Every healthcare facilty should utilize the electronic medication Essay

Every healthcare facilty should utilize the electronic medication administrtion record to help reduce medication errors - Essay Example This system is an electronic record of resident patient medication, thus improving efficiency and reducing human-based errors. The Electronic Medication Administration Record The Electronic Medication Administration Record (EMAR) is a technology system supported by enhanced computerized systems that allow for more efficient ordering and dosing of patient/resident medications in the hospital and other clinical environments. The EMAR system is implemented in health care facilities to improve interaction between patients and nurses, the physician staff, and also to reduce errors. Additionally, EMAR systems are designed to replace traditional paper systems for similar activities related to medication, thus improving costs for the organization by changing the dynamics of inter-office activities. The Institute of Medicine provides statistics regarding medication errors that continue to contribute to hospital liability claims. According to the Institute, more than a million injuries and nea rly 100,000 deaths occur annually due to errors (Hook, Pearlstein, Samarth & Cusack, 2008). Errors that occur are costly to the hospital and, in the long-term, raise prices for other patients when hospitals are forced to increase the costs of health care service in order to pay ongoing liability claims. Because of these high statistics, the need for improving the medication dosing and ordering systems are necessary. From a marketing perspective, hospitals that raise prices too extensively will lose patient business. When coupled with negative publicity from a hospital or other health care facility that faces liability suits in the court system, it is likely that patients will avoid this facility in favor of another. More Advantages of EMAR As identified, the electronic medication administration record provides for a paperless environment. This improves efficiency and also reduces the costs of office supplies and other important forms from a supply chain perspective. However, the mor e important benefit of EMAR is the ability to share medicinal data with internal sources and external partners in a method that is efficient, safe to security from an IT perspective, and improve the efficiency of the entire health network. This information can be shared via electronic data exchange with ambulance services, patients and health network payers (Garets & Davis, 2006). Currently, interactive communications with health network payers or the use of complicated forms are necessary to achieve results. With the EMAR, such transactions can occur instantly in the virtual environment, thereby improving efficiency in this process. The ability to share this data with ambulance services also provides a new training opportunity and improves the instantaneous knowledge of patient medical records in a real-time service environment. Ambulatory systems can understand whether any potential interactions might occur when they are providing trauma or other services en route to the hospital. It is an ideal model for improving communications between off-site service personnel and the hospital environment. A recent study identified frustrations with nurses that occur because of inefficiency in the workplace. â€Å"They want technology to reduce demand on nursing time by eliminating waste in care resulting from inefficient workflow†

Evidence Based Medicine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Evidence Based Medicine - Essay Example They point out that the journals have a scholarly rather than practical approach to solving clinical matters at hand, (Department of Medical Sociology, 1998). With the aim of exploring the barriers that GPs face in the implementation of EBM in routine clinical work and identifying possible strategies in its integration in daily work; studies have been carried out to explore this phenomenon in various parts of the world. One such study was carried out by Kenneth S Yew (MD) and Alfred Reid (MA) from the Uniformed Services University and The University of North Carolina respectively, (Physicians for the twenty-first century, 1984). They held focus group discussions with 10 General Practitioners (GPs) in public and private practice in the randomly selected from Charlotte and its environs. The aim was to find out the long term effects of teaching Critical Appraisal and Evidence Based Medicine on practicing physicians. Their goal was to explore ways in which the long-term outcomes of an integrated CA/EMB curriculum could be evaluated using a qualitative analysis of self-reported use of the two skills in everyday medical practice. Their secondary goal was to find out barriers to CA/EMB application. Reinhold Wentz has estimated that 50,000 physicians, students and health care workers receive training each year, Wentz R. (2001). P Participants mentioned that they had found the approach they used in residency was still helpful to them in situations that they faced as full time GPs, but only in circumstances that allowed them to search and reflect. However, where they immediately had patients to deal with, they preferred to rely on their own intuition and experience. A good number of them expressed guilt that they were not applying the EBM methods even though they were fully aware of how useful these were. Consequently, when it came to the question of barriers, almost all those interviewed were unanimous that time was the main culprit. Some pointed out that where they had to choose between attending to patients and making references, they often found themselves opting for the former. About 30% of the respondents said that they applied the EBM methods regularly but not when resolving an immediate clinical question. Conversely, all the participants were also unanimous on the importance of attending CME courses and as a matter of fact they did attend them. They were sure that they valued keeping up to date as it gave them immense satisfaction. 2% of the participants identified CME as their primary self-learning method. All reported that they regularly read journals while 5% read their specialty society journal regularly. About half also identified teaching and questions arising from patients as their main incentive for learning. Apart from luck of time, the participants also mentioned that the nature of their work kept them constantly under pressure to produce clinically. The majority expressed frustration at this constant pressure to perform, a common sentiment among GPs. Barnett SH et al (2000). Unfortunately, none of them associated performing in their duties with applying EBM since they mostly regarded this as a drawback on quick efficiency. Yet they all felt that they could do their work muc h better if they found the space in their punishing schedules to make references a little more and keep up to date. They figured