NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper 

Grand Canyon University NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper   – Step-By-Step Guide

This guide will demonstrate how to complete the Grand Canyon University NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper   assignment based on general principles of academic writing. Here, we will show you the A, B, Cs of completing an academic paper, irrespective of the instructions. After guiding you through what to do, the guide will leave one or two sample essays at the end to highlight the various sections discussed below.

How to Research and Prepare for NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper  

Whether one passes or fails an academic assignment such as the Grand Canyon University NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper   depends on the preparation done beforehand. The first thing to do once you receive an assignment is to quickly skim through the requirements. Once that is done, start going through the instructions one by one to clearly understand what the instructor wants. The most important thing here is to understand the required format—whether it is APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.

After understanding the requirements of the paper, the next phase is to gather relevant materials. The first place to start the research process is the weekly resources. Go through the resources provided in the instructions to determine which ones fit the assignment. After reviewing the provided resources, use the university library to search for additional resources. After gathering sufficient and necessary resources, you are now ready to start drafting your paper.

How to Write the Introduction for NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper  

The introduction for the Grand Canyon University NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper   is where you tell the instructor what your paper will encompass. In three to four statements, highlight the important points that will form the basis of your paper. Here, you can include statistics to show the importance of the topic you will be discussing. At the end of the introduction, write a clear purpose statement outlining what exactly will be contained in the paper. This statement will start with “The purpose of this paper…” and then proceed to outline the various sections of the instructions.

How to Write the Body for NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper  

After the introduction, move into the main part of the NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper   assignment, which is the body. Given that the paper you will be writing is not experimental, the way you organize the headings and subheadings of your paper is critically important. In some cases, you might have to use more subheadings to properly organize the assignment. The organization will depend on the rubric provided. Carefully examine the rubric, as it will contain all the detailed requirements of the assignment. Sometimes, the rubric will have information that the normal instructions lack.

Another important factor to consider at this point is how to do citations. In-text citations are fundamental as they support the arguments and points you make in the paper. At this point, the resources gathered at the beginning will come in handy. Integrating the ideas of the authors with your own will ensure that you produce a comprehensive paper. Also, follow the given citation format. In most cases, APA 7 is the preferred format for nursing assignments.

How to Write the Conclusion for NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper  

After completing the main sections, write the conclusion of your paper. The conclusion is a summary of the main points you made in your paper. However, you need to rewrite the points and not simply copy and paste them. By restating the points from each subheading, you will provide a nuanced overview of the assignment to the reader.

How to Format the References List for NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper  

The very last part of your paper involves listing the sources used in your paper. These sources should be listed in alphabetical order and double-spaced. Additionally, use a hanging indent for each source that appears in this list. Lastly, only the sources cited within the body of the paper should appear here.

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Sample Answer for NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper 

Health care delivery evolves in multiple dimensions as nursing professionals and stakeholders invent new strategies for addressing complex patient needs. Central to this advancement is nursing informatics, which involves synthesizing nursing, information, and computer sciences to manage and communicate data and information (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). Nursing informatics enables providers to integrate tools, technologies, and methods to collect, analyze, and apply vast health care data. Such improved capabilities empower nurses to implement electronic health records (EHRs) for improved patient outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of implementing a new EHR within a practice setting purposed to capture data to inspire improvements and quality change.

Opportunity for Tracking Care Improvement

Opportunities for tracking care improvement are characterized by intensive and accurate data collection, analysis, and management to address performance gaps. A suitable opportunity in the current practice where EHR implementation would be highly beneficial is using real-time data to identify high-risk patients to prevent 30-day unscheduled readmission. According to Ashfaq et al. (2019), precise readmission risk prediction could effectively guide health care practitioners in deciding whether a patient is ready for discharge or should be enrolled in an intervention program. An EHR-driven prediction model would enable the health care facility to collect the relevant data when the patient is receiving care to predict the readmission probability at discharge.

The problematic nature of readmissions requires nursing practitioners to have timely, accurate, and sufficient data for informed decision-making. A database is critical to operations management since it promotes precise, consistent data storage. In the present tech-based nursing, the sequence of primary care visits usually represents the patient in an EHR. In this case, the most critical data is what identifies patients and their health conditions. Ashfaq et al. (2019) categorized this data into demographic features and the patient’s clinical state. Demographic features include the patient’s age, gender, residence, and the type of visit. Clinical state data include lab results, diagnoses, and vitals recorded during an inpatient visit. 

Role Informatics Plays in Ability to Capture Data

Informatics is the spine for data-driven nursing and informed use of innovative technological systems for high-quality care. Among many roles, informatics enables nurses and other health care staff to collect timely data in different formats from multiple sources. Nursing informatics facilitates the safe storage of essential data since it can be backed up by ensuring it is available in multiple devices and systems. As Dash et al. (2019) mentioned, nursing informatics facilitates data organization during collection for easy analysis. Such organization is witnessed when patient’s clinical data is matched with their needs. Generally, informatics makes data readily available for decision-making and ensures care providers can access it in multiple formats as situations necessitate.

Implementing electronic health systems is intensive since they consume time and resources. Applying the appropriate project management strategies and methodologies can effectively support informatics initiatives to improve quality within the clinical practice. Valuable strategies to manage and implement complex projects include goal-oriented leadership and utilizing a work breakdown structure. Visionary leadership allows a team to work together for a common goal. It prevents potential conflicts when executing projects by clarifying roles and supervising progress. Alam and Gühl (2022) described a work breakdown structure as organizing the work into manageable sections. These sections (smaller components) allow efficient resource allocation, planning, and evaluation of key deliverables.

Leaders apply different project management methodologies depending on the scope and type of work involved. Inevitably, nursing informatics projects require precision and integration of models that promote efficient resource utilization. The waterfall methodology can be used to support informatics initiatives. Rubio (2022) represented the waterfall model as flowing the project’s phases downward. Nurse leaders and other health care staff implementing change must complete one project’s phase before moving to the next. The other methodology is the agile approach, characterized by adaptive work management and project planning (Rubio, 2022). In this method, quality improvement leaders are open to change and embrace a flexible management approach to realize the targeted goals.

Systems and Staff Members Needed in Design and Implementation Process

Effective EHR implementation combines multiple systems, staff members, and skills. A health information system would be critical since it helps care providers gather, organize, and collect data to improve health outcomes and reduce costs. A robust technological system is also necessary to ensure the new EHR captures, analyzes, and shares data safely. Regarding staff members, the nurse informaticist should be involved in all critical phases, including design and implementation. According to McGonigle and Mastrian (2021), nurse informaticists combine clinical skills and health information technology (IT) to guide organizations in advancing technology to improve care quality. Their skills and guidance are essential for positive outcomes as far as the system’s design and implementation are concerned. Other staff members include system designers, physicians, departmental leaders, and IT technicians.

The advanced registered nurse is critical in promoting evidence-based practice and leading quality and performance improvement initiatives within this setting. One such role is serving as a change agent to address performance gaps. Change agents use their clinical and analytical skills in nursing to identify areas where the desired goals are not achieved (Ericson-Lidman & Strandberg, 2021). In response, they propose evidence-based interventions to reduce the gap between the achieved and desired health outcomes. The advanced registered nurse is also responsible for policy change and advocacy. Nsiah et al. (2019) illustrated patient advocacy as promoting patient safety and high-quality care by protecting patients and advancing their interests. The nurse plays similar roles by designing interventions for improving patient safety and achieving high-quality care, like burnout reduction programs, environmental modification strategies, and patient monitoring via telehealth. The organization fosters a culture of change to encourage innovative projects.

Strategies for Implementing EHR Proposal

Implementing a new EHR system could be seamless or challenging, depending on the approaches used in critical phases. As Aguirre et al. (2019) stated, the entire process commences with an in-depth evaluation of the workflows, followed by defining preferences and user needs. In the proposed project, such needs include software, hardware, and user requirements to ensure the EHR runs efficiently and executes its roles as expected. The next step is communication to ensure clinicians and all targeted users understand the purpose of the new EHR and how to use it in predicting and preventing readmissions. Aguirre et al. (2019) further recommended staff education to equip users with the foundational knowledge for safe and effective EHR use. Transition to the new EHR should happen after piloting and when all user needs are addressed. To ensure effective management of resources, teamwork should be embraced at all levels. Nurses should also be trained in groups to save time and training resources.

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Professional, Ethical, and Regulatory Standards Implementation

EHRs are characterized by massive data collection, storage, and exchange between providers. Adherence to the established standards is critical for safe and competent use. Professional standards for the system’s design and implementation include EHR usability and interoperability. Usability denotes an easy-to-use system that allows nursing professionals to perform different tasks accurately and with minimal effort. Li et al. (2021) illustrated interoperability as health information systems’ ability to work together within and across organizational boundaries to facilitate effective patient care. Interoperable systems promote safe and quick information exchange between care providers. A lack of interoperability increases clinician workload and is a key barrier to patient safety.

Ethical standards in the design and implementation of the new EHR are centered on privacy, security, and confidentiality essentials. To promote these principles and ensure data integrity, EHR systems should have the appropriate technical and physical safeguards for data protection (Basil et al., 2022). Regulatory considerations have much to do with using certified EHR technology. Certified technology that allows clinicians to store data in a structured format facilitates efficient data capturing and sharing (CMS.gov, 2023). Such structuring enables nursing professionals to retrieve and transfer patient data easily for improved patient outcomes.

Evaluation of the Success of EHR Implementation

EHR implementation is cumbersome since it introduces new technologies, tools, and processes into routine patient care. Evaluation is critical to determining whether the project achieved the desired goals (Hamilton et al., 2020). From a staff perspective, the new EHR should enable nurses to track and respond to potential readmissions more effectively. A post-implementation feasibility study can help to determine how the EHR empowers nurses to achieve better outcomes. From a setting perspective, the new EHR should reduce costs associated with readmissions. As a result, a comparative analysis of the readmissions rate six months before and after its implementation would be an accurate reference point. To patients, implementing the new EHR would reduce readmissions and improve care experiences. To ensure continuous quality improvement in practice, nurses should be regularly trained on key aspects of the system, including usage, security, and ethical compliance. The system should also be upgraded as situations oblige to optimize capacity and secure it from emerging security threats.

Leadership Skills and Project Management to Collaborate with Interprofessional Teams

Interprofessional teams comprise members with diverse skills, values, and work approaches. Leadership skills to enable such teams to collaborate and provide evidence-based, patient-centered care include clear goals, respect, and active engagement of members. Respect and engagement foster a culture of inclusion, enabling a diverse workforce to work together to achieve a shared goal (Stanford, 2020). Clear goals, open communication, and problem-solving are valuable project management skills for an interprofessional team to collaborate and provide evidence-based, patient-centered care. Leadership theories also guide nursing professionals in change management and decision-making regarding effective patient care. The adaptive leadership theory underlines supporting staff competencies to achieve patient-centered care (Kuluski et al., 2021). Adaptive leadership is founded on the precept that different situations require different skills, knowledge, and approaches. A similar approach is crucial in the complex nursing environment to deliver the best possible patient care.

Conclusion

Nursing informatics has improved organizations’ capacity to use data and technologies to improve patient care. EHRs contain patient data in electronic formats for quick access, sharing, and decision-making. A new opportunity for EHR implementation should enable nurses to use data and technologies to achieve higher outcomes for patients, health care staff, and the organization. A new EHR system for readmission prediction and prevention is crucial for the organization to prevent adverse outcomes of readmissions.

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), e5649. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5649

Alam, D., & Gühl, U. (2022). Project management for practice: a guide and toolbox for successful projects. Springer.

Ashfaq, A., Sant’Anna, A., Lingman, M., & Nowaczyk, S. (2019). Readmission prediction using deep learning on electronic health records. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 97, 103256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103256

Basil, N. N., Ambe, S., Ekhator, C., & Fonkem, E. (2022). Health records database and inherent security concerns: a review of the literature. Cureus, 14(10), e30168. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.30168

CMS.gov. (2023). Certified EHR technology. https://www.cms.gov/medicare/regulations-guidance/promoting-interoperability-programs/certified-ehr-technology

Dash, S., Shakyawar, S. K., Sharma, M., & Kaushik, S. (2019). Big data in healthcare: management, analysis and future prospects. Journal of Big Data, 6(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-019-0217-0

Ericson-Lidman, E., & Strandberg, G. (2021). Change agents’ experiences of implementing a new organizational culture in residential care for older people: a qualitative study. Nordic Journal of Nursing Research, 41(3), 149-157. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057158521995994

Hamilton, S., Jennings, A., & Forster, A. J. (2020). Development and evaluation of a quality improvement framework for healthcare. International Journal for Quality in Health Care: journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, 32(7), 456–463. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzaa075

Kuluski, K., Reid, R. J., & Baker, G. R. (2021). Applying the principles of adaptive leadership to person‐centred care for people with complex care needs: Considerations for care providers, patients, caregivers and organizations. Health Expectations, 24(2), 175-181. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13174

Li, E., Clarke, J., Neves, A. L., Ashrafian, H., & Darzi, A. (2021). Electronic health records, interoperability and patient safety in health systems of high-income countries: a systematic review protocol. BMJ Open, 11(7), e044941. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044941

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2021). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Nsiah, C., Siakwa, M., & Ninnoni, J. P. K. (2019). Registered Nurses’ description of patient advocacy in the clinical setting. Nursing Open, 6(3), 1124–1132. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.307

Rubio, M. (2022). The mini book of agile: everything you really need to know about agile, agile project management and agile delivery. Packt Publishing.

Stanford, F. C. (2020). The importance of diversity and inclusion in the healthcare workforce. Journal of the National Medical Association, 112(3), 247–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnma.2020.03.014

Sample Answer 2 for NUR 514 Benchmark – Electronic Health Record Implementation Paper 

Healthcare is a topic of debate across the globe as researchers are investigating new techniques to improve patient care. Health informatics is believed to have an important role in trying to ensure that every patient receives the best possible quality of care (Nelson & Staggers, 2016). It involves using health information technology to collect, store, retrieve, utilize, analyze, and transfer data or information. This paper provides a general analysis of health informatics and electronic health records to enhance readers’ understanding of this particular area.

Information That Would Be Needed In the Database

A database that would be used to improve patient care must contain certain key information that may be considered as quality indicators. Patient safety measures are quality indicators that are often used to identify areas of improvement in healthcare (Cantiello, Kitsantas, Moncada, & Abdul, 2016). Patient safety measures include the rate at which patients fall and acquire injury during a hospital stay. Other patient safety measures include the use of electronic health systems such as EHR for entering medication information. Also, the mortality rate by type of condition such as pneumonia as well as the percentage of surgery patients with surgical complications are all patient safety measures. Another important information entails effective measures, which mean the percentage of patients receiving standard or recommended hospital care for particular illnesses such as pneumonia, heart attack, or surgical infection.

Moreover, patient-centeredness measures form additional effective measures. This information reflects the patients’ reports regarding the care and services they were provided with at the hospital. Also, patient-centeredness measures include providing the patient with instructions upon discharge from the hospital (Cantiello et al., 2016). Other formations for quality improvement include nurse-to patient ratios, the percentage of physicians who are certified by the board, the number of beds and types of services available, and whether or not the hospital is accredited. This information is very important to help track opportunities for care improvement.

The Role of Informatics in Capturing the Data

Health informatics has a significant role in ensuring that the data is accurate and reliable. Measuring patient safety and outcomes depend on a large set of data that must be gathered, stored, and analyzed over quite a period (Nelson & Staggers, 2016). Health informatics helps in gathering this information. Also, it enables the storage of the data as well as its analysis. The elements of informatics such as electronic health records have a central role in enabling the ability to capture the data. According to Nelson and Staggers (2016), health informatics is seen in different processes within the clinical setting. In cases related to both inpatients and outpatients, health providers utilize electronic health records, online portals, and other data collection devices such as glucometers, sign machines, email, and others to capture information that is used to track improvement opportunities within the care facility. Informatics skills are needed to improve the process of data collection, storage, and analysis. Therefore, informatics plays a very significant role in enabling the ability to capture healthcare data.

Systems and Staff Members Involved in The Design and Implementation Process

The implementation process may involve several staff members to ensure it is successful. The hospital management and administrative staff are always in the front line when implementing a change (Iyengar, Kundu, & Pallis, 2018). The hospital management includes the chief medical officer or the chief executive officer, the nurse managers, human resource managers, accountants, and other medical and non-medical staff at the administrative positions. Other staff members include nurses, physicians, pharmacists, clinicians, healthcare assistants, and clerical staff. To implement a change, systems such as Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) and six sigma are very important.

Professional, Ethical, and Regulatory Standards in the Design and Implementation of the System

There are several professional, ethical, and legal standards that must be observed when implementing a health information system. Some of these issues are constant while others vary with the function of the system to be implemented. It is ethical and professional to include all health providers in both designing and implantation process (Chan, Kharrazi, Parikh, & Ford, 2016). All health providers must be provided with a chance to express their thought, opinions, and ideas. Many implementation processes have failed because of neglecting junior staff such as clinicians. Proper training should be carried out before the system is implemented to ensure the staff has enough knowledge. This will minimize errors associated with the system.

Besides, the information system must be able to keep the privacy and confidentiality of the data.  The implementation team must ensure that the system has good security features to enable proper protection of data (Chan et al., 2016). A thorough risk assessment must be carried out to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system. The user must not share passwords and other security features with unauthorized persons. The patient’s information should not be released unless one’s life is in danger, with the patient’s permission, or by an order from a court of law.

How to Ensure That All Order Sets Are Part of the New Record

An order set is a group of orders that are used to standardize and expedite the ordering process for a particular case. Good and up to date order sets promote the application of clinical decision support at a point of care. Designing order sets is an organizational initiative that might take several months (Tubaishat, 2017). To ensure that all order sets are part of the new record, one should consider how the system operates. For instance, the system should be able to integrate and coordinate care by communicating best practices in different declines and levels of care. The system should be able to modify practice through evidence-based care as well as reduce variations. Notes within order sets should relate to procedures, patient safety, and evidence links.

How to Communicate Change

Communicating change and transition plan is very important to make the electronic health record implementation important. When communicating the change it is important to be consistent and purposeful about messaging (Tubaishat, 2017). Also, it is necessary to ensure that everyone receives the same message and understands what the message is communicating. Listening and monitoring feedback is a good strategy for communicating change management. It is important to monitor the feedback channel and ask employees to express their minds so uncover questions and concerns. The feedbacks must be acknowledged by informing them that their concerns were received and will be addressed. Also, it is a necessity to be clear when commutating change and informing the audience what is expected of them (Chan et al., 2016). Furthermore, it might be helpful to inform how the organization will look like after the change, what the providers as well as the patients experience and how the EHR will improve quality of care and patient outcome.

Measures To Evaluate the Success of the EHR System

Measuring success or evaluation is the nest step after implementation. It helps stakeholders realize whether or not the system is effective. An evaluation may take place from the patient, setting, and staff perspectives. For example, the person carrying out the evaluation process may determine whether patients who engaged with staff and accessed their own health information had better health outcomes based on various health metrics (Chan et al., 2016). The evaluator may try to see if there was an improvement in terms of patient engagement.

Waiting time is another measure that can be used in the evaluation process. Reduced waiting times would indicate effectiveness and vice versa. Furthermore, how staff coordinate care is another good measure of success. The ability to share health records electronically and coordinate care among the staff members may tell a lot regarding the EHR. Based on the organizational perspective, the organizational ROI may tell much regarding how successful an EHR selection project has been (Chan et al., 2016). ROI measures the financial return on an investment relative to the investment cost.

Leadership Skills and Theories That Facilitate Collaboration

A collaborative leader must be able to facilitate interaction between employees as well as business partners. A collaborative leader is a balanced motivator who always tries to use motivation and influence to create a social impact (Hsieh & Liou, 2018). Also, a collaborative leader has transferable skills that are valuable across several functions and sectors such as stakeholder management, strategic planning, quantitative analysis, and others. A collaborative leader openly shares information so long as it does not violate ethics. Also, the leader has conflict resolution skills and good communication skills. The Bruce Tuckman theory has been applied in several organizations and scenarios to promote a collaborative environment (Hsieh & Liou, 2018). It has four main states including forming, storming, norming, and performing. It is commonly referred to as the origin for successful team building.

Conclusion

  Health informatics is believed to have an important role in trying to ensure that every patient receives the best possible quality of care. It is ethical and professional to include all health providers in both designing and implantation process. Health providers utilize electronic health records, and other data collection devices to capture information that is used to track improvement opportunities within the care facility. Effective change communication, collaborative skills, and evaluation process are necessary to ensure the success of EHR implementation.

References

Cantiello, J., Kitsantas, P., Moncada, S., & Abdul, S. (2016). The evolution of quality improvement in healthcare: patient-centered care and health information technology applications. J Hosp Admin, 5, 62-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/jha.v5n2p62

Chan, K. S., Kharrazi, H., Parikh, M. A., & Ford, E. W. (2016). Assessing electronic health record implementation challenges using item response theory. Am J Manag Care, 22(12), e409-e415. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27982669

Hsieh, J. Y., & Liou, K. T. (2018). Collaborative leadership and organizatioaZnal performance: Assessing the structural relation in a public service agency. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 38(1), 83-109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X15623619

Iyengar, A., Kundu, A., & Pallis, G. (2018). Healthcare informatics and privacy. IEEE Internet Computing, 22(2), 29-31. DOI:10.1109/MIC.2018.022021660

Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2016). Health Informatics-E-Book: An Interprofessional Approach. Saunders: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Tubaishat, A. (2017). Evaluation of electronic health record implementation in hospitals. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 35(7), 364-372. doi: 10.1097/CIN.0000000000000328.