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SAFER Guides and Evaluating Technology Usage
The application of solutions, such as electronic health record (EHR) systems, uses technologies/informatics that have superb possibilities for improving service delivery in healthcare. The evaluation of the EHR system is to examine its position in reshaping healthcare ambiance through improvement, coordination, accessibility, efficiency, and engagement. NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 03: SAFER Guides and Evaluating Technology Usage, The HealthIT SAFER Guides, a crucial evaluation tool, help describe the high-performance areas and risks involved in implementing the EHR system. This paper reflects on the pivotal role of SAFER Guides in aiding successful technology implementation through a better approach and thinking about risk levels and improvement actions.
Defining Proposed Informatics to Implement as Part of Change Practice
The assessment of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system is proposed to drive the performance of an existing healthcare environment through deploying technology/ informatics solutions. EHRs digitalize and interlink the patient data process. This speeds up the workflow of clinical care and improves communication among colleagues and patients’ health conditions (Haleem et al., 2022). NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 03: SAFER Guides and Evaluating Technology Usage, The onset of an EHR system is to change the process of keeping the records from paper-based to electronic means. This process increases the swiftness, precision, and accessibility of patient data.
- Enhanced Patient Care Coordination: The primary purpose of the EHR system is to improve care coordination by giving the medical crew access to a centralized platform to update patients’ information and so on in real-time. It allows for hassle-free dialogue between providers irrespective of care settings and enables proper information sharing, thus reducing errors and duplicative processes.
- Data Accessibility and Decision Support: With the implementation of an EHR system, healthcare providers can retrieve complete patient information, including medical history, lab results, and medication lists, at the snap of their fingers. Decision support, a key feature built into the system, is essential in advising doctors to make the right decisions based on the most relevant data available (Alojail et al., 2023). This leads to improved medical outcomes and reduced medical errors, demonstrating the significant benefits of the EHR system in patient care.
- Efficiency and Workflow Optimization: The EHR system will automate the clinical workflow process by simplifying routine tasks (such as organizing appointments, prescription refills, and billing issues). Thus, doctors will have more time to focus on medical care and less time on administrative duties.
- Patient Engagement and Empowerment: One of the most significant benefits of EHR systems is the empowerment of patients. Medical record systems with digital information that patients can access will be among the human resources board employees. This allows patients to communicate with their doctors and participate in care plan management. The consequence is that the patients become involved and, in most cases, are empowered with the sole mission of practicing the doctors’ recommendations well to have good health outcomes (Hickmann et al., 2022). Operating the EHR system as part of the clinical transformation of the healthcare setting is a means to achieve better care coordination, data availability, workflow success, and patient involvement. This aspect of EHR systems should be a strong motivator for healthcare professionals to implement these systems.
SAFER Guides’ Findings Regarding High-Performance Areas
The SAFER Guides provided an evaluative result for the digital theatre, and it was established that technology was well-executed in patient care processes. For example, the system requires minimal integrations into clinical workflows, eliminating unnecessary delays when healthcare providers retrieve patient information with just a few clicks. The Operating system has been utilized by nurses, physicians, and other staff members believably to record encounters, order drugs, and review lab results promptly (Kuusisto et al., 2021). NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 03: SAFER Guides and Evaluating Technology Usage, This provides further indications of the healthcare sector’s talent for leveraging technology to improve operations’ performance beyond the quality of patient care.
Healthcare facilities play a role in interoperability and information exchange beyond their organization. The SAFER Guides analysis demonstrates that the EHR system fits the bill very well by flawlessly connecting with the outside systems. Sharing patient info across multiple healthcare organizations and auxiliary service providers is possible. Suppose the patient is sent to a specialist or submitted for laboratory testing outside the facility. In that case, health data can be electronically relayed to the hospital’s attending physician, thus preventing information gaps. They create the platform for the joint work of different care teams and care about a holistic approach to patient care.
Along with the assessment, user training, support, and commitment towards the EHR system by the healthcare environment are also highlighted. Staff members develop a compact set of all-inclusive training sessions supported by ongoing education programs and access to technical support resources. Having considerable expertise in utilizing EHR interfaces, finding solutions to minor issues on their own, and using its features efficiently, professionals know what to do (Sieck et al., 2020). That faces such an agreement induces an atmosphere of training and helps users minimize errors minimization and proper use of the system, and that is the aim to bring improvement in the care delivered to the patients.
SAFER Guides’ Findings Regarding Risk Areas
A vulnerability assessment by SAFER Guides showed that a long list of risks had yet to be defined running with the current EHR system. This could lead to incomplete security implementation within the hospital’s operational environment. However, the SAFER Guides play a crucial role in identifying these potential risks, providing a roadmap for ensuring the safety of EHR system implementation. Specifically, the system involves simple authorization, such as password and user authentication. However, more advanced security measures, such as encrypting confidential information and role-oriented access control, are yet to be integrated (Bourgeois & Bourgeois, 2022). NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 03: SAFER Guides and Evaluating Technology Usage, Taken in context with the possibility of hacking activities and revealing of the protected data, the organization runs a risk of security breach. Without encryption protocols, patient data sent to another device or network outside the system falls prey to potentially malicious actors and breaches patient confidentiality since the patient’s privacy has been compromised.
One of the risks mentioned under this section by the SAFER Guides involves the inadequate presence of a complete set of informational integrity checks modules in the EHR system. The system enables authorized users to input and alter data. It also needs the spontaneity to validate the accuracy and completeness of entered information. This problem has the potential for erroneous data entry or inadvertent falsification of medical records, which can be followed by inconsistency and may finally affect the quality of the needed care in cases where a practitioner accidentally specifies an incorrect medication dosage or patient allergies, which may, lead to an error in medication or adverse drug reactions, to a level where the patient’s safety is at stake.
The SAFER Guides checklist also emphasized the absence of an established disaster recovery strategy regarding the EHR system, which is an essential part of the overall healthcare environment IT strategy. Crew adheres to scheduled backup procedures, but the operational plan does not include detailed responses to system malfunction, data breaches, or natural catastrophes (Cichonski et al., 2022). Such situations may cause long-term service disruption, data loss, delivery of wrong medication, etc., during strange natural disasters. For example, suppose a server goes down or gets attacked by cyber criminals without the proper backup and recovery procedures. In that case, the organization might need help recovering patient data and resuming regular operations on time.
NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 03: Reflect on the Use of SAFER Guides for Risk Evaluation
Using the SAFER Guides in the healthcare environment provided by the course has clarified the readiness and areas of potential risk for implementing the proposed innovative solution. SAFER Guides presented the solution from a structural viewpoint, in which I could systematically analyze various aspects such as data security, workflow efficiency, and user training. The evaluation contributed significantly to discovering specific weaknesses, e.g., limited security measures and imperfect recovery programs, which, in turn, marked some urgent areas that must be solved beforehand to lower risks. This laid down the basis for the risk assessment process as an essential activity to be carried out in the initial information technology platform development stage.
The experience of SAFER Guidance was the central verge for improving the protocols, which illustrate the outlined hazards and the overall alertness of the healthcare atmosphere for the suggested technologic solution/informatics solution. Implementing action initiatives one by one following SAFER Guideline findings, such as the provision of data encryption protocols, data integrity, and robust disaster recovery plans, will help the organization be one step ahead in identifying threats and improving the chance of success in the implementation project realization. NURS FPX 8012 Assessment 03: SAFER Guides and Evaluating Technology Usage, This precise way of doing work confirms that the resources are used effectively. The interventions are informed by processes like assessment, which address unique vulnerabilities.
Through this experience, I realized that integrating the four SAFER Guides approaches in my caregiving practice as a DNP-prepared nurse with informatics and technology will be a great addition to my professional development as a care provider. Looking forward, I will apply all these lessons to my treatment of identifying and assessing risk in the coming cases which belong to the same context. A structured strategy for recognizing and eliminating risks is thus my contribution to the effective implementation of health IT, leading to the proficient delivery of care and patient safety and improving hospital operations. From that experience, I have gained essential competencies and lifelong knowledge that I will rely on to reenact my purpose and make better decisions as a part of my healthcare leadership community.
Conclusion
The use of SAFER Guides has proved to be the best data source for studying the readiness and the risks involved in the EHR implementation project in the medical arena. By evaluating performance and identifying vulnerabilities, healthcare socialistic organizations can take innovative initiatives to decrease risks and increase the chances of introducing technology. This, therefore, honors the input significance of systems thinking, which, in conjunction with risk assessment approaches, results in structured decision-making methods for practical technology implementation projects. Thus, embedding SAFER Guides concepts into our lineup of risk management strategies will enhance healthcare treatment, allow the operations to pick up the pace, and influence better healthcare outcomes.
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). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5649
Alojail, M., Alturki, M., & Bhatia Khan, S. (2023). An informed decision support framework from a strategic perspective in the health sector. Information, 14(7), 363. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14070363
Bourgeois, D., & Bourgeois, D. T. (2022). Chapter 6: Information Systems Security. Ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub, 6(2). https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/infosysbus/chapter/chapter-6-information-systems-security/
Cichonski, P., Millar, T., Grance, T., & Scarfone, K. (2022). Computer security incident handling guide. Computer Security Incident Handling Guide, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.6028/nist.sp.800-61r2
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Pratap Singh, R., & Suman, R. (2022). Medical 4.0 technologies for healthcare: Features, capabilities, and applications. Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems, 2(1), 12–30. ScienceDirect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iotcps.2022.04.001
Hickmann, E., Richter, P., & Schlieter, H. (2022). All together now – patient engagement, patient empowerment, and associated terms in personal healthcare. BMC Health Services Research, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08501-5
Kuusisto, A., Santavirta, J., Saranto, K., Suominen, T., & Asikainen, P. (2021). Nursing staff’s assessments of medication management process in the psychiatric and operative domains: A cross‐sectional study after introducing an electronic medication chart. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 2(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.12989
Sieck, C. J., Pearl, N., Bright, T. J., & Yen, P.-Y. (2020). A qualitative study of physician perspectives on adaptation to electronic health records. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-1030-6
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