I would like to work in the Emanuel Medical Center in Georgia. The facility is in Emanuel county and serves a population of around 5000 people. The facility is a public facility and has been in existence since 1952. The facility has around 450 employees and over 40 health professionals with diverse expertise in different specialties (Emanuel Medical Center, n.d.). The vision of the facility is to help the residents of Emanuel county and its environment to lead healthier and happy lives. I long to work in this facility because it has Senior Behavioral Health Center that takes care of the people with over 55 years and I have a passion for helping the old people to lead healthier lives.
Although, the facility takes care all the patients that comes to facility the old people, especially with medical conditions are given a priority. This makes the facility to be a darling of the senior citizens. This population has a weak immune system and therefore should not be exposed to diseases like Covid-19. This makes the facility to look for an Electronic Medical Record System, so that patient’s information can be harmonized and be accessible at any location. The facility has noted many of its patients are not willing to come to the facility as they fear exposure to corona virus. As the facility prepares to offer the services using telehealth and visiting patients to their residential areas it needs a system that will store medical history of its patients, medication, treatments, diagnosis, allergies, images and lab tests results (HealthIT.gov, 2019).
the best EHR system for the facility is athenahealth. This is cloud based software that enables health care facilities that access patient’s medical data at any time anywhere. This system is good for the Emanuel Medical Center in that it is able to capture all patient’s data like diagnosis, treatment, medication, lab results and radiology images (athenahealth, 2021). It is also accessible to the patients since it does not demand expense or complex gadgets. The data in the system can be shared by other health care providers at ease and the patients can schedule appointments and receive reminders. This makes the system to suit the needs of Emanuel Medical Center.
To access athenahealth EHR the charges are $140 per user. This means if Emanuel Medical Center will give all its say 40 specialist access rights, it will have to pay $ 5,600 per month ($140 times 40). This translates to $67, 200 per year. In addition to this cost is the data migration and staff training needs. Athenahealth charges a minimum of $1000 for two sessions of staff training and data migration. The Emanuel Medical Center need to acquire this system since it does not add extra cost of buying equipment’s. It is accessible even on mobile devices. It also facilitates patient’s engagement (athenahealth, 2021).
To ensure the system runs smoothly, the vendor (athenahealth) provides the users with 24/7 user support. The Emanuel Medical Center will also ensure the users are training well so that they can be able to use the system. To ensure the employees accepts and integrates the system in their daily roles, the health facility will involve all employees in implementing the system. if the employees who are the final users of the system are not involved in the system development it is likely they will not accept it.
Since athenahealth system is offered as Software as a Service, the security of patient data is an issue that need to be addressed. In this case only the users of the system should be given access right. This includes a username and a password. The users should be trained on how to handle their passwords and gadgets like laptops and mobiles devices as they can contribute to data breach. Also, the vendors must have security measures in place of ensuring servers are not tampered with. The vendor should sign an agreement with the Emanuel Medical Center of adhering to privacy laws (Harman, 2012).
The barriers that Emanuel Medical Center is likely to encounter while implementing the EHR system are:
1. Cost of the EHR system
The number one challenge is cost of the system. The Emanuel Medical Center may strain in paying $67,200 per year, and this is only for the specialists. Although, the goal of health facility is to provide medical services it should make a profit. The high cost of the system may make the health facility to shy away from acquiring the system (Ajami, 2013). But, on the other hand it makes the medical records to be accessible at any time anywhere. This may good for the hospital in serving patients especially a time like this of social distancing.
2. Disruption of the normal
Implementation of a new system disrupts the process flow. For example, the employees of Emanuel Medical Center may be used to manual process of paperwork. This may make them lack computer skills. This can make them shy away from using the system.
3. Patients Concerns
Although, the system may benefit the patients more than the health care facility, patients may raise issues of privacy of their health information. This may force the facility not to adopt the system due to legal implications in case of data breach (Ajami, 2013).
