Healthcare providers have been tasked with, and are quickly adopting and establishing, electronic health record (EHR) systems due to the mandated federal legislation known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. In summary, this twenty seven billion dollar piece of legislation was created as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Through incentivizing adoption of EHRs and setting of “Meaningful Use” standards, providers must show evidence of utilizing Health Information Technology (HIT) to improve quality of care and health outcomes of patients. Additionally, the should also be a subsequent lowering of costs as evidenced by reduction of repeated medical tests, and reduction
…show more content…
Automatically imported data such as lab values, etc. are commonplace in many of the EHR systems. Providers/clinicians are at risk if they were to inadvertently import clinical findings that are not within their scope to address, yet, they accidently sign or verify the data (Youngstrom, 2010). Other written notes that are copied and pasted may contain additional large amounts of data and look quite similar, displaying repeated information that is no longer correct (Hirschtick, 2006).Documentation created through the use of templates also carries serious financial ramifications as to billing and coding, thus opening up a quandary of other financial legal liabilities. Another legal consideration involves problems regarding usability, quality, and reliability of currently available EHRs bring about complex legal concerns (Jonson, 2009). For instance, the “hold harmless” clause in many EHR contracts severely encumbers providers reporting EHR-related concerns (Koppel & Kreda, 2009). To improve current EHR's capabilities providers must be able, at a minimum, to report safety concerns without fear of …show more content…
For instance, many facilities use audit logs to justify disciplinary actions against employees who access EHRs without proper permissions (Moran, 2009). What recourse is appropriate for clear violations of EHR use guidelines if, for instance, an employee is pulled away from their workstation emergently while logged in, and a bystander accesses files. Or, as has happened for employees who are patient advocates in facilities, accessing files is a requirement for all patients, to include family members who have given their express
Automatically imported data such as lab values, etc. are commonplace in many of the EHR systems. Providers/clinicians are at risk if they were to inadvertently import clinical findings that are not within their scope to address, yet, they accidently sign or verify the data (Youngstrom, 2010). Other written notes that are copied and pasted may contain additional large amounts of data and look quite similar, displaying repeated information that is no longer correct (Hirschtick, 2006).Documentation created through the use of templates also carries serious financial ramifications as to billing and coding, thus opening up a quandary of other financial legal liabilities. Another legal consideration involves problems regarding usability, quality, and reliability of currently available EHRs bring about complex legal concerns (Jonson, 2009). For instance, the “hold harmless” clause in many EHR contracts severely encumbers providers reporting EHR-related concerns (Koppel & Kreda, 2009). To improve current EHR's capabilities providers must be able, at a minimum, to report safety concerns without fear of …show more content…
For instance, many facilities use audit logs to justify disciplinary actions against employees who access EHRs without proper permissions (Moran, 2009). What recourse is appropriate for clear violations of EHR use guidelines if, for instance, an employee is pulled away from their workstation emergently while logged in, and a bystander accesses files. Or, as has happened for employees who are patient advocates in facilities, accessing files is a requirement for all patients, to include family members who have given their express