Health Services Research Commons^™

Will Meaningful Use (Mu) Improve Cancer Data Reporting?, Curtisha Manire

Applied Research Projects

The American Recover and Reinvestment Act directives supply the healthcare community with the improvement of technology across the nation through the Health Information Technology Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act passed in 2009 by promoting healthcare technology. In order to reach the goal of an interoperability that supports reliable communication systems, certain individual technological objectives need to be addressed in particular, Meaningful Use (MU). Meaningful Use objectives contribute to interoperability, with potential outcomes that may increase accuracy and reduce time for reporting. This study will describe how cancer data reporting methods impacts data accuracy and turnaround time evolving around transitions …

The Impact Of Ciwa-Ar Tool On Healthcare Professionals, Laronda Tinsley

Applied Research Projects

Alcohol is one of the most abused substances worldwide. The regular consumption of alcohol can lead to dependency which depresses the central nervous system. Consequently, when a heavy drinker is no longer consuming alcohol, the central nervous system is no longer suppressed and may go into a hyperexcitable state known as alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS). Symptoms can vary from mild to life threatening. Patients who experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms often have a more complicated hospitalization, an extended length of stay, and increased utilization of intensive care and medical services. The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol Scale-revised (CIWA-Ar) is a …

Measuring Quality Of Health Care In Type Ii Diabetes Mellitus Patients Using Certified Electronic Health Records, Tracey A. Hines

Applied Research Projects

Great strides have been made in health care over the past six years after the implementation of the policy known as meaningful use by the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services. Health care subsidies and monetary incentive programs were created for eligible professionals and critical area hospitals to encourage the use of certified electronic health records in an effort to improve quality care of all acute and chronically ill patients, as well as provide routine examinations for healthy individuals.

Patients diagnosed with type II diabetes mellitus were studied using a certified electronic health record system for compliance in physician ordered …

Medicaid Discontinuity Among Adults With Cardiovascular Disease Or High Risk Conditions: Associations With Medication Adherence And Health Care Utilization, Kiraat Divyang Munshi

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

BACKGROUND: Medicaid coverage among adults is often characterized by discontinuity – loss of Medicaid coverage, and churning, or entering and exiting Medicaid – over short durations. Little is known about the impact of having discontinuous Medicaid coverage on access to care, preventive care, pharmacotherapy, primary care, and hospitalizations, among non-elderly adults with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or high-risk conditions.

OBJECTIVES: This dissertation employed a three empirical research papers approach to pursue the following aims: (1) characterize the adult subpopulations with CVD or conditions placing them at high risk for CVD who lack continuous Medicaid coverage, and examine the characteristics associated with …

Video Visits: A Closer Look At Patient Satisfaction And Quality Of Virtual Medical Care, Saddia Cheema

Applied Research Projects

Electronic medical services via video visits has revolutionized the delivery of medical care by Physicians and medical staff alike. Its steady evolution and progression towards the future of healthcare has provided insight on how to better serve patients and community members seeking care. This study will explore patient satisfaction and the quality of virtual medical care services provided by Physicians thru video visits as well as the impact of minimizing the spread of communicable diseases. Statistical data was gathered from a major U.S. healthcare company evaluating survey responses as well as feedback provided by member experience who visited with their …

Necessity Of Analytics In Today’S Healthcare Revenue Cycle, Kristen N. Thomas

Applied Research Projects

Because of the recently growing pressures to improve quality and reduce costs, healthcare organizations are rapidly adopting IT in order to improve their operations and clinical care. As a result, an accumulation of vast amounts of data are becoming available for use. It is important for healthcare to use this data. Strome (2010) states that healthcare analytics is the application of statistical tools and techniques to healthcare-related data in order to study past situations (i.e., operational performance or clinical outcomes) to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical and business processes and performance. With the introduction of healthcare analytical tools, …

The Personal Health Record (Phr): The Effects On Patient Healthcare Outcomes?, Bonita R. Payne

Applied Research Projects

Electronic transmission of data is on the rise, due to the Affordable Care Act and provisions to make healthcare information more accessible, complete, and transparent. The Personal Health Record (PHR) application is a tool used to provide assistance to the goal of patient-centered and patient-centric care. Its purpose is to encourage consumers to become more participatory and informed in their healthcare treatment and healthcare needs. Since its inception, it has been questionable as to whether consumers and providers are seeing any improvements in the services provided or the care rendered. Since, the development and implementation of PHR applications, there has …

Hipaa Violations On Social Media, Tamesha Helen Parris

Applied Research Projects

With the rise of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, healthcare professionals and students pursing healthcare careers communicate, collaborate, and network on an array of websites and apps. With the use of social media, the users can reach a large audience in a matter of seconds, with this ease; users can transmit information and has presented challenges in the form of unauthorized disclosure of patient’s health information on social media sites. The purpose of this study is to see if the number of HIPAA violations increased due to the use of social media and what steps are healthcare …

Health Literacy Improves Health Care Quality, Rebecca Cook

Applied Research Projects

A lack of knowledge about health literacy is a cause for quality healthcare concern as the world advances in health information technology. Many patients struggle to understand and navigate their health and well-being as a result of lack of understanding of the treatment plan due to low literacy skills. Several federal policy initiatives promote health literacy as the responsibility of the healthcare organization. Improving health outcomes through health literacy should be a commitment of healthcare organization through providing clear communication, simplified forms, assistance, and even follow-up calls. Three major initiatives will combat health literacy to include the Affordable Care Act; …

Maintaining The Master Patient Index: The Impact Of Patient Registration Processes On Data Integrity, Matthew Biddle

Applied Research Projects

The master patient index is one of the most important components within a healthcare system. It ensures that an individual patient is given a unique identifier that is used across the various separate clinical, financial and administrative systems and ensures that all information about that patient is organized and complete. Ensuring the MPI is accurate is critical since errors can have significant costs- both financially and in terms of patient outcomes. Patient registrars are the first line of defense when it comes to correctly identifying incoming patients and is where many errors in the MPI occur. Errors can be simple …

Research Proposal: Emrs Changing Patient Medication Errors, Kerry Moore

Applied Research Projects

In 2009 the federal government initiated the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in efforts to improve timely and quality health care. This new initiative promised to provide great incentives to health care providers who took advantage of the program by implementing electronic medical records (EMRs) within their facilities, clinics, and practices. Coupled with tight deadlines and the incentive of reimbursement, the health care world has been witness to an influx of EMRs being developed by vendors and implemented at health care facilities. The rate at which these EMRs have been implemented has been astounding. So fast, the health care …

The Impact Of The Hospital Acquired Conditions (Hac) Initiative For Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections: Is It Really Improving Patient Care?, Shannon Hargis

Applied Research Projects

This research study focuses on the CMS, pay-for-performance, inpatient initiative regarding hospital acquired conditions (HAC) and present on admission (POA) identification of illnesses and injuries and studies conducted upon the initiatives that have measured outcome since the implementation of the program. This study is a focused assessment of numerous studies regarding the overall outcome of the initiative thus far, which was implemented in 2007. The goal of this research is to ascertain the effectiveness of the HAC initiative and possible factors that have positively or negatively impacted the overall outcomes in regard to Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI).

The Impact Of Ehr Usability Issues On The Perceived Efficiency Of Non-Clinical Hospital-Based Ehr Users, Natasha Ocean

Applied Research Projects

A survey-based study of the impact of the EHR systems usability issues on the perceived efficiency of work among non-clinical users in the hospital settings was performed June 20th to July 24th 2015. There were 160 valid responses. The results were processed in SPSS (IBM statistical application) and I determined the usability dimensions with the greatest impact on efficiency, for all EHRs and for the major EHRs (Meditech, Epic and Cerner). Helpfulness was the most frequent problem for users of all EHRs.

The survey is experimental and cross-sectional. The format was 20 Likert-type questions, along with screening and demographic questions. …

The Detrimental Pitfalls Of Provider Documentation, Rosalind Crook-Duckett

Applied Research Projects

Electronic Health Records hold many benefits and clearly is a cut above maintain-ing paper records. Although, over the years we have learned that there are potential drawbacks that come with having an electronic health record. This review on EHR’s, is what could be, considered detrimental pitfalls of provider documentation (copying and pasting) and how this may affect the safety and quality of the physician documentation and patient care.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Current Types Of Patient Portal Education Efforts, Jennifer L. Cooper

Applied Research Projects

Hospitals and providers participating in Meaningful Use are required to show 5% enrollment rate in their patient portals in order to receive incentive payments. The challenge with this is determining how to effectively market the portal in order to educate patients that the portal exists that also results in patients enrolling in the portal. A survey of patients was conducted at Hunt Regional Medical Center in Greenville Texas to identify how they are hearing about the patient portal and if they are signing-up as a result. While the response rate was low, the survey results did indicate what form of …

The Impact Of Patient Portals On Release Of Information Requests, April Insco

Applied Research Projects

Patient portals are no longer a thing of the past. The government has issued a mandate that all covered entities who are reimbursed under Medicare payments must implement patient portals as a part of the Meaningful Use initiative or suffer penalties. The objective of this study is to review the data to see if there is a decrease in the number of release of information (ROI) requests at facilities that have implemented patient portals. A survey was conducted to determine if there was any change in the number of ROI requests that facilities received prior to implementation of patient portal …

Managing Copy And Paste Functionality In The Electronic Health Record, Tricia Urquhart-Jones

Applied Research Projects

The increased adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) has identified a significant need to develop tools to help providers maximize time spent documenting in the EHR. Copy and paste functionality, also known as carrying forward, cut and paste, and cloning, is one of many tools that can help providers save time and has been around longer than computers. A survey of thirteen Health Information Management (HIM) professionals responsible for HIMS functions within an acute care hospital in North Carolina was conducted. The survey response rate was 53%. The data gathered in this research study will add to HIM body of …

Health Information Exchanges And Patient Portals In Behavioral Health, Christine Peterson

Applied Research Projects

We live in an electronic world. Technology is everywhere, including in our healthcare system. With the advent on the electronic health record and the push to meet Meaningful Use, many healthcare organizations have already started using patient portals and sharing information among providers via health information exchanges. There have been roadblocks to successful implantation of patient portals and health information exchanges, one of which is how to handle behavioral health information and would these new technologies be accepted by patients with mental health diagnoses

The Challenges Of Establishing Partners In Health Information Exchange (Hie), Torian Tate

Applied Research Projects

Health information exchange (HIE) has become a focus of the health care industry. The ability to share information electronically between multiple health care providers is thought to be a key ingredient in the creation of a more efficient global health care system. VA Hospital Memphis has significant challenges in regard to HIE. The Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) coordinator at the facility has been charged with establishing an HIE system. This requires the coordinator to identify partners to share health information with electronically, obtain buy-in from patients and providers through education, and to promote/market the VLER program facility-wide. The VA …

Job Security In The Field Of Health Information, Davina Ikponmwosa

Applied Research Projects

The industry of Health Information Management (HIM) has remained a hidden career field for several years, affording employment for a plethora of non-traditional job opportunities. Established in 1928, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has brought some awareness to the field, and over the years has become more aggressive in popularize the field of health information management (AHIMA Workforce, 2005).

Over the past eighty-five years the field of HIM has progressed tremendously, branching out into different sectors such as compliance, information technology and insurance; establishing more jobs under the field’s umbrella. Health information management has gained much of its …

An Examination Of Factors That Influence Health Behaviors Among Low Income African American Women With Type 2 Diabetes In Memphis, Tn: A Qualitative Inquiry Using Mixed Methods, Adole Muruako

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are increasing health concerns in the United States, particularly among women and minorities. Generally, research has highlighted the health disparities that exist among African American women, especially as these disparities relate to obesity and type 2 diabetes. In Memphis, TN, the ZIP codes of 38106 and 38109 have the highest rates of diabetes hospitalizations in the city. Further, African American women in Memphis, TN have been identified as being most vulnerable to experiencing a potentially avoidable hospitalization due to chronic disease. The purpose of study was to identify factors that may impact African American overweight/obese …

Quality Of Cancer Registry Data, Alicia Noel Richardson

Applied Research Projects

Cancer registry is a growing field and with data being collected year round the data needs to be of good quality standing. Quality of cancer care is measurable per standards when met within the time frame allotted per care regimen. Cancer programs are evaluating and implementing new process to make their data valid and complete through information technology and connection among hospital-based and community-based practices. The aim of this study is to review the available validity, barriers and utilization related to quality of cancer care data. The studies were consistent among each other in that a concurrent review of data, …

Electronic Health Record Documentation: Is It An Accurate Indicator Of Quality Of Care For Mechanically Ventilated Patients?, Joetta Powell

Applied Research Projects

Background: Ventilator associated pneumonia is one of the leading hospital acquired infections associated with increased mortality and lengths of stay in mechanically ventilated patients.

Hypothesis: It is hypothesized that the introduction of chlorhexidine gluconate will show reduction in the incidences of ventilator associated pneumonia and a greater reduction with tooth brushing vs oral swabbing. It is also hypothesized that the electronic health record will provide more evidence of quality of care than an external EHR sources.

Methods: The non-randomized, non-sampled population included 98 patient records that met the inclusion criteria. The external tool, Automated Vent Bundle tool provided information as …

The Impact Of The Electronic Medical Record On Health Information Management Staff In Two Southeastern States, Betsy W. Bradley

Applied Research Projects

Health information management (HIM) staffs in health care facilities have a long history of managing medical records in a paper format. Since 2009, with the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), health care facilities have been rapidly changing from a paper medical record system to an electronic system. The adoption of electronic record systems has reduced or eliminated paper medical record forms which consequently changed many HIM staff’s jobs. A survey of HIM professionals was conducted in two southeastern states to determine any increase or decrease in HIM staff numbers and to identify …

Adoption Of Health Information Technology In Nursing Homes, Robert Smiley

Applied Research Projects

Background: Comprehensive knowledge about the level of Health Information Technology (HIT) adoption in Nursing Homes remains subpar to 21st century healthcare standards.

Objective: This study is to determine the factors that will aid in the adoption of HIT in Nursing Homes in the New York metropolitan area.

Methods: A pilot survey was issued to employees at three Nursing Homes to collect data that would aid in the adoption of HIT in Nursing Homes in the New York metropolitan area.

Study Design: A 16 question survey was administered to twenty-one employees at three separate Nursing Homes in the New York metropolitan …

Meaningful Use: Electronic Clinical Quality Measure Reporting, Rhonda K. Denzel

Applied Research Projects

The adoption of health information technology and the meaningful use of electronic health records is a byproduct of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). One measure of ARRA is the Health Information and Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act which authorizes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide monetary incentives to hospitals and providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHRs).

The electronic reporting of clinical quality measures is but one requirement for demonstrating meaningful use. Reporting of clinical quality measures has been around for 25 plus years as a …

Meaningful Use – Is It Worth It?, Karen Perry Callahan

Applied Research Projects

The world of medicine has long been an ever changing environment. The advancements and progress in both knowledge and techniques has made patient care and treatment an increasingly successful endeavor. Physicians are often eager to embrace any new technology in the medical field that allows them to better care for their patients. The problem with new medical technology is that unless this technology can be shared or related to others, it is somewhat useless.

The medical profession has been somewhat reluctant to come to terms with the use of computer technology and its many benefits. Generally embedded in the use …

An Analysis Of Waiting Time Reduction In A Private Hospital In The Middle East, Husam Asfoor

Applied Research Projects

The study of patient’s waiting time reduction have been receiving attention since the implementation of recent changes in the healthcare quality indicators. However, there is still many areas of improvement the healthcare industry could implement to improve waiting time and positively affect patient satisfaction. This is especially crucial for private healthcare organizations since it has a direct effect on their bottom-line.

In this study, we examine the patient waiting time between the registration stage and the vital sign stage at a private hospital in the Middle East country of United Arab Emirates.

By retrieving the data logs from the EHR …

Integrated System Post-Implementation Evaluation And Use Assessment, Anne L. Pedigo

Applied Research Projects

Part of a well-designed health informatics implementation process includes the mechanisms put in place to help the day-to-day operators of the systems. Continual appraisal of these methods necessitates up-to-date investigations. Understanding critical elements which support a positive transition of health information technology (HIT) within healthcare facilities is the objective of the following research. To help develop these findings, a prospective post-implementation and use assessment survey was conducted on two hospitals in Central Texas. The population studied included RN case managers, social workers and supportive staff in the Continuum of Care departments at two Scott & White Healthcare acute care facilities. …

Legal Issues With The Electronic Health Record, Hannah Jackson

Applied Research Projects

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to make readers aware of the legal issues in the electronic health record (EHR) and the risks involved so they can be prepared. It is also to help provide solution to those who are already dealing with the risks. The goal of this Project is to reach out to health care facilities who are about to embark on a new chapter in health care that we call, the EHR. Everyone should know the risks of a product before purchasing and that is what my research will show.

Method

I used The Journal of …