Career Center >> Allied Health and Support Careers >> The Electronic Health Record: Not Just a Futuristic Concept
The Electronic Health Record: Not Just a Futuristic Concept
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Posted 5 months ago I would like to discuss the implementation of the EHR. This is not just a concept that might some day come to fruition, it is happening and it is changing the way healthcare is delivered, monitored, covered financially and just about every other aspect of healthcare. Although the ultimate goal of the EHR is to increase the efficiency and accuracy of healthcare delivery, decrease medical errors, increase communication between physicians and specialist regarding patient care across the continuum and many other countless benefits; many people are going to find themselves left behind, including the elderly, the uneducated and people who are resistant to change. There are many professionals in the workforce who are going to have to find new careers. As the EHR evolves, it is going to be a more technical job to be able to access and manage it. Younger people are not cognitive about a time before all of the technological advances that exist today, there are still people out there who have never owned a cell phone or a computer. Many people over 30 did not grow up using cell phones, PCs, texting devices, etc. Alot of professionals, who may have 10, 20, or 30 years working with an organization, will soon find themselves either seeking further education and training or seeking a new job. As technology advances, employers are going to be expecting more out their employees. In a world where instant gratification is the norm and impatience is the new virtue, consumers are expecting better, faster and more efficient services for less money. If one company cannot offer quick results and satisfaction, there are plenty of others who can. I guess this is not just about the EHR, but the healthcare realm in general. This is an urgent message for all professionals of the healthcare world, from the file clerks, to the radiology techs, to the surgeons: Don't ever be content with where you are, be a perpetual learner and always try and advance your knowledge, because technology is going to keep changing and shaping our world. If we don't stay on board by being proactive, we will get left behind. |
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| Posted 5 months ago andij, I am so glad you brought this up! I am extremely curious about how EHRs will play out in the future of the healthcare industry. I had always thought about the privacy issues, and I had never realized the impact EHRs might have on careers! It's true, many healthcare professionals will have to play catch-up in order to adapt to the new technology. And what about the millions of people who may not know how to work the system from home (uploading their own health information)? Will there be any training provided? Or will they be left to learn this new system on their own? Georgia Price
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| Posted 5 months ago I'm sure there will have to be some kind of on the job training or something. I live near a veteran's hospital, where they are on a total EHR and they had make sure everyone there knew how to run the system, before implementation. I don't see the training as big of an issue as the resistance that will be met. Especially when it comes to medical records. Alot of people who work in medical records have been in their organization for years, and may not even have ANY formal training. Back in the day, we needed no formal training in dealing with medical records. They may know their department better than anyone in the world, but once we go the the EHR, that knowledge will be useless and alot of older people are very resistant to change and intimidated by computers and technology. It is these people that I fear for the most. I feel that this is a foreshadowing of what is to come...you know how, when you look at healthcare job postings, and it's overwhelming how many RN positions that are out there? Well, in the next few years, I feel it will be the same way for Registered Health Information Technicians and Administrators. That is why I chose this path for myself. |
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| Posted 5 months ago andij - You sound very prepared for the future. I don't know how I would adapt to these changing times if I was an active pharmacist today. I have beenr reading up on e-prescriptions, and I have to say that I think it's a great idea. The more information we have on a patient, the better we can track them and their medications. As for EHRs, I agree that seasoned medical records employees may have a difficult time finding their groove with the new system. I do not see how this can be compared to the nursing shortage, though. Do you think these older people will leave the field because they won't be able to handle the new technology? What would create a vast shortage of employees in medical records? I dont' think nurses were resistant to the changing times. I think they have been adapting swimmingly. |
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| Posted 2 months ago I didn't learn how to use this in school but when I went to my intern site this summer they just implemented it into their practice. It was really great. It made the paper way seem so much harder. I'm glad they taught us the paper way because it made the EHR very easy to use. I loved it!! Brenda Shipman |
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| Posted 2 months ago I agree with andij that we need to look out for our file room people, and they need to look out for themselves. When we went to a PACs system here at my hospital, several of the file room personell were laid off, one took retirement, and the rest had their jobs reasigned to positions that were at best not what they knew and had experience at for the last ten years or so. Their jobs pretty much up and dissapeared within a week. The administration did the best they could helping them find a new niche, but ultimately, there was only so much they could really do. .. .. .. Also, the cross over from paper to EHR has been far from a seamless one. There are so many different software companies competing for the market, all of whom embed incompatability codes in order to "encourage," hospitals to use only their products. We use Soarian along with a number of other programs, and the updates are constantly frustrating our nurses who from week to week never know when they are going to be able to manually type in a note to let us know what it is we're actually doing a study for, or if they will be restricted to a pull down menu, and if the system goes down, then we down in the department have to use down time sheets anyway. .. .. .. EHR is the future, but we still have a long way to go before it's perfect. I think that the best idea would be to keep file rooms around as backups to the EHR untill it has been a few years running so that nothing gets lost. .. .. .. But that would cost more money, so yes, we need to encourage those who are still young to get back to learning new systems before they end up waiting too long, because they have performed invaluable service to us for far too long to end up with the short end of what I view to be a less than 100% perfect stick. |