EHR Adoption and Hospital Performance: Time-Related Effects
The article by Adler‐Milstein, Everson, and Lee, (2015) on EHR implementation and Hospital performance assesses the link between EHR implementation and hospital outcomes within three different scopes of performance; patient satisfaction, process adherence, and efficiency. The article has discussed the implementation of the EHR system within an inter-professional clinical setting. There has been an extensive investment in private and public resources to intensify the adaptation of EHRs (electronic health records) in physician practices and hospitals within the nation over the last five years. The EHR systems aimed at leading better health care provision systems to boost efficiency and value of care. The main of the study is to examine the link between EHR adaptation and clinical setting performance.
Adler‐Milstein, Everson, and Lee, (2015) main argument are that national investment and HITECH programs over the last 5 years have reflected a consistent relationship between hospital performance and EHR implementation within hospitals. The performance gains within the hospital include patient satisfaction, process adherence, and efficiency which have been more apparent over the last few years after effective implementation of the EHR systems within the hospitals.
The article has focused on the time-related effects concerning the implementation of the EHR system. The current evidence shows that the effective implementation of the EHR system five years later has realized improvements in the U.S healthcare system (Adler‐Milstein, Everson, and Lee, 2015). The authors have discussed broadly the problems that healthcare providers face due to a lack of effective and smooth flow of information among the healthcare providers during the multidisciplinary care of a patient. The article has also pointed out that EHR systems have paid much attention to improving performance in hospitals over the years. EHR systems have allowed the effective flow of information through ensuring that the information is available to all the team members for effective healthcare delivery.
Industry-wide factors have enabled the clinical settings that adopt the EHR functions to enjoy more benefits related to performance gains. These gains may be due to improvements related to extensive knowledge and advanced technology which has enabled them to avoid common pitfalls and remain consistent thus delivering benefits. For instance, the EHR vendors have now focused on helping the hospitals to effectively implement the EHR functions thus avoiding unintended consequences. For instance, the EHR systems team-based approach within the healthcare setting has improved leading to patient-centered design which requires timely communication within the interdisciplinary setting.
The authors were successful in examining the link between the EHR system and hospital performance. The hospital performance measures offered significant evidence on the effectiveness of the EHR system on hospital performance. The different control measures that vary were essential in indicating the degree of EHR implementation on clinical setting efficiency. The study findings have indicated that there is a greater link between EHR adaptation and improved hospital efficiency in terms of patient satisfaction and process adherence.
In summation, the article has offered significant evidence on the effectiveness of the EHR system over the last five years concerning hospital performance. The study has offered compelling and consistent evidence on the relationship between the performance of hospitals and EHR system adoption. This has offered justification for the huge investment in the implementation of EHR systems thus supporting the fact that technologies have contributed to better results in-hospital care.
References
Adler‐Milstein, J., Everson, J., & Lee, S. Y. D. (2015). EHR adoption and hospital performance: time‐related effects. Health services research, 50(6), 1751-1771.