Adoption Of A New Technology System Essay Example

It is natural that technological innovations may create uncertainty among potential adopters (regarding its perceived and actual consequences), but the information base that EHRs offer should serve to reassure nurses about the systems’ potential. It is possible to alleviate such uncertainty by emphasizing potential efficacy gains from the technology in solving problems that nurses struggle with in their daily practice. This potential should offer the requisite motivation for the nurses and health care practitioners to seek out and process information on the role of the technology in solving their practice problems. My task in this context is to provide information and facilitate information seeking and communication of the same using interpersonal channels. I intend to draw on the common problems that face nursing practitioners, their understanding of the importance of evidence-based practice and information technology to ensure that they have a clear understanding of what to expect.

Innovation Diffusion Meeting Strategies

Perhaps one of my strongest arguments that many nurses can identify with is the ability of EHR system to minimize medication errors. Medication administration is a complex and error-prone process that comprises procurement, prescription, dispensation, transcription, administration and patient monitoring. These errors are responsible for upwards of 1.5 million adverse medical events that happen in the United States every year, resulting in 7000 deaths and $3.5 billion in lost productivity/income and correctional treatment. Many nursing practitioners have personally experienced, or know a colleague who has made a medication mistake. EHRs offer accurate patient identification, including bar code and biometric identification features, coupled with automated medication records, drug information records, patient profiles, excellent communication among medical practitioners (physicians, nurses and lab technicians, etc.). Effectively, I will make my case for this technology as the solution to medication (and broader medical records). EHRs will not only automate much of the medication process, but prescription refilling, which is one of the most repetitive and tedious processes given the increasing number of chronically ill patients (diabetics, heart and other diseases).
Other sources of relative advantage of the traditional systems include the fact that EHRs will eliminate the time and effort of tracking down patient reports e.g. x-ray reports, lab results, and discharge charts since these can be built into the EHR by scanning manual records or through an interface. Further, nurses will have patient charts at their fingertips as against having to answer some of patient calls without charts due to misplacement. Nurses will also have complete information, including the ability to compare the patients’ lab results to past value, automatically contact patients to notify them of their test results and access to a wealth of standard forms that can be generated using the system.
According to Rogers (2003), the compatibility of the innovation with the current practices, values, norms and experiences help the diffusion. Other than linking EHRs to frustrating experiences in the past, I will associate with evidence-based practice, the hospital’s continuous quality improvement and efficiency-enhancement efforts. Most nursing practitioners appreciate the role of evidence-driven practice in improving patient outcomes, not least because this forms the core of modern nursing education. For instance, I would tell them about the simplified compliance with practice standards such HIPAA, which comes with the implementation of EHRs. Multiple standards including privacy, security and completeness of patient information are automatically ensured. This is not least because EHRs come with seamless and automated information backup in the event of disasters such as hurricanes that destroy manual records.
Simplicity and triability are just as important in facilitating technological diffusion. I will have nurses understand that most of the EHRs do not require any additional skills and training other than the basic computer skills. These systems are simply electronic versions of paper charts, much the same way that an email is no different from the old-fashioned letter but better. I any event, system-specific training will be provided to all nurses at the expense of the hospital and so the nurses must not be worried about their ability to use the systems, because it remained the responsibility of the vendor to ensure that they were well-acquainted with the systems. In addition, the nature of these systems is that it is possible for the nurses to have an input in the manner in which the user interfaces are designed to ensure that they best fit their needs.
There will be opportunities to try the systems too. Firstly, prior to the systems going live, simulations of the same will be available for the nurses to practice, get used to the experience and make recommendations on the design aspects that need improvement. This would be a great opportunity to learn the system and make workflow adjustments to ensure seamless implementation. Further, the implementation process can be phased in, so that nurses will be allowed to use both the EHRs and the traditional paper-based systems as they master the EHRs, during which time they would be able to appreciate the value that this technology brings. The phased implementation is easily one of the best ways to try the system and confirm just how easy it can be.

Role of Nurses in EHR Implementation

Nurses comprise an important EHRs user category and thus play an instrumental role in ensuring the systems’ successful implementation. They are mostly responsible for many aspects of quality care and interaction among varied departments. Even most importantly, leadership by nurses ensures that these systems are designed/customized to ensure the highest possible efficacy. To begin with, nurses have a better understanding of the State Nursing Practice Act, rules, and regulations, which they can ensure are built into the systems to optimize their effectiveness within the scope of licensure. Nurses’ interactions with ancillary departments (e.g. lab, pharmacy and accounts) and have a better understanding of the nature cooperation/workflow setup, and thus can best inform the designs/customization of EHRs interfaces to minimize possible disruptions. Other practical inputs such as the location of the hardware, the nature of the hardware, design of chart templates and training. According to Blavin, Ramos, Shah, & Devers (2013) and Kutney-Lee & Kelly (2011), nurses are super users of EHRs and can play a helpful role in the training of other health care practitioners to use the technology.

Summary

EHRs enhance clinical efficiencies, patient safety, and quality of care outcomes. These systems facilitate easy access to information about medications, easy data backup, advanced and accurate patient identification, enhanced tracking of patient records and easy communication among different medical practitioners. They allow for seamless compliance with regulatory requirements and reduce the pressure on the nurses, physicians, pharmacists, insurers and lab technicians among others. However, these benefits are subject to practitioners embracing the technology and implementing it fully. Nurses are important partners in the successful implementation and realization of HER goals. To this, it is important that they have an understanding of the relative advantages of EHRs, compatibility with quality improvement efforts and evidence-based practice, simplicity of the systems, simulation and concurrent implementation and the real value that will result from the implementation.

References

Anderson, P., & Townsend, T. (2010). Medication Errors: Don't Let Them Happen To You. New York: American Nurse Today.
Appelbaum, S. H., Habashy, S., Malo, J.‐L., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 31 Iss: 8, 764 - 782.
Blavin, F., Ramos, C., Shah, A., & Devers, K. (2013). Lessons from the Literature on Electronic Health Record Implementation. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Kutney-Lee, A., & Kelly, D. (2011). The Effect of Hospital Electronic Health Record Adoption on Nurse-Assessed Quality of Care and Patient Safety. J Nurs Adm. 41(11), 466–472.
Poissant, L., Pereira, J., Amblyn, R. T., & Kawasumi, Y. (2005). The Impact of Electronic Health Records on Time Efficiency of Physicians and Nurses: A Systematic Review. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 12(5), 505–516.
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.
Wills, E., & Kluwer, W. (2010). Theoretical Basis for Nursing 3rd. ed. . New York: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.