This is interesting about turning away patients. Specifically, prior to turning away the patient, the medical screening of the patient would need to be very thorough. My concern with medical screening of the patient, is deciding which patients meet the criteria of a non-urgent needs and refusing them as a patient. Who is at risk if the medical screening is incorrect. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “has taken the position that any medical misadventure, such as an emergency physician (EP) misdiagnosing a patient, is a violation of the screening component of EMTALA” (ED Legal Letter, 2016). According to an article in Healthcare Risk Management (2016), the electronic medical record (EMR) has created some problems for the emergency department (ED). With the ability to cut and paste and having templates, there is not a good documentation of the medical screening exam and the reason for a transfer. …show more content…
Many patients visit the ED because they have no primary care physician. Urgent care centers are great for this reason. However, most of these facilities only take insurance as a form of payment. They are excellent for those patients that need to be treated quickly. According to Shamji, Baier, Gravenstein & Gardner (2014), there are two types of people that visit urgent care centers, those without a regular source of health care who wish to avoid the ED, often because of the perceived inconvenience, and those with a primary care physician (PCP) who feel they do not have adequate access to their physician. Corwin, Parker, & Brown (2016) observed a study of non-urgent conditions by Medicare beneficiaries regarding a role of urgent care centers where they found that Medicare beneficiaries utilize urgent care centers more frequently than emergency departments as an alternative site of care to physician offices for non-urgent
De Tar Hospital should ensure that EMTALA compliance is monitored regularly through internal auditing of emergency department records. Issues identified should be examined against existing policies and procedures to determine whether the problem is an isolated error which may be corrected through education and discipline, or if there is a more systemic problem that calls for major modification of existing policies and procedures. For example transfer records executed by Dr. Burditt and other physicians should be reviewed see if there is a pattern of inappropriate transfers by other physicians or if this is just an isolated incident. Such a proactive approach to addressing EMTALA compliance issues should significantly reduce the hospital’s liability for violation.
Luckily, urgent care centers are a much more affordable alternative to ER visits for non life-threatening illnesses. Typically speaking, a trip to an urgent care center will cost one-fourth the price of the same trip to an emergency room.
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.
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,
Patient abandonment is a form of neglect in which a patient is not provided with care or is provided with inadequate care. Several conditions must be present for a situation to be termed abandonment in the legal sense. Care providers are usually careful to avoid these situations of the legal and ethical liability. Examples of case law on patient abandonment and the termination of professional relationships between medical professionals and the patient, also there could be reasons that have to be mutual and then we will look at the right and wrong of medical professionals and the effects of a medical professional decision from a legal and ethical standpoint. Moreover review the importance of maintaining skills to the point of mastery and review consent whether implied or expressed along with confidentiality, documentation and the security of information.
With today's use of electronic medical records software, information discussed in confidence with your doctor(s) will be recorded into electronic data files. The obvious concern is the potential for your records to be seen by hundreds of strangers who work in health care, the insurance industry, and a host of businesses associated with medical organizations. Fortunately, this catastrophic scenario will likely be avoided. Congress addressed growing public concern about privacy and security of personal health data, and in 1996 passed “The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act” (HIPAA). HIPAA sets the national standard for electronic transfers of health data.
The federal government has encouraged EHR use in hopes that it will significantly improve patient care. There is the intent that electronic health records will allow any provider access to important patient health information no matter where the patient is, while “creating a comprehensive national electronic health information network that leads to a reduction in the duplication of tests, an improvement in the cost-effectiveness of interventions, and the ability to compile a comprehensive patient history” (McBride, Delaney, Tietze, 2012). While the implementation of EHR’s has good intent, an important question is, “How are the implementation of EHRs having an effect on emergency nursing and patient care?”
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1998 (EMTALA), health providers by law are supposed to follow the federal guidelines and the EMTALA when you work in an emergency medical care at certain hospitals (facilities that participate in Medicare-includes 98% of hospitals in the United States (U.S.)). This also means that any part of the hospital that can perform an evaluation and treatment of EMC is considered an ED., for example, a women's hospital that delivers babies is subject to EMTALA. As a health care professional under this law, you have to make sure that every person entering a hospital in need or requesting receives a medical screening examination (MSE), and an emergency medical condition (EMC) evaluation to determine
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.
With the emergence of urgent care clinics, consumers now have another option when it comes time to receiving medical treatment. Often an illness arises during times when a person’s doctor is not available, such as at night or on weekends. This is when urgent care clinics can help.
Health expenditures can be separated into different categories, such as, in-patient care, out-patient care, pharmaceuticals, public health and administration, etc. The hospital market in the United States is uncoordinated, duplicating specialized care without enough volume in most of them to make procedures affordable (Govindarajan & Ramamurti, 2013). American healthcare is expensive for the following reasons. First, administrative costs are high due to poor management between the providers and the newly implemented Electronic Health Record (EHR), which could decrease wasteful services. It can also help if patients want to go to another hospital where they can easily have another physician.
Medical facilities have to follow certain guidelines. They have to insure patient’s privacy in all areas. The medical facility has to protect the patient medical records and all healthcare information for the patient. If paper files are still in use at the medical facility, it should be stored, where it can be locked at close of business. Also, medical files should not be kept where individuals, other than those that need to use them, have access to them. Electronic medical records are being pushed for all facilities, large or small. The thought is less chance of someone having access that should not. There are firewalls, password use, encryption and other means of protecting electronic health records.
Electronic medical records (EMR) have been implemented for this. The EMR has access controls like passwords and PINs to make sure only authorised staff can access certain medical records. Nurses can maintain confidentiality in practice by following the policies and procedures of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, the NMBA, HIPAA, the company and their systems like EMR. Nurses use laws to guide their decision-making, these laws are provided through policies, procedures and required training. This guides nurses’ decisions on how to provide high-quality health care by following the key professional legal frameworks that direct them when in practice.
Ambulatory services have developed new diagnostic and treatment procedures surgeries are less invasive with shorter acting anesthetics have drastically dropped the recuperation time. Now some office based physician have expanded their ability to do ambulatory diagnostic, treatment and surgical services. The cost of getting this type of technology has become more feasible and cost effective. Prior authorization policies for inpatient admission and close monitoring during hospitalization stays have discourage lengthy hospital stays. Due to the growth of managed care and consolidation of large hospital-centered institutions, physicians have lost control over the delivery of medical care. Now more physicians are starting specialized ambulatory care centers and they are able to perform more procedures in less time while earning higher incomes. Many of the Ambulatory clinics are in the suburbs because patient tends to like the at home feeling. They dislike the feeling of being institutionalized and prefer to stay in their own
As mentioned previously, caring is an extremely important part of nursing and also something that cannot be learned or taught in a school setting. It is generally something that someone is born with or may learn over a period of time and through certain experiences. The term caring involves looking after the needs of an individual whether the needs at mental, physical or spiritual. This includes not only caring for the person as a patient in a hospital setting, but truly caring about their wellbeing and working hard to ensure that their needs are being met. In addition, truly caring for a person can greatly impact that individual when they realize that someone is concerned and invested in helping them.