In: Nursing
You are appointed to a task force in your health agency that has been asked to make recommendations about personal health electronic records for your patient population. Your team has been asked to evaluate the following:
What level of access should patients to the EHR in use by your healthcare organization (should patients have access to everything in their record or just specific parts?)
What are the opportunities to promote patient engagement and better care coordination through the implementation of a Personal Health Record for your patients?
What are the potential challenges and barriers to use with your patient population?
With EHRs comes the opportunity for patients to receive improved coordinated care from providers and easier access to their health information. It’s a way to make it easier for everyone to be better informed and more involved in the patient’s health care. However for many of us, EHRs also come with questions and concerns about the privacy and security of our health information.HIPAA– the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, which help keep entities covered under HIPAA accountable for the privacy and security of patients’ health information. Many health care providers understand and abide by their obligations under the Privacy and Security Rules. Although EHRs allow providers to use information more effectively to improve the quality and efficiency of your care, they do not change the obligations providers have to keep your protected health information private and secure.
under the Privacy Rule you have the right:
2.. Improve Patient Engagement: Much of what the patients do for their health happens outside clinical settings. When the patients can track their health over time and have information and tools to manage their health, they can be more engaged in their health and health care.Coordinate and Combine Information from Multiple Providers: EHRs can promote better health care by helping your patients manage information from various providers and improve care coordination.