Electronic Health Information Management
Health information technology enables healthcare providers to capture standardized data and use it to inform patient care and communicate across a range of clinical settings. Health IT also supports one of the strongest tenets of nursing – educating the patient and family (ANA, 2014).
It was in 2007 when our hospital transitioned to all computer-based documentation. There is no doubt that it made our life so much easier. The constant looking for the bulky charts, piles of paper results from radiology and laboratory, and the sometimes-outdated medication administration records vanished. Materials for patient education were then previously printed by unit secretaries and stocked in a file cabinet. I was unsure how old these materials were, but I used them anyway. These education materials were general information regarding a specific procedure or diagnosis. They were not personalized to suit the patient’s education needs. The computerization of all the health information of the patients following the implementation of Epic (the software we use for documentation) changed all that.
The transition from paper-based to computer-based health information management is not only beneficial to health care workers but it ultimately benefits the recipients of health care. With the implementation of Epic in our organization, satellite clinics where our patients follow up after a hospital admission are able to review what transpired during the hospital stay. Care is well coordinated with the use of the system.
As a nurse, with the health information readily available to me, I am able to research on what is the best patient education I can provide my patient. This way, patient education is best fitted with their needs.
It was in 2007 when our hospital transitioned to all computer-based documentation. There is no doubt that it made our life so much easier. The constant looking for the bulky charts, piles of paper results from radiology and laboratory, and the sometimes-outdated medication administration records vanished. Materials for patient education were then previously printed by unit secretaries and stocked in a file cabinet. I was unsure how old these materials were, but I used them anyway. These education materials were general information regarding a specific procedure or diagnosis. They were not personalized to suit the patient’s education needs. The computerization of all the health information of the patients following the implementation of Epic (the software we use for documentation) changed all that.
The transition from paper-based to computer-based health information management is not only beneficial to health care workers but it ultimately benefits the recipients of health care. With the implementation of Epic in our organization, satellite clinics where our patients follow up after a hospital admission are able to review what transpired during the hospital stay. Care is well coordinated with the use of the system.
As a nurse, with the health information readily available to me, I am able to research on what is the best patient education I can provide my patient. This way, patient education is best fitted with their needs.