Electronic Health Record-Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

The Joint Commission also places emphasis on patient security and privacy. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) need to ensure the security of patients’ data, and for ease of transferability and access, a structured format is required. Structured data is any data that resides in a fixed field in the EHR. Most of the data that can be used for risk adjustment are available in unstructured text fields like progress notes. Hence, a trained medical professional will be needed to manually abstract the needed data from the medical record or the text fields (Schmaltz & Barrett, 2019).

To capture and share patient information efficiently, healthcare providers are required to use an electronic health record that stores patient data in a structured format (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2021). This structured format makes it easy for healthcare providers to transfer and retrieve information and make use of EHR in a manner that can facilitate better patient care. However, this structured format can be complex to understand and difficult to retrieve if the healthcare workers lack proper training.

An Electronic Health Record that is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act needs to ensure proper security and privacy of patients’ data. According to Sewell (2019), security involves more than logging in and out of the EHS or making certain that the computer screen is not viewed by individuals who lack the need to know. Users need to make use of certified EHR technology, perform risk analysis, and make necessary updates to correct any problems. Access control measures like passwords for authorized persons are necessary. These requirements for accreditation and compliance are pretty straightforward. However, nurses seem to have grasped the concept of privacy and confidentiality better than data security, which makes them prone to breaching the HIPAA standards. The standards on security seem unclear and hence the need to review these to ensure more clarity.

References

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2021). Certified EHR Technology. https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Certification

Scmaltz, S.,& Barrett, S. (2019). Electronic Health Record Data Still Limited in Publicly Reported Risk Factors. The Joint Commission. https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/news-and-multimedia/blogs/improvement-insights/2019/06/electronic-health-record-data-still-limited-in-publicly-reported-risk-factors/

Sewel, J ( 2019).Informatics and nursing: Opportunities and challenges ( 6th. ed). Wolters Kluwer.

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Question

Electronic Health Record-Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Critique the requirements for accreditation and compliance as it relates to the Electronic Health Record as it relates to the following agencies:
- The Joint Commission
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Two references are required. One from a peer reviewed nursing, technology, informatics or nursing informatics journal less than 5 years and one from your informatics text:
- Sewel, J ( 2019).Informatics and nursing: Opportunities and challenges ( 6th. ed). Wolters Kluwer. ISBN-13: 978-1496394064
  Electronic Health Record-Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act