has helped healthcare providers, hospitals and other ambulatory institutions extract data from a patient’s chart to help expedite clinical diagnosis and providing necessary care. Although this form of technology shows great promise, studies have shown that this system is just a foundation to the next evolution of health technology. The transformation of EMR to electronic heath record system (EHR) is the ultimate goal of the federal government.
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.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Electronic Medical Records (EMR), affects healthcare delivery. I will discuss the positives and negatives this issue has on healthcare and how it effects the cost and quality for healthcare services. In addition, I will identify any potential trade-offs to cost or quality. Lastly, I will discuss how the EMR affects my job as well as any challenges or opportunities this issue presents.
“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an incentive, the government began issuing payments to those providers who “meaningfully use certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.” (hhs.gov) There are three stages that providers must progress through in order to receive theses financial incentives. Stage one is the initial stage and is met with the creation and implementation of the HER in the business. Stage two “increases health information exchange between providers.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) Stage three will be the continuation and expansion of the “meaningful use objectives.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) The hospital, where I work, initiated the HER mandate many years ago. In this paper, I will discuss the progression and the challenges that my hospital encountered while implementing the EHR mandate.
Healthcare professionals associated with medical billing and coding know the progress the technology has made so far. In the last few decades, medical billing and coding has switched from being a paper-based system to a computerized format. Under HIPAA laws, medical practitioners had to develop new software in order to send out electronic bills. With the advent of electronic medical records (EMR), with one touch of a button, doctors, Nurse Practitioners and PAs can gain access to all the care a patient has ever received from every healthcare facility the patients visited previously and can figure out possible illnesses. This enables statistical documentation of the population as a whole as well. EMR can also make the healthcare system more transparent and allow integration with reimbursement data. As the healthcare system changes, this will prevent unnecessary costs and make it easier to get the reimbursements needed to treat a patient.
Greiver, M., Barnsley, J., Aliarzadeh, B., Krueger, P., Moineddin, R., Butt, D. A., & ... Kaplan, D. (2011). Using a data entry clerk to improve data quality in primary care electronic medical records: a pilot study. Informatics In Primary Care, 19(4), 241-250.
Tan & Payton (2010) describe the electronic health record (EHR), which dates back to the 1950s. These computer-based patient records have evolved into complex systems with many capabilities. They were designed to provide healthcare professionals with a comprehensive picture of a patient’s health status at any time and are meant to automate and streamline the workflow of the healthcare professional (Tan & Payton,
Encinosa, W. E., & Jaeyong, B. (2013). Will Meaningful Use Electronic Medical Records Reduce Hospital Costs?. American Journal Of Managed Care, 19eSP19-eSP25.
Over the last several years, electronic medical records are becoming more prominent in health care facilities, replacing traditional written records. As many electronics are becoming more prevalent with the invention of numerous smartphones and tablet devices, it seems that making medical records available electronically would be appropriate for the evolving times. Even though they have been in use to some extent for many years, the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has brought paperless documentation into the spotlight” (Eisenberg, 2010, p. 8). The systems of electronic medical records mainly consist of clinical note taking, prescription and medication documentation,
...l for enterprise resource planning implementation¡±, Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Information Systems, Vol. 1, pp. 273-97.
the key impacts on how staff and teams are organized are similar. The most important questioned to address may not be how are staff currently being reorganized in the wake of new technologies, but rather how should staff best be deployed to take full advantages of the potential available. Other than that, to manage electronic records, we need records manager who had skills and information on how to handle the tools to manage those records. Before these recent years, all the records are being managed in form of paper based, so it must be difficult for the records managers who are more familiar with records in paper based to become expert in managing electronic records. They need to be train well on how to manage the electronic records to make them expert on it. It must be take long time to trained the especially if the record managers or staff are older. In addition, consider differences among generations in technology usage during their respective formative, pre-working years, the technological skills and expectation they ultimately bring to the workplace and their influence on work practices and recordkeeping, in particular as their members reach senior professional and managerial positions. Today technological issues offer fewer insurmountable barriers to implementation of sound recordkeeping solutions than do organizational and cultural factors, while technological innovations plays large role in recordkeeping issues and opportunities to deal with them. Because of the lack of skill of the staff, the organization would execute and budgeting staff are accustomed to funding technology projects by trading labor as human for capital as the technology investments, when in fact the necessity to maintain some records in paper form requ...
“An Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are software systems for business management, supporting areas such as planning, manufacturing, sales, marketing, distribution, accounting, finance, human resource management, project management, inventory management, service and maintenance, transportation, and e-business”.( Haag, Cummings, Phillips, S, M, A (2007). Mangement Information Systems. New Yory, NY: The McGraw-Hill Company Inc..)
In order to be more productive and accurate, most of the companies depend on use of technology, with the help of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. (Olsen, and Saetre, 2007).
When planning to implement a document management system, there are many factors to consider. First you have to consider how you want to store your documents, be it electronic, paper format, or both; you have to have adequate storage space. Next you have to decide whether you are going to attempt to archive old documents your organization has in storage. A major factor in determining the format you are going to save your documents in is to decide the length of time you wish to keep you documents and the amount of space you have in which to keep your documents. If you are going to keep your documents in a paper format you have to keep in mind the amount of space it will take to store them. Another consideration when determining storage of your organizations documents is how you want to organize your documents be it chronologically or subject based, you need to decide what works best for your organization. And lastly you have to decide how you are going to take those old documents, created before computers, and turn them in to a format which can be stored electronically. There are many different formats which can be beneficial when keeping an archive of documents. There are many reasons why documents need to be managed. First and foremost they serve as a historical log of where your organization came from and they will help shape where your organization can go in the future. Documents can be a reference of how past projects were worked and offer practical solutions for issues which come up in all projects. Keeping documents can be beneficial for every organization, from keeping records to showing where the organization can go, documents play a part in the every day workings of every organization.
Laudon C. & J. Laudon (2003: 5th edition) Essentials of Management Information Systems. London: Prentice Hall International Limited