NURS504 Statistics In Nursing Research
Question:
Researching Database Solutions
Many health care organizations and other businesses use database software to manage the flow of information and make important decisions.
Assume you have been asked to serve on a project team for end-users of database software. Your current employer or a fictitious local medical office wants to use an electronic method to store demographic information (person’s name, address, contact information, insurance information, etc) as well as personal health history (clinical diagnosis, tests results, appointment notes, etc). This software needs to be accessible by all employees in the office. Research various database applications used in health care settings. Prepare a 1-2 page report to:
- Identify all of the types of information you would need related to patients (e.g. address, insurance information, test results, etc.)
- Research various health care database applications currently available. Select two to compare that may satisfy the medical office’s information management needs.
- Describe how the two databases work and why they are used.
- Your comparison should end with your assessment of which would work better for your facility.
Answer:
Introduction
The following paper will briefly discuss the components of such an application which is relevant for the concerned healthcare facility.
Types of Information
It is imperative that information on patient demographics is incorporated within the software. Additionally, to ensure accurate diagnosis and intervention implementation information pertaining to vital signs, medications, medical history, medications, diagnosis both primary and differential, notes of progress or deterioration, dates of immunization, presence of any allergies or intolerances, images of radiological tests and results of blood tests or lab reports (Adler-Milstein et al., 2015). To ensure quality control and analysis of services delivered, the application must also contain information on administrative processes implemented during patient admission, hospital stay, discharge and billing (Birkhead, Klompas & Shah, 2015).
Database Applications
Description
A popularly used healthcare application which can be used, is ‘Epic’, developed by Epic Systems. This application will allow the local medical office to incorporate information across all process from patient registration to discharge, as well provide separate database systems for nurses, doctors, lab technicians, emergency department, radiologists, pharmacists and insurers within the same application. A key drawback however is the absence of sharing patient information across applications developed by manufacturers other than Epic Systems (Poeng et al., 2019).
In comparison, the healthcare software application system developed by Cerner Corporation allows sharing information across platforms along with prevalence of customization allowing staff across all departments to chart and update information. Cerner’s user interface also allows nurses, administrators and clinicians to update information conveniently and in less time. However, this applications lacks any feature to save automatically and does not allow linking of external patient information such as scanned documents (Feinstein et al., 2019).
Final Verdict
From the above the comparison, it can be observed that while both applications are internationally popular due to their comprehensive functioning, both possess limitations which may hinder the quality and patient satisfaction pertaining to the concerned local medical office. However, based on the above comparison, Epic Systems as compared to Cerner, seems a better recommendation for designing the medical office’s healthcare management application software (Lougheed, 2019). This is because of Cerner’s major drawback of not possessing a feature for automatically saving updated clinical data, which may hinder reviewing of patient progress as well as result in a delay of documentation activities. Another key drawback, is the lack of any feature in Cerner which can link additional patient data like scanned patient documents with the original handover, hence compelling the health professional to lose precious work hours by manually adding information (Andresen, Schussler & Sowards, 2018).
While the healthcare management software by Epic does cause concerns for sharing information across rival platforms, Epic Systems has recently launched an online update, known as ‘Share Everywhere’ allowing patients to grant permission to healthcare professionals using different software to access records and relay progress information. The local medical office can hence, implement this update to ensure smooth workforce functioning and patient convenience (Coustasse et al., 2018).
Conclusion
To manage the medical office’s healthcare information, top rated database applications like Cerner and Epic Systems will prove to be useful. It is however advisable that a careful comparative study be conducted prior to final implementation of the healthcare management application.
References
Adler-Milstein, J., DesRoches, C. M., Kralovec, P., Foster, G., Worzala, C., Charles, D., … & Jha, A. K. (2015). Electronic health record adoption in US hospitals: progress continues, but challenges persist. Health affairs, 34(12), 2174-2180.
Andresen, P., Schussler, M., & Sowards, K. (2018). Why Physicians Switch Electronic Health Record Vendors. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 1-13.
Birkhead, G. S., Klompas, M., & Shah, N. R. (2015). Uses of electronic health records for public health surveillance to advance public health. Annual review of public health, 36, 345-359.
Coustasse, A., Andresen, P., Schussler, M., Sowards, K., & Kimble, C. (2018). Why Physicians Switch Electronic Health Record Vendors. Perspectives in Health Information Management.
Feinstein, J. A., Lindenauer, P. K., Feudtner, C., & Fisher, B. T. (2019). Inpatient Databases. Pharmacoepidemiology, 290.
Lougheed, T. (2019). How American EMRs came to dominate Canadian health care. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, 191(26), E749.
Poeng, R., Cheikhali, N., McGrory, M., & Dave, J. K. (2019, March). On the feasibility of Epic electronic medical record system for tracking patient radiation doses following interventional fluoroscopy procedures. In Medical Imaging 2019: Imaging Informatics for Healthcare, Research, and Applications (Vol. 10954, p. 109540P). International Society for Optics and Photonics.
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