Electronic Health Record

A Look at Health Care Reform and the Implementation of the Electronic Health Record

California State University East Bay

Author Note

This paper was prepared for US Healthcare Systems, HCA 6200-01, taught by Grace Hernandez.

Abstract

In this paper we researched the implementation of the electronic health record (EHR) and its implications on healthcare delivery as a result of Health Care Reform. We first looked at the definition of an EHR and then explored the impact of the adoption and use of the EHR based on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) both signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2010, respectively. We defined meaningful use and examined the various financial incentives that exist as a result of ARRA’s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. We then discussed the Health Information Technology related provisions in PPACA. We identified the barriers to implementing an EHR, which included lack of information about true costs, cultural resistance, legal/regulatory barriers as a result of privacy concerns, and insufficient infrastructure to support application, etc. Finally, we investigated the current strategic plans of promoting EHR’s to health care organizations to assess whether sufficient resources are both available and effective. Overall, we evaluated whether or not an EHR is capable of delivering its intended results given the complexity of our nation’s health care system and environment.

Introduction

An electronic health record (EHR) is a collection of patient health information generated by one or more meetings in any care delivery setting. An EHR typically includes patient demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports. It’s said to streamline clinicians’ workflow, and it has the ability to generate a complete...