Essay Sample on Epic System in Medicine

Introduction

Epic consists of a barcode medication system that is used to ensure that the proper medication is given to the right patient and at the right time, which ensures patient safety and reduce, if not completely stop accidental dosage of medication to patients (Davis & LaraKhansa, 2016). The barcode on a patient's arm is scanned to ensure that proper medication is administered.

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This medical information is thus used by doctors and nurses who provided individual patients with treatment services, and the business office uses the records to process payment for treatment services rendered to the patient (Rosolowski & Ecung, 2017). Administrative personnel of the hospital use the system to analyze health records and review the quality of the healthcare the patient has received in the hospital and thus find areas that require improvement and those that are best performing.

Description of the Setting and Who Uses the Technology

Forrest General Hospital is a hospital that has many activities that take place, and the personnel are relatively busy as they carry out their mandates in the hospital. Nurses, for example are quite busy, with some handling at least 6 patients per day. This means that the hospital is not that well-staffed and this can be tedious for the staff when dealing with many patients, and patients may stay in queues for a few hours awaiting treatment.

However, the medical records system adopted in the hospital can help improve the situation, as patients can book appointments and make reservations for treatment, which can help save time spent waiting in the line. Patients can use the Iris system portal of Epic system to even obtain results of medical tests done in the hospital, and renew their prescriptions (Davis & LaraKhansa, 2016).

Medical practitioners such as doctors and nurses can access the EMR system to access patient information and records that can provide vital information about individual patients, which help the medical professionals make faster and helpful decisions about treatment of the patient (Davis & LaraKhansa, 2016).

The business officers in the hospital use the hospital EMR to access treatment history of an individual patient, which helps them in preparation of a medical bill, and can help them ascertain payments made (Smelcer, Miller-Jacobs, & Kantrovich, 2009).

Patient/Client Population Served

Forrest General Hospital serves about 512 in-patients in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which is quite a huge number and thus Epic does a great job in keeping of this huge volume of patient information (Forrest County General Hospital (Hattiesburg, 1997).

Benefits of Epic EMR System

Epic, the hospitals EMR is beneficial in the eyes of the patients of the hospital in that it provides for better diagnosis of health problems and their problems, in that patient health information such as medical history is made available to health practitioners dealing with the patient in a quicker and efficient manner, which saves time that is important as it can help save a life (Kaelber, Greco, & Cebul, 2005).

It is also beneficial to the patient in the sense that it only has fewer errors with regards to patient health information, as it even uses barcodes to verify patient information, which in turn leads to reduced patient-safety incidents (Davis & LaraKhansa, 2016).

It also leads to faster decisions being made by health practitioners involved with the patient, which leads to faster care as opposed to the old-fashioned paper system. The doctors and nurses can decide in a quicker way how to handle a particular patient as information is readily available (Kaelber, Greco, & Cebul, 2005).

Epic also helps remove the need for further unwanted duplicate tests as the results are stored safely in a computer system, made available and accessible to any healthcare practitioner who might need it (Smelcer, Miller-Jacobs, & Kantrovich, 2009).

It also helps bring efficiency in performance of the hospital's business, as billing and payment is through a computer system, which reduces time wastage and need to have lots of staff in the payment department, as most payments are made in the system.

Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges of Epic

Epic has been a widely used EMR as it is considered best in terms of customer loyalty, operations in a health facility and the way it brings it brings relationships between the stakeholders in a hospital facility and adding value (Kaelber, Greco, & Cebul, 2005).

However, Epic has some few weaknesses in the system that includes interruptions of health practitioners' workflow who have to answer to computerized orders that emerge from online patients. Other practitioners claim that the system may take longer to process a patient. Another weakness is that Epic lacks interoperability, in that its system is often customized and specific to different clients or hospitals, which makes sharing of data by health practitioners quite difficult. Computers not in the same network cannot share information. This causes challenges in the implementation of the system by the health practitioners in Forrest General Hospital (Davis & LaraKhansa, 2016).

Training Requirements

Epic is the most widely used EMR system and being Epic certified is a plus for people who want to become employed, hired or simply an employee of a healthcare facility that has initiated implementation of Epic. Running and maintenance of Epic system in healthcare facilities such as Forrest General Hospital requires personnel who are already trained on usage of the system's modules (Vuk, Anders, Mercado, & Kennedy, 2015).

Epic training consists of 11 modules that include ASAP, an emergency room module, Cupid for cardiology, Willow for inpatients and outpatients, among others. Epic requires one to be sponsored by a health facility already implementing or plans to start implementing the system. Epic also hires individuals directly for training, if they are not sponsored by a health facility (Vuk, Anders, Mercado, & Kennedy, 2015). The training at Epic headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin and the organization trains the trainees.

After completion of in-depth training and mock testing on how to use the system, one must a test to prove proficiency in the system, after which one is certified in Epic. The time taken to get certified in a particular module depends on the particular module and the time the trainee devotes in learning the module (Vuk, Anders, Mercado, & Kennedy, 2015). One can become an implementation specialist, an administrator of the system or even a technical trainer.

Individuals Involved in Epic's Implementation

Doctors and nurses are the greatest users of Epic system as doctors use the system to access a patient's health records that provide for better diagnosis, care and treatment of the patient. Nurses use the system when determining what kind of care to accord a particular patient (Brooks & Grotz, 2010). Radiologists and cardiologists also use the system as they use Epic machines and system in performing their tasks (C Alban, 2007).

Evaluation of the System

Epic EMR system is a rather good system that can be good in recording, storage and managing health records of the hospital facility and also with the way patients can easily access their information via mobile devices, and make appointments and also obtain the results of medical tests. But there is need for improvement in increasing interoperability across different networks.

System Disruptions

This may occur when there are system upgrades being made, and Forrest General Hospital has not experienced any significant disruptions so far.

Safety and Quality Concerns

The system ensures safety of user data by requiring the hospital staff to verify authenticity of the patient before facilitating the changing of credentials. Forrest General Hospital uses barcodes to verify that right patients are administered the right drugs (C Alban, 2007).

Standardization, Uniqueness and Testing

The system is installed in the computers of the hospital, and is customized to some degree to fit to the needs of the organization. Testing is done when the facilities are being trained, they are taken through a mock implementation of the system (Davis & LaraKhansa, 2016).

References

Berkowitz, L., & McCarthy, C. (2013). Innovation with information technologies in healthcare. London: New York : Springer.

Brooks, R., & Grotz, C. (2010). Implementation of electronic medical records: How healthcare providers are managing the challenges of going digital. Journal of Business & Economics.

C Alban, K. S. (2007). Clinical documentation system for use by multiple caregivers. Epic Systems Corp.

Davis, Z., & LaraKhansa. (2016). Evaluating the epic electronic medical record system: A dichotomy in perspectives and solution recommendations. Health Policy and Technology.

Forrest County General Hospital (Hattiesburg, M. (1997). Forrest General Hospital . Hattiesburg, Mississippi: Forrest General Hospital.

Kaelber, D., Gr...