Discuss challenges associated with maintaining multiple interfaces between health care systems.

What are some examples of timing and data integrity challenges you may have experienced in your own career or you feel may be encountered when an organization operates multiple systems on different platforms?

Challenges to using more than one Electronic Medical Record (EMR) can be grouped into several categories. The primary challenge is mitigating risk to patient safety. Others include ease of viewing the patient’s record, user ability to master multiple EMR functionalities and workflows, and institutional costs.

The greatest risk of multiple EMR use is the risk of missing data and any corresponding decision support that impact patient safety. Some of the features of EMRs that are cited as making care safer, such as improving communication, providing access to patient information, and stopping mistakes at the ordering process may be more difficult to achieve if more than one EMR is used without appropriate integration. A secondary but significant risk encompasses increased practitioner time requirement for both patient care and for training which results in loss of income and in provider dissatisfaction with the EMR.

Explanation:

Electronic Medical Record EMR as a computing system that provides medical record functionality including review and entry of notes and other health information, results management, order entry, decision support, electronic communication and connectivity, patient support, and others as described elsewhere.

By “more than one or multiple interface EMR” we mean that a patient cared for in the ambulatory and inpatient setting of that health care organization will have electronic record data and functionality described above spread across more than one EMR system, and that practitioners will require access to content or functionality from more than one EMR while delivering care