By Lorna Green, Healthcare Informatics Executive Advisor, Hyland
The HIMSS EMRAM, the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, entered the scene about 10 years ago and had a profound impact on health IT. When I hear EMRAM, ‘change’ comes to mind. Although change is often thought of in a negative way, it doesn’t have to be.
The EMRAM has pushed hospitals to make changes to the way they document and share patient information. I am a supporter of helping hospitals move to HIMSS Stage 7 because I see value in the changes that are part of the EMRAM guidelines. I have seen medication errors decrease due to closed loop medication administration and clinical decision support. Coordinated care between clinicians is now the standard and not the exception thanks to technology and change.
This year is my 35th anniversary as a nurse. I remember the challenges of paper charts. The days when I needed the chart to reference something but another clinician had the chart—sometimes for hours. It was challenging at times to get a total picture of the patient from the fragmented paper record. Much of our information that was shared was through verbal communication, not written anywhere for reference.
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By Lorna Green, Healthcare Informatics Executive Advisor, Hyland
The HIMSS EMRAM, the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, entered the scene about 10 years ago and had a profound impact on health IT. When I hear EMRAM, ‘change’ comes to mind. Although change is often thought of in a negative way, it doesn’t have to be.
The EMRAM has pushed hospitals to make changes to the way they document and share patient information. I am a supporter of helping hospitals move to HIMSS Stage 7 because I see value in the changes that are part of the EMRAM guidelines. I have seen medication errors decrease due to closed loop medication administration and clinical decision support. Coordinated care between clinicians is now the standard and not the exception thanks to technology and change.
This year is my 35th anniversary as a nurse. I remember the challenges of paper charts. The days when I needed the chart to reference something but another clinician had the chart—sometimes for hours. It was challenging at times to get a total picture of the patient from the fragmented paper record. Much of our information that was shared was through verbal communication, not written anywhere for reference.
The early days of electronic medical records (EMR) were exciting to me. I could actually look on the computer and see if my patient’s blood pressure had been running high during the night or when they last experienced pain. However, there were still gaps in data. I couldn’t always see X-ray results, photos of wounds or the home medication list. Change brought us from paper to the EMR, and change is here again to take us a step further.
Bringing all clinical data into one view for our clinicians is that step. Giving physicians, nurses and therapists the ability to view all photos, X-rays, reports and documentation from the context of the EMR is a change that contributes to safer and more affordable healthcare.
Join me for a lunch and learn session at HIMSS16, where John Hoyt, executive vice president of HIMSS Analytics, will discuss upcoming revisions to the EMRAM:
A Deeper Dive into the Future of EMRAM
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. PT
HIMSS16 Conference and Exhibition – Room 203
I hope to see you at HIMSS because as all things change, so does the EMRAM and we’re here to help organizations usher in the new era of electronic health records.
