IT Systems Applied to Health Information Management (HIM)

Assessing EHR System for Health Information Management (HIM)
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Assessing EHR System for Health Information Management (HIM)
Health information entails individuals’ medical histories, including treatment procedures, diagnoses, laboratory tests, health outcomes, demographic data, and symptoms. In particular, health information management (HIM) refers to the practice of obtaining, analyzing, storing, and safeguarding people’s medical information to facilitate the provision of quality healthcare services. Currently, information technology (IT) systems have revolutionized the healthcare sector by enhancing data management in numerous areas, such as medical policy decisions, electronic health records (EHRs), and hospital operations management. This paper focuses on the EHR systems. The primary reason for selecting the EHR system is because this IT system has commonly been implemented by many hospitals for HIM. Additionally, EHRs have proved to be effective and efficient in not only promoting the quality of patient care but also reducing the cost of medical services.  
Organizational Needs that Define the Requirements for EHR Systems
The primary organizational needs that define the requirements for EHRs include the following:
Health organizations want to store accurate patient data.
The availability of individuals’ medical records hasten the treatment process.
Faster retrieval of patients’ health data when required.
The accessibility of credible and accurate data promotes the quality of patient care.
The centralization of the patient data, such that healthcare providers in different hospitals can access the information when needed.
In the United States (US), it has become a requirement for all hospitals to implement EHR systems. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has significantly led this transition by providing financial incentives to healthcare organizations (Aguirre et al., 2019). The primary requirement of the EHR system is to foster the quality of patient care by ensuring that healthcare providers can access accurate data for the individuals they are treating, caring for, or diagnosing. When patient data is captured by the EHR system, the information is stored and protected so that it can be retrieved when it is needed in the future.