Every healthcare facilty should utilize the electronic medication Essay

Every healthcare facilty should utilize the electronic medication administrtion record to help reduce medication errors - Essay Example This system is an electronic record of resident patient medication, thus improving efficiency and reducing human-based errors. The Electronic Medication Administration Record The Electronic Medication Administration Record (EMAR) is a technology system supported by enhanced computerized systems that allow for more efficient ordering and dosing of patient/resident medications in the hospital and other clinical environments. The EMAR system is implemented in health care facilities to improve interaction between patients and nurses, the physician staff, and also to reduce errors. Additionally, EMAR systems are designed to replace traditional paper systems for similar activities related to medication, thus improving costs for the organization by changing the dynamics of inter-office activities. The Institute of Medicine provides statistics regarding medication errors that continue to contribute to hospital liability claims. According to the Institute, more than a million injuries and nea rly 100,000 deaths occur annually due to errors (Hook, Pearlstein, Samarth & Cusack, 2008). Errors that occur are costly to the hospital and, in the long-term, raise prices for other patients when hospitals are forced to increase the costs of health care service in order to pay ongoing liability claims. Because of these high statistics, the need for improving the medication dosing and ordering systems are necessary. From a marketing perspective, hospitals that raise prices too extensively will lose patient business. When coupled with negative publicity from a hospital or other health care facility that faces liability suits in the court system, it is likely that patients will avoid this facility in favor of another. More Advantages of EMAR As identified, the electronic medication administration record provides for a paperless environment. This improves efficiency and also reduces the costs of office supplies and other important forms from a supply chain perspective. However, the mor e important benefit of EMAR is the ability to share medicinal data with internal sources and external partners in a method that is efficient, safe to security from an IT perspective, and improve the efficiency of the entire health network. This information can be shared via electronic data exchange with ambulance services, patients and health network payers (Garets & Davis, 2006). Currently, interactive communications with health network payers or the use of complicated forms are necessary to achieve results. With the EMAR, such transactions can occur instantly in the virtual environment, thereby improving efficiency in this process. The ability to share this data with ambulance services also provides a new training opportunity and improves the instantaneous knowledge of patient medical records in a real-time service environment. Ambulatory systems can understand whether any potential interactions might occur when they are providing trauma or other services en route to the hospital. It is an ideal model for improving communications between off-site service personnel and the hospital environment. A recent study identified frustrations with nurses that occur because of inefficiency in the workplace. â€Å"They want technology to reduce demand on nursing time by eliminating waste in care resulting from inefficient workflow†