The Needs of an Electronic Health Record in a Clinical Setting

The Needs of an EHR in a Clinical Setting
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The Needs of an EHR in a Clinical Setting
What are the problems identified in the EHR?
Although the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are meant to foster smooth operations in a hospital and improve patient care, they sometimes pose significant challenges. For instance, despite Oncology North having used the EHR for eight years, it was challenging for Chrystal to bring Oncology South on board. One of the problems experienced was that due to the complexity of the management of oncology patients. There was a likelihood that the conversion of EHR would affect the operating model of Oncology South adversely. The other significant issue was the functional gaps identified by Oncology North. As such, if the Universal Health converted the EHR at the Academic Hospital without addressing the above problems, the new user would likely encounter similar challenges in its operations.  
What are the gaps resulting from the identified problems?
One of the gaps emanating from the EHR problems addressed above was the lack of proper integration of the functionalities of the oncology specialists. In other words, Chrystal oncology did not prioritize the communication of health professionals attending to the needs of various patients. Since Oncology North identified the issues of the EHR that the Universal Health wanted Oncology South to adopt, such recommendations need to be addressed before implementing the system. For this reason, a team comprising of nursing informatics, information technology (IT) experts from Chrystal, oncology alignment specialists, and the Universal Health IT experts was formed to rectify the problems.
What are some opportunities to expand or develop the capabilities of the EHR?
Some of the opportunities to improve the functionalities of the EHR was to address the financial gaps, enhance the communication between oncology experts, and facilitate workflow among clinicians. Specifically, system designers and developers should work in close collaboration with other stakeholders such as users to identify the areas they should modify the EHR and improve its efficiency. Therefore, the Chrystal team of IT experts should have taken the opportunity and consider users’ recommendations before implementing the system to Oncology South.
What developments could be made to the clinical workflow setting?
The EHR should have a clinical workflow such that every step is defined clearly. On that note, the most significant development that would improve the system is the inclusion of the oncology navigators, who were omitted in the Chrystal EHR. For example, during the p...