Computerized+Patient+Record+Systems

=Computerized Patient Record Systems=

Overview:
Computerized Patient Record Systems (CPRS) are a fully integrated and comprehensive suite of medical record applications and databases that work in collaboration to provide a complete overview of patient’s medical records thus improving clinical and administrative patient management. CPRS systems form the infrastructure for the timely and accurate collection and exchange of data, information, and knowledge in healthcare organizations, and thus a more efficient use of scarce resources. CPRS refers to systems for the acute care setting and contains patient-centric, electronically maintained information about an individual’s health status and care, focusing on tasks and events directly related to patient care and optimized for use by clinicians. When designed and implemented correctly, it should meet all of a healthcare providers’ clinical, legal and administrative requirements for automation support of the clinical process. Even today, most medical staff members spend between 30-50% of their time doing paperwork. By implementing Computerized Patient Record Systems, the staff no longer has to deal with repetitive dictation and manual note taking, which in turn, will reduce the time spent on paperwork that usually precedes and follows a patient’s visit. A CPRS system is very similar to the concepts of an EHR, EMR, or PHR, but the scope of a CPRS is restricted to a single organization

Objectives:

 * A complete and accurate lifetime medical record
 * Visual access to all data[[image:two.jpg align="right"]]
 * Simple and direct ways to look up and view information
 * Immediate data accessibility from any secure location
 * Reports to allow interpretation of changes over time
 * Ability to mine data over a large population
 * Adaptability over time
 * Relate treatment to outcome and cost
 * Reduce costs of acquiring data
 * Maximize collaborative research
 * Provide immediate notification of test-results
 * Performing insurance verifications
 * Flagging allergies and possible drug interactions (automatically)
 * Manage registration and scheduling of new patients
 * Record patient history, progress notes, prescriptions, procedures, and diagnostic tests.

Benefits:[[image:one.jpg width="237" height="188" align="right"]]

 * Increased patient welfare
 * Decrease in fatalities
 * More efficient and effective use of personnel
 * Increase in patient satisfaction
 * Effective accounting process management
 * Significantly improved ROI (Return on Investment)
 * Provide real time patient status reports
 * Reduce costs by eliminating manual functions by staff
 * Ability to test results as soon as they're available
 * Provides graphs and flow sheets of test trends

Issues:

 * Security: Implementation of a CPRS brings with it the need to make sure electronic data is constantly secure and the appropriate measures are taken to audit unauthorized access to patient data.
 * Costs: The costs of implementing a CPRS system can be substantial, making smaller clinics very reluctant to implement one even if the long term goals are to reduce costs.
 * Learning Curve: A new system would mean spending time and money training the staff on how to do their jobs in a completely different way that would hinder productivity in the early stages of its deployment. Users are more likely to accept a technology if several conditions are met: they have a stake in the system; they can use it at minimum cost; the technology produces information leading to improved clinical services; that information is almost immediately available; and the technology increases their status.
 * Standardization: There are several vendors of CPRS systems and sometimes features are not standardized between them. If a vendor is slow to implemented requested features, even if they are deemed necessary by law, the situation may require switching to a new vendor that is compliant therefore increasing potential risks.
 * Environment of Health Care System: The U.S. Health Care System is mostly comprised of autonomous units of hospitals, divisions, and departments. The implementation and maintaining of a CPR requires greater coordination amongst these separate services .
 *  Legal And Social Issues: State license requirements for hospital medical records are obsolete, ambiguous, and non-uniform. The wide variation among states in hospital license requirements for medical records makes it difficult to develop CPR systems that comply with license laws in all 50 states; this factor in turn hinders the development of CPR formats that can be used nationally.

Related Terminology:

 * [|Electronic Medical Record (EMR)]
 * [|Electronic Health Record (EHR)]
 * [|Health Informatics]
 * [|Health Information Management]

Resources:

 * [|CPRS IT Directory]
 * [|Computerized Patient Record Systems]
 * [|Impact of a Computer-based Patient Record System on Data Collection]
 * [|A systematic review of computer-based patient record systems]
 * [|Accuracy of Data in Computer-based Patient Records]
 * [|EHR vs EMR vs CPR vs PHR]
 * [|Computerized patient records benefit physician offices]
 * [|Implementing an Integrated Computerized Patient Record System]