Running head: Milestone One
HIM 220 Milestone One
Teishalyn Erkard-Intravichit
Southern New Hampshire University
Milestone One
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Alpha is looking to overhaul its current health records management system entirely. This
organization now maintains a hybrid system of paper documentation and electronic scheduling
and is looking to move all service lines into a robust EHR that will manage the hospital,
emergency, ICU, and trauma center. This EHR will also have to cover designated care and
auxiliary service areas of this institution. The scope of services administered by this institution is
wide-ranging and varied -- everything from Emergency to Family Practice will have to be
considered when building the best possible EHR for this organization. There is also the
consideration of outpatient rehab and community wellness. Secure and seamless information
sharing is primary but must be accessible, user-friendly, and scalable. It should also take into
account updates in technology and how this is leveraged in the healthcare sphere. To make this
possible, the following stakeholders would need to be included in this selection process:
Physicians -- Chief of Staff/Heads of each department needing EHR access
Pharmacist -- Chief Pharmacy Officer/Head of Hospital Pharmacy/Head of Pharmacy
for Auxiliary Services
Nurses -- Chief of Nursing/Lead Nurses on each shift and Nurses from designated
care and auxiliary services
With the implementation of this system, several health informatics applications should
focus on patient and staff support. The introduction of Telemedicine would be essential for the
location of health information and communication tools that can improve patient/physician
communication and care management. This option also provides an increase in the overall
quality and accuracy of a patient medical record. As this is not an expensive service to
implement but one of the most convenient and productive ways to enhance care, its inclusion
Milestone One
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would be one of the most important aspects of any new EHR system. In the same vein, adding a
Mobile Technology option would also provide further access and increased management.
Patients and physicians have access to portals for medications and tracking of overall health
This option would also meld well with the telehealth and mobile options as appointments could
be set and conducted through handheld devices, effectively giving all parties unlimited access
when needed.
While implementing these strategies, there will be requirements for privacy and security
that will need to be followed. The HIPAA Security Rule is foremost. This establishes minimum
security standards, but we will want to go beyond them as technology updates and expands.
Security standards for EHR, and ePHI will cover creation, receiving, maintaining, and
transmission of information inside and outside of Alpha. There are several standard safeguards
required -- Administrative, Physical, Organizational, and Policies and Procedures. All are meant
to prevent and detect, contain and correct security violations. The development of measures to
protect and manage the information used in the practice would be set down in the initial security
risk analysis. Especially as this practice is effectively going from paper to electronic in this
transition. [ CITATION Dep1