NURS FPX 6214 Assessment 4 Staff Training Session
Staff Training Session
The staff training session will revolve around the training of healthcare providers about the effective use of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. The training session will aim to educate the healthcare providers about the integration of healthcare services with ICT, updating patient information, recognizing trends in healthcare disparities, monitoring patients, providing remote healthcare services, and other aspects of the EHR system.
Purpose and Use of New Technology
Specific Purpose
The purpose and use of the introduction, installation, and implementation of the EHR system is to reduce healthcare disparities, improve the quality and safety of healthcare that is offered to the patients, reduce medication errors, adverse events, near-miss events, 30-day readmission rates, and to reduce mortality and morbidity rates in the patients. Along with this, the purpose of the introduction of the EHR system is to reduce the cost of therapy, to provide cost-effective healthcare services to patients, and to improve patient experience in the hospital. It is introduced to improve the satisfaction rate of the patients, to bridge gaps in the communication and collaboration process to provide effective healthcare services and to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the patient’s information (Aguirre et al., 2019).
Use of EHR
The use of an EHR system is to prevent medication errors through its inbuilt alarm and warning system. Organize patient information and keep the information in a well-documented, organized, and safe manner. It helps to increase the compliance of patients to the healthcare regimes and medication plans which ensures better healthcare outcomes. This is accomplished by increasing the awareness of patients about their healthcare plan, the benefits of complying with the therapy, and the importance of completing the prescribed period of medications. Along with this, telling the patients about the risks and harms associated with non-compliance to medications also increases the patient’s compliance with the healthcare plan (Baily et al., 2019). The EHR system increases the patient’s involvement in their healthcare plan by interacting with the user portals. This also increased the one-on-one interaction of healthcare providers with their patients which reduced barriers to communication, collaboration, and the use of EHR systems (Lyles et al., 2020).
Intended Users
The intended users of the EHR system is for the healthcare providers belonging to various backgrounds (including nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and doctors) and for patients. These individuals are the intended users as the healthcare providers will provide healthcare services to the patients who require them.
How will the technology be Used?
NURS FPX 6214 Assessment 4 Staff Training Session
The technology will be used to provide safe and effective healthcare services to patients. It will be used after the implementation process has been completed. Healthcare providers will be encouraged to use it on a daily basis for all of their patients. This will be made possible as the older system will have been removed and substituted for the newer one. The safety will be maintained for patient information by following the guidelines of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). The safety and effectiveness of the care will be maintained by evaluating and assessing the various interaction of medications in the prescribed healthcare plan. Along with this, as the access to healthcare records of the patient would be accessible by multiple healthcare providers, they will countercheck the patients’ healthcare regime to ensure that there are no possible errors. Furthermore, the inbuilt system of the EHR ensures that there are no drug-drug interactions and that the patient is provided with safe care (Lawrence et al., 2019).
Limitation
The limitation of the EHR system is that it will take time before effective healthcare services are offered to the patients as the healthcare providers are not proficient in the use of the EHR system. Along with this, the lack of following HIPAA guidelines can lead to a breach of privacy and confidentiality of patient information. This can lead to the misuse of patient information.
Potential Risks & Benefits of New Technology
Risks
The use of the EHR system has numerous advantages however, it also has lots of risks and disadvantages associated with its use. To prevent the harms associated with the risk of the system, healthcare providers must be aware of them to ensure the safety of their patients. The risks associated with the technology are:
- Privacy and Confidentiality
Theft of patient information leads to misuse and exposure of sensitive information such as ID card details, credit card information, house address, fingerprints, facial recognition, etc. All of this can hamper the privacy offered to the patients which may lead to patient dissatisfaction.
- Malfunction of the system
Malfunction of the system is associated with wrong patient matching. In this error, the system is unable to keep track of the patient’s information and data and mixes/ confuses it with the data of another patient. The software of the system mismatches the patient’s information and shares wrong information with the healthcare providers and the patients. As a result, the patient undergoes treatment for wrong healthcare issues or co-morbidities which contributes to an increase in healthcare disparities and increases the morbidity and mortality rate.
- System corruption
System corruption contributes to the loss of patient information and data through the EHR system. The system gets corrupted due to malware which leads to partial or permanent loss of patients’ data. This creates immense healthcare problems for the healthcare system and the patients as they had no planned backup. This leads to a prolonged period for the provision of healthcare services as the hospital will need to re-collect and re-analyze patients’ information (Mc Cord et al., 2019).
Benefits
The benefits of the EHR system are numerous as compared to its risks or disadvantages. These benefits are mentioned below:
- Patient-centered healthcare
- Justified and safe care
- Alarm or Warning system to indicate possible adverse events, medication errors, and near-miss events
- Increase patient involvement in the healthcare regimes
- Increase awareness about compliance with medication therapy
- Reduces the cost of therapy for the patients
- Increase the accessibility of healthcare services to the population
- Remote healthcare services
- Reduce readmission rates as quality and safety of care increase.
NURS FPX 6214 Assessment 4 Staff Training Session
The above-mentioned benefits of the EHR system contribute to the effectiveness and safety of healthcare services that are offered to patients.
Reasons for not choosing the Technology
The organization may not choose the technology due to the above-mentioned risks. Along with this, some other reasons which may contribute to the organization not choosing the technology is the cost of the EHR system. The purchase, installation, and implementation of the system are costly and the cost of repair is even higher. Another factor associated with the rejection of the system selection is the lack of access of patients to remote healthcare services. This is due to the lack of availability of technological aids and internet availability issues. Along with the high cost of purchase for the patients as well (Mc Cord et al., 2019).
Successful Deployment of New Technology
Factors for Successful Deployment
The new technology will be able to successfully deploy following the proper installation process. This would be coupled with adequate knowledge of healthcare providers to use the technology effectively to provide safe and quality care to the patients. The ability of healthcare providers to collaborate and communicate with each other and the patients will play a vital role in the successful deployment of the EHR system.
Collaboration and communication are necessary to provide effective healthcare services because the leading cause of adverse events, near-miss events, and medication errors is due to miscommunication (Ifrim et al., 2022). Eliminating the factor of miscommunication will provide a successful implementation of the EHR system as coordinated and patient-centered care will be offered. Another factor will play an important role in the successful deployment of the new technology that is the ability of healthcare to effectively learn and adopt the usage of the EHR system to provide care to patients (Williams et al., 2022).
The healthcare providers will be trained through a series of conferences and sessions which will provide them with step-by-step guidelines for the smooth operation of the EHR system. These sessions will start a month before the implementation of the EHR system and will go through until a month after the successful implementation of the EHR system. The sessions and conferences will aim to increase the learning of the healthcare providers so that they face minimum problems while practically working with the EHR system.
Training of Patients and Families
Nurses will be responsible for providing training for the patients and their families for the effective usage of the EHR system. Training strategies such as group strategies will be employed to ensure that all of the patients are aware of the use of the technologies. The healthcare providers will make teams that will be responsible for educating the patients in different departments of Vila Health regarding the use of the EHR system. The healthcare providers will distribute brochures and pamphlets which will provide a detailed guide on how to use the EHR system (Dirks, 2019).
Training Requirements
The training requirements which will be required are the vast knowledge of healthcare providers especially the nurses to use the EHR system. Along with this, the nurses must have real-life experience with the use of technology to facilitate and solve the queries of the patients. Most importantly access to the EHR system must be available at the time of the training sessions to allow the patients to have live interaction with the technology.
Training Strategies
Coaching, Instructor-led Training, Interactive Training, and Onsite and Online based Training are some of the training strategies which will be employed for training the patients about the effective use of the EHR system. These training strategies are appropriate as they will provide interactive learning sessions which will ensure the active participation of patients (Noh & Kim, 2019).
Knowledge Gaps
Knowledge gaps such as the lack of knowledge of patients about the EHR system create a hindrance for them to get remote healthcare services. Along with this, the lack of awareness about the system’s ability to reduce healthcare disparities by reducing preventable errors leads contributes to knowledge gaps.
Patient Confidentiality and Privacy
Patient confidentiality and privacy are ethical concerns that must be protected under all circumstances. Healthcare providers have pledged to protect the rights and information of patient’s information under the ethical and moral principles of conduct. Following this pledge, healthcare providers are bound to protect patients’ information regardless of the means deployed to provide healthcare service (Keenan et al., 2021).
Inherent Risks
The technology does pose inherent risks to patients’ confidentiality and privacy. The system has an inbuilt protective system that encrypts the data during the system interoperability of data but the information can easily be hacked and can be misused. Numerous companies and people in the black market pay high prices to get hands-on patient information. This information can be used to blackmail, forge identities, scam people, hijack bank accounts, etc. It is a criminal offense but data theft is common and many innocent people lose their lives worth in social, financial, and economic standing (Basel et al., 2022).
NURS FPX 6214 Assessment 4 Staff Training Session
This can be prevented by the use of safe and secure internet connections, use of spyware and virus protection systems, double verification and authentication systems, limited access provided only to the relevant healthcare providers, restrict use to hospital-provided gadgets only, and implementation of server policies for data breaching on employees. This will help to protect patient confidentiality and privacy. The new technology does not raise any questions which should be addressed. It has in-depth information regarding its usage and functions as mentioned above.
Assumptions
Assumptions on which the safeguards are based are the guidelines provided by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and HITECH (Health Information Technology for Clinical Health Act) which have laid down the foundation for the effective protection of patient information. It has provided a firm ground for the privacy and confidentiality of patient information through digital healthcare systems (Theodos & Sittig, 2020).
Assess the Effectiveness of the New Technology
The organization will assess the effectiveness of the new technology through the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle. The PDSA cycle will be used 45 days after the successful implementation of the EHR system. It will analyze, assess, and evaluate the data from the EHR system and will provide insight into the benefits associated with the system. It will provide a positive response if the system’s introduction has reduced medication errors, adverse events, near-miss events, readmission rates, mortality, and morbidity rates. If the response is satisfactory i.e. if the healthcare outcomes for the patients have improved, the plan would be a success. If however, the outcomes are not as they were expected, changes will be made to the care process, and the EHR system will be evaluated after 45 days of the implementation of changes. This will help in the effective analysis of healthcare technology (Kiepek & Sengstack, 2019).
Criteria for Evaluation of Effectiveness
The criteria for evaluation of effectiveness that could be used are the reduction in the 30-day readmission rate, reduction in medication errors, reduction in near-miss events and adverse events, and reduction in mortality and morbidity rates.
Ongoing Training and Technical Support
Ongoing training will be available for nursing staff throughout the 1 month of the implementation process of the EHR system. They will be having sessions and conferences with the IT staff and will be undergoing constant training for learning the technology effectively. These sessions will be constituted of online sessions and onsite sessions. Online sessions will be conducted through Google Meet, Zoom, Huddles, Skype sessions, etc. Technical support will be provided by the Nursing Informaticist and the IT team who will collaborate to help the nursing staff to learn the effective use of the EHR system.
Knowledge Gaps
Knowledge gaps are associated with the limited knowledge and capacity of healthcare providers to learn the use of technology to integrate healthcare services with ICT. The limited knowledge hinders the effective provision of healthcare services to patients as the primary healthcare providers have less expertise in the EHR system (Weinschreider et al., 2022).
Conclusion
The staff meeting will thoroughly explain the benefits and risks associated with the use of an EHR system. The requirements and strategies that are required to help in the effective implementation of the EHR system. The need for collaboration and communication to reduce errors caused by miscommunication to ensure safe and quality care for the patients.
References
Aguirre, R. R., Suarez, O., Fuentes, M., & Sanchez-Gonzalez, M. A. (2019). Electronic health record implementation: A review of resources and tools. Cureus, 11(9), e5649. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5649
Bailey, S. C., Wallia, A., Wright, S., Wismer, G. A., Infanzon, A. C., Curtis, L. M., Brokenshire, S. A., Chung, A. E., Reuland, D. S., Hahr, A. J., Hornbuckle, K., Lockwood, K., Hall, L., & Wolf, M. S. (2019). Electronic health record-based strategy to promote medication adherence among patients with diabetes: Longitudinal observational study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(10), e13499. https://doi.org/10.2196/13499
Basil, N. N., Ambe, S., Ekhator, C., & Fonkem, E. (2022). Health records database and inherent security concerns: A review of the literature. Cureus, 14(10), e30168. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.30168
Dirks J. L. (2019). Effective strategies for teaching teamwork. Critical Care Nurse, 39(4), 40–47. https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2019704
Ifrim, R. A., Klugarová, J., Măguriță, D., Zazu, M., Mazilu, D. C., & Klugar, M. (2022). Communication, an important link between healthcare providers: A best practice implementation project. JBI Evidence Implementation, 20(S1), S41–S48. https://doi.org/10.1097/XEB.0000000000000319
Keenan, A. J., Tsourtos, G., & Tieman, J. (2021). The value of applying ethical principles in telehealth practices: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(3), e25698. https://doi.org/10.2196/25698
Kiepek, W., & Sengstack, P. P. (2019). An evaluation of system end-user support during implementation of an electronic health record using the model for improvement framework. Applied Clinical Informatics, 10(5), 964–971. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0039-3402450
Lawrence, J. E., Cundall-Curry, D., Stewart, M. E., Fountain, D. M., & Gooding, C. R. (2019). The use of an electronic health record system reduces errors in the National Hip Fracture Database. Age and Ageing, 48(2), 285–290. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afy177
Lyles, C. R., Nelson, E. C., Frampton, S., Dykes, P. C., Cemballi, A. G., & Sarkar, U. (2020). Using electronic health record portals to improve patient engagement: Research priorities and best practices. Annals of Internal Medicine, 172(11 Suppl), S123–S129. https://doi.org/10.7326/M19-0876
Mc Cord, K. A., Ewald, H., Ladanie, A., Briel, M., Speich, B., Bucher, H. C., Hemkens, L. G., & RCD for RCTs initiative and the Making Randomized Trials More Affordable Group (2019). Current use and costs of electronic health records for clinical trial research: A descriptive study. CMAJ Open, 7(1), E23–E32. https://doi.org/10.9778/cmajo.20180096
Noh, G. O., & Kim, D. H. (2019). Effectiveness of a self-directed learning program using blended coaching among nursing students in clinical practice: A quasi-experimental research design. BMC Medical Education, 19(1), 225. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1672-1
Theodos, K., & Sittig, S. (2020). Health information privacy laws in the digital age: HIPAA doesn’t apply. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 18(Winter), 1l.
Weinschreider, J., Sisk, H., & Jungquist, C. (2022). Electronic health record knowledge, skills, and attitudes among newly graduated nurses: A scoping review. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 53(11), 505–512. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20221006-08
Williams, V. N., McManus, B. M., Brooks-Russell, A., Yost, E., Allison, M. A., Olds, D. L., & Tung, G. J. (2022). A qualitative study of effective collaboration among nurse home visitors, healthcare providers, and community support services in the United States. Health & Social Care in The Community, 30(5), 1881–1893. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13567
