The two major systems of Health Information Technology (HIT) are Electronic Health Record (EHR) and the system of practice management (PM). EHR has become an essential tool of modern health care to meet the standardized criteria. The majority of the physicians conduct their practices on PM system. Although, both of these systems don’t perform the same tasks and are meant for different purposes. The primary functions that EMR performs are the clinical ones while PM system is meant for billing as well as scheduling functions. The similarity between these systems is that both of them go through the same process where they have to book an appointment for the patient and end up with the billing process. A technology that facilitates single series of steps must be done effectively and with a consistent workflow. The situation mentioned in the case identifies that there is a need for accessibility to clinical, schedules and bills information at specific ends ad must be shared with clinical and administrative systems to keep the workflow subsistent and efficient.
In other words, EMR and PM, both of these systems have to work together.One of the two strategies can be implemented. In the case of the monolithic integrated system, reliability existsi.e the data is flowed in a consistent manner but on a specific platform. It works efficiently when it comes to communicating internally within the hospital. Also, no multiple log-ins are required to the system, and there is only one log-in. Fewer updates are required in one system. However risks are also involved, both of the systems cannot be upgraded at one time if one needs to be updated the other shall go down. The single vendor has all of the chips.
Best of breed ensures two different tasks, firstly the unidentified documents are maintained to get the maximum information for clinical purposes and secondly patient’s confidentiality is maximized.In the case of best of breeds, it has more risk involved as compared to the integrated strategy. There are lots of updates required for this system and involves intense complexity between the systems. PM and ERM, both of the systems may not work well when combined problems such as duplication of data may arise. The only benefit of best of breed system is that both of the systems can be upgraded at one time while having the impact on other. Having a glance at the risks and benefits of both the strategies, it can be concluded that physicians must opt for monolithic integrated strategy for an efficient workflow.
References
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Joshua R, V., Jangho, Y., & Brian H, B. (2013). Changes to the electronic health records market in light of health information technology certification and meaningful use. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , 20 (2), 227-232.
