Vocabulary and Terminology for Clinical, Laboratory, and Pharmaceutical Terms
Introduction
This paper demonstrates the Mental Health Corporations of America’s (MHCA) organizational information needs through its effort in incorporating SNOMED-CT and LOINC toward its development plan of EHR. In order to fully gain a better understanding about the subject evaluated, this paper defines these two acrostic names. SNOMED-CT stands for Sytematized Nomenclature of Medicine – Clinical Terms and LOINC is spelled out as Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes. LOINC (Bui and Tiara, 2009) serves as a database and is considered a universal standard in the inentification of medical laboratory observations. On the other hand, SNOMED-CT (Leading HealthCare, 2015) is described as a standardized, multilingual vocabulary that contains clinical terms, which are used by physcians and other health care providers. It is actually used for the electronic exchange of clinical health information. In addition, the content of this paper presents results based on the evaluation conducted in relation to MHCA’s development plan, particularly with regards to its Electronic Health Record (EHR). This system contains an electronic version of a patient’s medical records (Kierkegaard, 2013).
In general, the implementation of an EHR system varies, depending on the expectations as well as the needs of a particular health care provider. However, this is usually incorporated with information pertaining to the updates in the SNOMED-CT and LOINC, the targeted timetable, the opted training methods, the cost estimates, the labor and responsibilities distribution, and also the potential changes of workflow. The purpse of this evaluation is basically concerned with the organization’s goal in providing a specific yet organized plan. This ensures that in such a plan, there are specific decisions and factors that contribute to the EHR upgrade. The organization’s application of information technology (IT) intends to support and also to purposely make the necessary improvement in the delivery of healthcare.
In this regard, MHCA’s IT developed (MHCA, 2016) in the last quite a few decades and today, it is known as a very a crucial component for its operations to become more effective. It shows that the orgnaization on its plan to adapt electronic healthcare record, enables its operations to have the ability of supporting the tracking of patient information. At the same time, its importance contributes to the coordination among human and capital resources, that is, it facilitates responsiveness. In addition, the use of EHR helps MHCA in that it serves as a guide for its administrators and care providers.
However, due to the increasing volume of patients and the need to keep their respective healthcare records, MHCA proposes the HER in support both clinical and business operations. In terms of the organization’s EHR system, it covers the following: (a) The longitudinal compilation of electronic information that contains every patient’s health and healthcare; (b) speedy electronic accessibility; (c) know-how provision and assessment support to further develop quality, safety and the efficiency of patient’s healthcare; and (d) support for competent processes for delivering quality healthcare.
This mental healthcare care organization has a set of guidelines based on the application and smooth implementation of EHR. In fact, this set of guidelines serves as a series of best practice guidelines. It is actually intended for formulating strategies and tactics, which are observed as having a great contribution to the success adoptation and EHR systems. It is also considered that the use of EHR in incorporating SNOMED-CT and LOINC may assist its specific business or clinical functons. Adding EHR to one’s orgnaizational operations will serve as tools for the entire operations, enabling it to survive and become competent as well. This is in consideration of the fact that today, there is a visible ever-changing behavioral healthcare environment.
EHR implementation has intensely affected the corporate culture of the organizaton (Kierkegaard, 2012) in that it brings about organizational changes. The implementation plan consists of a framework for physical tasks with the EHR project. This can further be assessed by adapting a plan for subsequent organizational change (Dean, 2009) It is already a given fact that these days, automation is foreseeable. The impact will be wide-rsanging, amd it will tend to affect business processes, work responsibilities, time management, reporting methods, and record keeping.
Nevertheless, one of the potential benefits of having a centralized electronic data storage is that it greatly enhances the staff’s respective work. It also enables them to fulfill the mission of the organization. This shows that the aimed development plan for record keeping purposes is very important in order to fully understand the organizational challenges that may be encountered. As such, dificulties can be encountered upon the planning and implementation of the EHR system. This In particular, the difficulties encountered may beoutside the technical aspects of the project.
Resistance to change is also another possible challenge. It can be concluded that when an organization implements a new system, not all of the organizational members may buy into the change. Although resistance to change is a normal human behavior, the effects or results may vary, depending on how such resistance is managed and overcome.
References
Bui, A.A.T. & Tiara, R.K. (2009). Medical imaging informatics. Springer.
Dean, C. (2009). RIMER managing successful change. Australia: Uniforte Pty Ltd.
Kierkegaard, P. (2013). eHealth in Denmark: A case study. Journal of Medical Systems 37(6).
Kierkegaard, P. (2012). Medical data breaches: Notification delayed is notification denied. Computer Law & Security Reviews 28(2):163-183.
Leading HealthCare. (2015). Vendor introduction to SNOMED-CT. A Manual. Retrieved from, http://ihtsdo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/doc/download/doc_VendorIntroduction_Current-
en-US_INT_20150428.pdf?ok
MHCA. (2016). Planning your EHR system: Guidelines for executive management. Mental Health Corporations of American. Inc.
