H12: Electronic Healthcare Records, Plain and Simple

Information Systems (IS), or Information Technology (IT) as it is sometimes called, is playing a critical role in all our healthcare organizations today. It is permeating our hospitals, our clinics, our homes, our pharmacies and every aspect of our lives. If implemented correctly, it has the potential of making healthcare processes more efficient and maximizing patient and user experience. If implemented incorrectly, it can wreak havoc.

Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs) perform many functions including::

• Storage of Patient Information

• Minimizing medical errors

• Better communcation among healthcare providers

• Assisting healthcare professionals in making better decisions

• Streamling of processes within the healthcare organization

• Better co-ordination of services

The topics covered in this course are:

• Digital vs paper patient records

• The need for a unified view of our records

• Key components of an EHR system

• Who owns the data?

• Meaningful Use

• A Patient story about access

• Physiican Burnout.

The basic concepts behind Healthcare Information Systems are often presented in a very complex, difficult to understand style. This "PLAIN AND SIMPLE" series on Healthcare Information Systems is different. It strives to introduce the basic concepts of information technology and systems in a very simple and easy to understand format using many examples from both non-healthcare and healthcare environments. This course is targeted at the entry level (Basic and Intermediate Level) learner.

The content of the series is based on the author's 35 years experience in the healthcare information systems business. This experience spans product design and launch, marketing, business development and executive management (including president). In addition, it is based on 15 years teaching at the graduate level in the University environment.