The Healthcare Cloud Week 7 the Finale

The Healthcare Cloud 

Welcome to week 7  of our blog😊💙! This week, we are going to explore the Healthcare Cloud, what it is, how nurse practitioners can use it with their patients, and how their privacy is protected. 

    What is a Healthcare Cloud? The 'cloud' or cloud computing is used to run critical applications, cull, analyze, and extract important information from piles of unstructured data, including physician and lab notes, via the natural language processing capabilities of machine learning (Thomas, 2024). A healthcare cloud is a type of data management that has emerged as a transformative force in healthcare and biomedical sciences, offering scalable, on-demand resources for managing vast amounts of data (Sachdeva & Bhatia, 2024). The cloud can be used in a variety of healthcare domains, such as electronic medical records, telemedicine, and personalized patient care, as well as its impact on bioinformatics research, particularly in genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics  (Sachdeva & Bhatia, 2024). Big data analytics in the form of a cryptosystem has been shown to allow healthcare workers to improve healthcare, mainly by being able to detect any medical conditions by using any clinical images of the patients. This cryptosystem is also extremely secure against cyberattacks, which is key in dealing with sensitive patient health information (PHI) (Sachdeva & Bhatia, 2024). 

   

    How can NPs utilize the healthcare cloud for their patients? By utilizing the healthcare cloud in the avenue, such as electronic health records (EHR), telemedicine, medical imaging and diagnostics, remote patient monitoring, and electronic medical records, providers can not only reach more patients, they can provide more options for patients, improve their outcomes, and reduce overall healthcare costs (TheKnowledgeAcademy, 2024). FNPs are bridging the gap in the need for primary healthcare providers, and by utilizing these services, they can reach even more patients, especially those in rural communities. Patients need to feel like they can reach their provider, be able to send messages, and feel engaged with their healthcare, and by utilizing the cloud providers can give this to their patients. When patients feel engaged in their healthcare, they are more likely to follow their medication regimens, be an active member of their care team, and follow their care plan, and by using the cloud, patients are more likely to be engaged. 

    How can patient privacy and confidentiality be best protected? Cloud biosecurity is one of the most evolving interdisciplinary sciences, which involves cybersecurity, cyber-physical security, and biosecurity, and has become one of the most expensive areas of security in the United States (Bulto, 2024). Rules and regulations surrounding PHI, such as HIPAA and HITECH ACT, are also heavily involved in regulating the protection of patient privacy. Cloud security is of the utmost importance and something the United States and the World have spent billions of dollars protecting. This should help patients feel safe that their PHI is secure and that their information is not being easily accessed and spread around the world. 

    No matter the way they use it, the Healthcare Cloud is a crucial tool for FNPs to not only help provide better diagnostic care but to improve patient engagement and outcomes, and to reduce patient costs. By utilizing telemedicine, patients can be seen from further away and can see more providers, and it reduces the burden and cost of traveling. By having access to things like myChart and other EHRs, patients can send their providers messages, see test results, review care plans, and be more engaged in their healthcare. NPs can utilize these tools and foster a healthcare environment of direct patient care with an emphasis on holistic healing. I also recorded a short video reviewing the article linked this week, as I found it insightful on the uses of the healthcare cloud and how many options are available to us. 

References

Bulto, L. N. (2024). The role of nurse‐led telehealth interventions in bridging healthcare gaps and expanding access. Nursing Open, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.2092

Sachdeva, S., & Bhatia, S. (2024). Unraveling the role of cloud computing in health care system and biomedical sciences. Heliyon, 10(7), e29044–e29044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29044

TheKnowledgeAcademy. (2024). Cloud Computing in Healthcare: Explained. Www.theknowledgeacademy.com. https://www.theknowledgeacademy.com/blog/cloud-computing-in-healthcare/

Thomas, M. (2024, January 19). Cloud Computing in Healthcare: 13 Examples to Know | Built In. Builtin.com. https://builtin.com/articles/cloud-computing-in-healthcare

eCQMs and Meaningful Measures Week 6

 Meaningful Measures and eCQMs...How can we improve patient safety?

    This week in the blog, we will explore electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and Meaningful Measures and how they can help ensure patient safety. As future FNPs, we need to be mindful of all the ways we have to protect our patients, not just their personal health information (PHI) by ensuring HIPAA is followed, but also ensuring patients are receiving quality care from your practice, as well as trying to mitigate care from outside providers. Anyway, we as providers can help build up our patients' trust and engagement, which will not only foster a more meaningful provider-patient relationship but will also engage patients in their care and help them play a vital role in their healthcare team. 

    So, what are eCQMs, and how can we as FNPs utilize them in our practice? eCQMs are measures specified in a standard electronic format using data electronically obtained from electronic health records (EHRs) and/or health information technology (IT) systems to assess the quality of health care provided (eCQUI Resource Center , 2025). They can also use clinical data enabling more accurate assessment of treatment outcomes by measured entities to assess the outcomes of treatment by measured entities, use electronic standards, which help reduce the burden of manual abstraction and reporting for measured entities, and foster the goal of access to real-time data for point of care quality improvement and clinical decision support(eCQUI Resource Center , 2025).  Reports of eCQMs are given to CMS, The Joint Commission, other federal health agencies, as well as commercial insurance payers in programs that track and/or reimburse measured entities based on quality reporting or quality performance (eCQUI Resource Center , 2025). When it comes down to it, the higher rated a provider, the better they are going to get reimbursed by CMS and commercial insurance companies; thus, eCQMs give providers an added incentive to provide patients with the best possible care they can. Another way eCQMs help protect patients is that if providers are receiving poor ratings on their eCQMs, they are more likely to be investigated and then looked into why they are providing poor care.  eCQMs can also be utilized by hospitals, providers, and healthcare organizations to improve patient care by analyzing patient data and tracking trends in healthcare (Bansal, 2025). 

    Another initiative by CMS is Meaningful Measures, which was initially introduced in 2017 to reduce the number of Medicare quality measures and ease the burden on measured entities (CMS.gov, 2017). Since its initiation in 2017 Meaningful Measures has reduced the number of Medicare quality measures by 18 percent, saving more than 3 million hours of time and a projected $128 million (CMS.gov, 2017). The goal of Meaningful Measure 2.0 is to digitally allow clinicians to upload their quality once and utilize its data in multiple ways, accelerate the initiative to being fulling electronic, and utilize AI to analyze data and identify areas of harm before it reaches the patient (CMS.gov, 2017). These different initiatives both aid FNPs because they not only help maintain an excellent level of quality patient care, but also help to maintain the proper levels of quality reimbursements.  Patients want to trust that they are receiving quality care from their provider, and by utilizing eCQMs and meaningful measures, patients have another level of reassurance. 

References

Bansal, N. (2025, February 19). eCQM Explained: Key Measures, CMS Updates, and How It Compares to Traditional CQM & HEDIS - Following Healthcare. Following Healthcare. https://followinghealthcare.com/ecqm/

CMS.gov. (2017). Meaningful Measures 2.0: Moving from Measure Reduction to Modernization | CMS. Cms.gov. https://www.cms.gov/medicare/quality/cms-national-quality-strategy/meaningful-measures-20-moving-measure-reduction-modernization

eCQUI Resource Center . (2025, March 20). Get Started with eCQMs | eCQI Resource Center. Ecqi.healthit.gov. https://ecqi.healthit.gov/ecqms?qt-tabs_ecqm=about-ecqms

Case Study: Interdisciplinary Collaboration for the Treatment and Recovery of a Sigmoid Colectomy Week 5

Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Clinical Decision Support

Welcome to week 5 of GSNG 6700 😸, we are going strong💪 and making our way through the many topics of nursing informatics, and this week is especially intriguing! We are utilizing a case study created using chat GPT 💥that discusses interdisciplinary collaboration and its importance to providing care as an FNP. 

    Interdisciplinary collaboration in medicine is paramount to utilizing Clinical Decision Support (CDS) which encompasses a variety of tools to enhance decision-making in the clinical workflow. These tools can include computerized alerts and reminders to care providers and patients; clinical guidelines; condition-specific order sets; focused patient data reports and summaries; documentation templates; diagnostic support, and contextually relevant reference information, among other tools (The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2018). These tools can increase the quality of care, improve patient outcomes, reduce adverse effects, and minimize errors (The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2018). To utilize CDS most efficiently though, there needs to be interdisciplinary collaboration so that there is as much information about patients as possible, which helps promote better outcomes from CDS (McLaney et al., 2022). When it comes to care from FNPs there tends to be an even greater level of team collaboration, as with physicians partly due to the rules of your state and partly since APRNs and physicians have always worked in close collaboration, but even more so since COVID (McGilton et al., 2023). 

(Now please enjoy this video demonstrating how CDS can detect, analysis, and alert a provider to changes in a patients status)

AI-Generated Case Study from Chat GPT:  this case study was created using ChatGPT(2025) and was edited to be relevant to the current topic. 

Case Study: Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Sigmoid Colectomy for Diverticulitis

Patient Profile

Name: Mrs. Linda Harris

Age:68 years

Gender: Female

Medical History

Ø  Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (well-controlled with metformin)

Ø  Hypertension (controlled with amlodipine)

Ø  Mild osteoarthritis

Ø  Previous history of diverticulosis, but no prior episodes of diverticulitis

Ø  Smoker (20 pack-years, quit 3 years ago)

No known drug allergies

Presenting Problema

Mrs. Harris presented to the ED with a 5-day history of LLQ abdominal pain, fever, nausea, and alternating diarrhea, and constipation. She also reported a recent decline in appetite and unintentional weight loss of about 4 kilograms over the past month.

On examination, the patient had tenderness in the LLQ with signs of guarding. Her vital signs were:

BP: 138/85 mmHg

HR: 102 bpm

Temp: 38.2°C

RR: 20 breaths per minute

Her history and clinical presentation suggested a probable case of acute diverticulitis, and imaging was ordered for further evaluation.

Clinical Assessmenta

Laboratory Findings

Ø  Complete Blood Count (CBC): Leukocytosis (WBC count 15,000/mm³), indicating an inflammatory response.

Ø  C-Reactive Protein (CRP): Elevated at 45 mg/L, consistent with active inflammation.

Ø  Electrolytes: Mild hypokalemia (3.3 mEq/L) and slightly elevated creatinine, likely due to dehydration.

Ø  Blood Glucose: 150 mg/dL, indicating mild hyperglycemia.

Imaging

Ø  Abdominal X-ray: Mild distention of the sigmoid colon.

Ø  CT Scan of Abdomen and Pelvis: Confirmed acute diverticulitis with a small pericolic abscess in the sigmoid colon, and evidence of a thickened bowel wall suggestive of an inflammatory process. No perforation was noted.

Diagnosis

Acute Diverticulitis with Abscess Formation – Requiring surgical intervention due to complications, failure to improve with conservative therapy, and the presence of an abscess.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration 

Given the patient's age, comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension), and the complexity of her condition, an interdisciplinary team was assembled to ensure comprehensive care and optimal outcomes. The team included:

1. **General Surgeon** (Lead in Surgical Decision-Making)

   - Evaluated the need for surgery and discussed the benefits and risks of the procedure, including the potential for a **sigmoid colectomy** and primary anastomosis versus an alternative, like a staged procedure.

2. **Anesthesiologist** (Preoperative and Postoperative Care)

   - Assessed the patient’s cardiac and respiratory status due to her age and comorbid conditions.

   - Managed anesthesia during the surgery and monitored vital signs throughout the procedure. Due to her diabetes and hypertension, careful fluid management was also necessary.

3. **Dietitian** (Postoperative Nutrition)

   - Provided guidance on a nutrition plan, particularly on advancing the patient’s diet postoperatively to promote healing, avoid constipation, and prevent future episodes of diverticulitis.

   - Developed a plan to manage the patient’s diabetes post-surgery, including carbohydrate counting and regular blood sugar monitoring 

4. **Nurse Practitioner** (Patient Education and Support)

   - Coordinated care by educating Mrs. Harris about her condition, the surgical procedure, and postoperative care.

   - Emphasized the importance of early ambulation, pain management, and wound care.

   - Assisted in addressing patient concerns and managing her preoperative anxiety.

5. **Pharmacist** (Medication Management)

   - Reviewed Mrs. Harris’s medications, adjusting for her diabetes and hypertension. This included considering the effects of surgery on blood sugar control and adjusting insulin dosing accordingly.

   - Recommended appropriate prophylactic antibiotics preoperatively (metronidazole and ceftriaxone) to reduce the risk of postoperative infection.  

6. **Physical Therapist** (Postoperative Mobility)

   - Assisted in the patient’s postoperative rehabilitation by designing an early mobilization program to reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), promote lung function, and encourage bowel motility.

   - Provided guidance on posture and movement after surgery to prevent complications like abdominal strain.

Surgical Intervention

Preoperative Preparation

- Mrs. Harris was started on intravenous fluids and broad-spectrum antibiotics to manage the infection.

- A consultation with the dietitian confirmed that her blood glucose levels were being managed, and she was advised to follow a low-residue diet leading up to surgery.

- Anesthesia reviewed her medical history and performed a preoperative assessment, which revealed that her hypertension and diabetes were stable under current medications. Adjustments were made to ensure optimal perioperative management.

Surgical Procedure

Sigmoid Colectomy with Primary Anastomosis: The patient underwent laparoscopic sigmoid colectomy with primary anastomosis, involving the removal of the inflamed section of the sigmoid colon and reconnecting the remaining colon. The surgeon confirmed the presence of localized diverticulitis with small abscesses, but there were no signs of perforation or peritonitis.

Intraoperative Collaboration

Ø  The anesthesiologist managed the patient’s sedation and fluid balance carefully, considering her age and underlying conditions.

Ø  The surgical team used minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques to minimize recovery time, which was discussed as part of the preoperative plan with the patient.

Postoperative Care

Immediate Postoperative Management:

- Mrs. Harris was transferred to the recovery room, where she was monitored by the nursing team.

- Pain management was initiated with a combination of IV analgesics and later transitioned to oral medications.

- The physical therapist assisted in her early mobilization on the first postoperative day, encouraging walking to improve circulation and prevent complications like DVT.

- The dietitian adjusted her nutrition plan and started her on clear liquids on day 2 post-surgery, with progression to a low-residue diet by day 4. Her blood glucose was carefully monitored, and insulin was adjusted based on her levels.

- The nurse practitioner continued to provide patient education, explaining how to care for the surgical wound and the importance of adhering to the diet plan to prevent future episodes of diverticulitis.

Challenges

Postoperative Ileus: On day 2, Mrs. Harris developed a mild ileus (slowed bowel motility), common after abdominal surgery. This was managed conservatively with IV fluids, bowel rest, and monitoring for signs of complications.

Blood Sugar Control: Mrs. Harris's blood sugar fluctuated postoperatively, but the pharmacy team worked with the nursing staff and dietitian to ensure appropriate adjustments to her insulin regimen.

Outcome

Mrs. Harris was discharged on postoperative day 7 with no major complications. She was prescribed antibiotics for continued infection prevention and given instructions on wound care and activity restrictions. Her blood glucose remained stable following discharge, and she was encouraged to continue her diabetic management as per the dietitian's recommendations. The patient was advised to follow up with the surgical team in 2 weeks for wound check and with the dietitian to monitor her nutritional status.

Long-Term Management and Follow-Up

Follow-Up Appointments

Ø  Surgical Follow-Up: In 2 weeks to assess wound healing and ensure no signs of infection.

Ø  Dietitian Follow-Up: In 4 weeks to adjust her diet for long-term digestive health and prevent future diverticulitis episodes.

Ø  Physical Therapy Follow-Up: In 6 weeks to ensure optimal recovery and mobility.

Preventive Measures

Mrs. Harris was advised to adopt a high-fiber diet to reduce the risk of future diverticulitis. Smoking cessation and weight management were emphasized to improve overall health and prevent recurrences.

Conclusion 

This case of sigmoid colectomy for diverticulitis highlights the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in ensuring optimal care for a patient with multiple comorbidities. The team approach involving surgery, anesthesia, nutrition, nursing, pharmacy, and physical therapy allowed for comprehensive management of the patient’s condition, from preoperative preparation through to postoperative recovery and long-term follow-up. By working together, the interdisciplinary team ensured that Mrs. Harris received coordinated care, leading to a successful outcome and a strong foundation for her continued recovery and health management. With cases such as Mrs. Harris, she may also require long-term interdisciplinary support as her needs with her health change as she ages. However, without the support of each care team, Mrs. Harris would have likely faced other challenges post-operatively. 

References

Dodson, C., & Layman, L. (2022). Interdisciplinary Collaboration Among Nursing and Computer Science to Refine a Pharmacogenetics Clinical Decision Support Tool Via Mobile Application. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, Publish Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.1097/cin.0000000000000960

McGilton, K. S., Haslam-Larmer, L., Wills, A., Krassikova, A., Babineau, J., Robert, B., Heer, C., McAiney, C., Dobell, G., Bethell, J., Kay, K., Keatings, M., Kaasalainen, S., Feldman, S., Sidani, S., & Martin-Misener, R. (2023). Nurse practitioner/physician collaborative models of care: a scoping review protocol. BMC Geriatrics, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-03798-1

McLaney, E., Morassaei, S., Hughes, L., Davies, R., Campbell, M., & Prospero, L. D. (2022). A framework for interprofessional team collaboration in a hospital setting: Advancing team competencies and behaviours. Healthcare Management Forum, 35(2), 112–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704211063584

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. (2018, April 10). Clinical Decision Support. Healthit.gov. https://www.healthit.gov/topic/safety/clinical-decision-support

The Implications of Clinical Data Mining for Enhancing Clinical Concerns and Advanced Practice Nursing Interventions Week 4

Data Mining and Improving Patient Outcomes 

  

 Welcome to week 4 of the blog 💚we are half way through our course and going to be exploring the potentials of data mining and how it can improve nursing care which improves patient outcomes in the longrun. I am also going to review the article Automated data mining of the electronic health record for investigation of healthcare-associated outbreaks and discussing how data mining is beneficial in improving patient care. 

    What is clinical data mining and how as future FNPs can we use it to benefit our patients? Clinical data mining is used to analyze, synthesize, and sort through the plethora of big data the medical world has to assist with tasks such as risk stratification, diagnosis, classification, survival prediction, and predict trends (Qiao et al., 2024). Data mining is a form of artificial intelligence that is becoming increasingly important in the medical field and has been used to not only make advancements in diagnostics and disease predictions but also to help monitor and manage healthcare systems (Kolling et al., 2021). Data mining is not a modern concept, but what was once done on pen and paper is now done with the most advanced software and computers in modern technology to handle the vast amount of data that is available in today's world. We are constantly collecting data in healthcare and utilizing it to make advancements, but without sorting it, analyzing it and being able to make sense of the trends within the data we simply just have lots of information without any application. This is why there is such a need for and such a strong push towards advancements in data management. Utilizing the different data mining software available today, you can obtain whatever trend or analysis you are looking for from the larger set of data you originally start with.

 

    The article Automated data mining of the electronic health record for investigation of healthcare-associated outbreaks examines how data mining can be used to investigate the outbreak of an infection in a healthcare system by using data mining to investigate patient records. 9 hospital outbreaks between 2011-2016 were examined, and data mining was used by utilizing EHRs of infected patients to then see where they had been, who they had been in contact with, and how they could prevent the spread to other patients (Sundermann et al., 2019). The rationale for using data mining in outbreaks is not only to slow the spread but also to hopefully identify the source. Large data sets are analyzed, such as patient location, interaction, treatments, therapies, and procedures received, and provider interaction, to help identify the source (Sundermann et al., 2019). This example of data mining can be so crucial to hospital outbreaks, especially when it comes to infections that are especially rare, deadly, or rapidly transmitted, as it is essential to try to stop the outbreak as quickly as possible.  

            As a future FNP, I can undoubtedly see utilizing data mining in many different areas of patient care. Especially with managing chronic health conditions and trying to reduce the negative comorbidities associated with them. Utilizing predictivesoftware to determine what other negative consequences patients may be at risk for could certainly be beneficial in using preventive medicine to help not only significantly improve patient outcomes but also potentially reduce their healthcare costs in the long run. I could also see utilizing data mining to see where patients are happy with their healthcare and where they want improvement. As a future FNP, I could also see regularly utilizing data mining to help with medication prescribing and administration, as well as diagnostics. If there is a way to help diagnose patients faster and with more efficacy, provide them with better quality of care, run more accurate risk assessments, and improve their quality of life and overall outcomes, then I believe in using whatever technology or software is necessary. Our goals as healthcare workers and future providers are to care for our patients and to help them obtain the best goal achievable for them, and utilizing data mining is a powerful tool for us. 

References

Kolling, M. L., Furstenau, L. B., Sott, M. K., Rabaioli, B., Ulmi, P. H., Bragazzi, N. L., & Tedesco, L. P. C. (2021). Data Mining in Healthcare: Applying Strategic Intelligence Techniques to Depict 25 Years of Research Development. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(6), 3099. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063099

Qiao, H., Chen, Y., Qian, C., & Guo, Y. (2024). Clinical data mining: challenges, opportunities, and recommendations for translational applications. Journal of Translational Medicine, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-024-05005-0

Sundermann, A. J., Miller, J. K., Marsh, J. W., Saul, M. I., Shutt, K. A., Pacey, M., Mustapha, M. M., Ayres, A., Pasculle, A. W., Chen, J., Snyder, G. M., Dubrawski, A. W., & Harrison, L. H. (2019). Automated data mining of the electronic health record for investigation of healthcare-associated outbreaks. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 40(3), 314–319. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2018.343

Personal Health Records and Patient Engagement Week 3

Personal Health Records and Their Impact on Patient Engagement and Safety

Welcome back💜! This week's blo,g we are going to look at PHRs and understand the difference between them and EHRs  👀

    What is a Personal Health Record (PHR)? How does its use increase patient engagement? How do they increase patient safety and provide better quality of care? How do PHRs improve the relationship between patients and providers? Questions that are key to understanding how PHRs play a critical role in the daily life and patients and providers and how patient outcomes can be improved. 

    What is a Personal Health Record? A PHR is the collection of an individual's medical documentation maintained by the individual or a caregiver in cases where patients are unable to do so themselves. According to Sarwal and Gupta (2024), the personal information includes details such as:

• The patient's medical history
• Applicable diagnoses
• Historical and ongoing medications, including over-the-counter and alternative treatments
• Past medical and surgical interventions
• Immunization status
• Allergies and other relevant medical conditions that can impact the delivery of emergency care (eg, type 1 diabetes)
• Blood type
• Whom to contact in the event of an emergency
• Insurance information
• Contact information for the patient's regular health providers

    PHRs can either be independent, standalone records or tethered personal records, both though are beneficial to keeping the patient's healthcare management up to date. A standalone PHR is where the information is filled in by the patient based on their own memory and records and is kept on the patient's personal electronic devices or the internet (HealthIt.gov, 2019). They can then choose who they share it with, such as family, friends, and their healthcare team, and they can update it with information like exercise, diet, and track their progress over time (HealthIt.gov, 2019). A tethered PHR is linked to an organization's electronic health records and provides the patient access through a secure portal that provides them information on their test results and trends, vaccination records, and when they are due for health screenings (HealthIt.gov, 2019). 

    PHRs can improve patient adherence to follow-up, allow patients to better monitor therapeutic goals such as blood pressure or blood glucose thresholds, allow recognition of improvement or worsening of control of existing medical conditions, improve compliance with medication regimens, especially when these regimens are complex—all of which culminate in the achievement of superior management of medical issues (Sarwal & Gupta, 2024). When patients are more engaged with their healthcare, they are more likely to adhere to their treatment plans and medication regimens and are more likely to go to follow-up appointments because they understand the need to do so. When utilizing PHRs, patients can see all of their information in one easy-to-access location, which makes it convenient and also allows patients to ask providers current questions about their healthcare and creates a strong patient-provider relationship (Ruhi & Chugh, 2021). 

    PHRs can also be used in emergencies when patients or their loved ones are unable to provide necessary medical information (The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2011). They can also provide patients with better care coordination because patients can see all of the information about their care providers in one place and communicate with their team as needed. Overall, the goal of PHR is to foster an environment of safety, create better patient-provider relationships, reduce costs to the patient, promote better patient outcomes, and provide reliable information to be shared between patients and providers (Ruhi & Chugh, 2021). 

                                                                        References

HealthIt.gov. (2019, July 30). Are there different types of personal health records (PHRs)? | HealthIT.gov. Www.healthit.gov. https://www.healthit.gov/faq/are-there-different-types-personal-health-records-phrs

Ruhi, U., & Chugh, R. (2021). Utility, Value, and Benefits of Contemporary Personal Health Records: Integrative Review and Conceptual Synthesis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(4), e26877. https://doi.org/10.2196/26877

Sarwal, D., & Gupta, V. (2024, September 10). Personal health record. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557757/

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology . (2011). PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS: WHAT HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS NEED TO KNOW. https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/about-phrs-for-providers-011311.pdf

Electronic Health Records (EHR) Week 2

Electronic Health Records...A reflection 

Welcome back, everyone, to week 2 of the blog😀 

    This week we are going to look at electronic health records and reflect on their to our job as future FNPs and their importance to our patients. Electronic Health Records (EHR)...how does it improve patient safety? How does it improve quality of care? What are they and why are they so crucial to modern-day healthcare?

    An EHR is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format (Tapuria et al., 2021). Providing patients with access to EHRs can decrease these costs, improve self-care and quality of care, and improve health and patient-centered outcomes (Tapuria et al., 2021). 

    EHRs help patients to be more informed about their healthcare, and when patients are well informed, they tend to be more engaged in their health management and willing to work with their providers. Having patients actively use EHRs such as myChart in our health system allows them to be in communication with their healthcare team, ask questions, review test results and medications, see upcoming procedures, and actively view their current treatment plans. When patients are well-informed and have access to their information, they are more likely to be satisfied with their care (Tapuria et al., 2021). The U.S. government's MyHealthEData initiative has made citizen access to their health records a top priority, as have private companies, like Apple and Google, which can store patients’ records on their phones (Tapuria et al., 2021). By focusing on the accessibility of EHR, patient involvement in their care increases, patient outcomes improve, and their satisfaction with their care team increases as well. With high patient involvement in their treatment, there also tends to be a lower healthcare cost for patients because they are more likely to treat the conditions they have, are more likely to follow their treatment plan, and have a higher rate of medication adherence (Tapuria et al., 2021).

In the United States, there has been a significant investment in the adoption and use of Health Information Technologies (HIT) by providing over 35 billion dollars of support through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act passed in 2009  (Trout et al., 2022).  According to Alder (2025), the five main goals of the HITECH ACT are to: 

1. Improve quality, safety, and efficiency
2. Engage patients in their care
3. Increase coordination of care
4. Improve the health status of the population, and
5. Ensure privacy and security 

HITECH ACT has allowed patients to be more involved in their healthcare and has allowed providers to offer better care for their patients by coordinating care, working with other providers, having increased communication with patients, and building a stronger provider-patient relationship (Alder, 2025). Since 2011, Medicare and Medicaid have had EHR incentive programs that promote meaningful use of EHRs by providers and healthcare organizations to promote better patient outcomes and foster a community of safety (Trout et al., 2022). 

Another area of assistance that EHR is working towards bettering is that of patient harm reduction, increasing safety and using reporting tools to improve patient care. While some evidence shows that EHRs are still lacking in some of the fundamentals that support improving patient safety, other studies have shown the EHRs are demonstrating a sustained improvement of reporting events and improving patient outcomes (Upadhyay & Hu, 2022). Data from EHR can also be used in predictive analytic software which allows providers to see gage possible negative outcomes for patients with chronic illnesses, demonstrate positive trends, and predict future trends (Upadhyay & Hu, 2022). 

As future FNPs, we already use EHRs in our daily work as nurses and see the benefits in how important they are for improving patient care. Once we begin working as providers, I can how EHRs will allow for better communication with patients, better communication with other providers and members of patients' care team, improved care coordination, improved patient engagement, better diagnostic results, and an improvement in overall patient outcomes. By having patient information stored and accessible at the click of a button, we as future providers, can gather patient information quicker, even if it is from outside our healthcare system, see results, communicate with other team members, and work together to provide better diagnosis, more current treatment plans and engage our patients in their care. If we can encourage patients to follow their care plans, comply with medication adherence, and witness prescription refills by using EHR we can also help save our patients time and money by treating their conditions sooner and hopefully reduce hospitalizations and complications. 

References

Alder, S. (2025). What is the HITECH Act? The HIPAA Journal. https://www.hipaajournal.com/what-is-the-hitech-act/

Tapuria, A., Porat, T., Kalra, D., Dsouza, G., Xiaohui, S., & Curcin, V. (2021). Impact of patient access to their electronic health record: systematic review. Informatics for Health and Social Care, 46(2), 194–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538157.2021.1879810

Trout, K. E., Chen, L.-W., Wilson, F. A., Tak, H. J., & Palm, D. (2022). The Impact of Meaningful Use and Electronic Health Records on Hospital Patient Safety. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12525. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912525

Upadhyay, S., & Hu, H. (2022). A qualitative analysis of the impact of electronic health records (EHR) on healthcare quality and safety: Clinicians’ lived experiences. Health Services Insights, 15(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/11786329211070722

Family Nurse Practitioners and their roles as Nursing Informatic Specialists Week 1

 Reflecting on the role as an APRN as it relates to collaboration between your role as a Family Nurse Practitioner and the nursing informatics specialist

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog for GSNG 6700. My name is Maggie Strout, and I am a graduate family nurse practitioner student at Roberts Wesleyan College. I am exploring the world of nursing informatics and learning what it takes to become an informatics specialist. This week in my blog, we are going to look at the role of FNPs and its collaborative role as an informatics specialist. 

    As a future Family Nurse Practitioner(FNP)my role will include bridging the gap in clinical care and technology by exploring the evolving new world of informatics. With the demand for technology in healthcare growing, we all will soon need to be informatics specialists in order to provide quality, evidence-based patient care. This collaborative effort between FNP and the technology world can truly boost patient outcomes if used carefully. 

    First, let's look at all that an FNP does. FNPs not only see patients and preform assessments, make diagnosis, create treatment plans and prescribe medications (Dantas et al., 2023). They also collaborate with other disciplines and specialties to provide excellent patient care (Dantas et al., 2023). They utilize different tools and technologies to communicate with patients and other providers, monitor at home testing results from patients utilizing telehealth devices, and a plethora of other jobs! FNPs are used to the collaborative side of medicine, incorporating nursing informatics simply makes their jobs more accessible and provide better care for their patients.

Nursing informatics as defined by the ANA is "integration of nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice"(American Nurses Association, 2023). Nursing informatics to most of us who have been nurses for less than 10 years or so used to the most common technologies we use today that we would struggle using paper charts and would be lost without our WOWs. Once electronic health records (EHRs) were put into everyday use many nurses and NPs become superusers and tech leaders (American Association of Nurse Practioners , 2019).

 Having access to the technology we use every day as nurses now, such as eRecord, myChart, Pacs7, and many others, will help us transition to our roles as FNPs much smoother than if we were not utilizing these technologies daily. With all of the advancements in medical technology that are occurring and being brought into our facilities currently, by the time we are FNPs, the technology we will be using will far surpass what it is now. The collaborative efforts that nursing teaches you from the start will help us collaborate with superusers, educators, and team leads to learn the technology we will use as future FNPs. I hope that as I advance in my career, I stay open to learning new technology and am proficient enough to help other providers and, most importantly, patients when they need it. 

 

 

References

•         American Association of Nurse Practioners . (2019, February 6). Going Beyond the EHR: Health Care Informatics. American Association of Nurse Practitioners; AANP Website. https://www.aanp.org/news-feed/going-beyond-the-ehr-health-care-informatics

•   American Nurses Association. (2023, July 5). What is nursing informatics and why is it so important? ANA. https://www.nursingworld.org/content-hub/resources/nursing-resources/nursing-informatics/
•             Dantas, M., Pereira, I., Freitas, L. S., Karine, S., Sonenberg, A., & Katherinne, I. (2023). Family Nurse Practitioners: An exploratory study. Revista Da Escola de Enfermagem Da USP, 57(57). https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-220x-reeusp-2022-0362en