Opportunities for the six external environment factors
Technological
EMR has assisted medical staff to embrace digitization, automation, and organized storage of virtual information necessary for their profession; with the improved record management, the industry is more likely to offer high quality services. Technology can be used to offer fast and reliable services and meet medical profession goals and objectives.
Political
The move to improve medical record management can be a political agenda propagated by the political class for the good of their economy; when an economy does not have such systems, their development may focus the government on the area and the result is an economy with better patient’s record management.
Competitive
Health facilities that adopt EMR programs are likely to have an increased quality service in terms of precision, timeliness, and effectiveness; these elements makes them more competitive than other without such systems. EMR are likely to facilitate affordable medical care.
Regulatory
When a patient’s medical information is well managed, it conforms to the ethical needs of the system where record management is highly advocated. The medical industry requires practitioners to have their patients’ information privately kept for the good of the patient.
Social
When records are well managed and in turn improve, societal health welfare communities have improved living standards, the social environments will improve and happiness will prevail in communities that fall sick less often.
Economic
EMR are likely to bring economical welfare improvement of a country, this will result from improved medical quality; when an economies population is health and psychologically sober, they are likely to have high production leading to economic developments (Abdelhak, Sara & Hanken, 2011).
Threats for the six external environment factors
Technological
EMRs take use of technological equipment that cannot be fully relied upon, they sometimes fail or they can be hacked and patient information fall in the hand of unwanted information users.
Political
EMR can be taken advantage of by politicians who can give promises of improving the quality of the systems but use the approach for individual benefits.
Competitive
Although EMR can bring competitiveness in an organization/medical facility, the same can be a weak link in the medical service delivery. This happens when the system has loopholes that can be manipulated by hackers and unauthorized patient information handlers. Patients are likely to shy off from facilities that handle information using EMR.
Regulatory
Although medical practitioners need an effective record management system, the approach taken by different software of EMR may not meet the standards set by the authorities or they may be new systems thus the authorities end up accusing a facility for improper record management.
Social
People are likely to repel the system especially when they feel that the information can be accessed from different part of system-enabled facilities, they may feel that their medical information is being exposed and thus repel the systems; communities might suffer the new invention.
Economic
EMR are systems that need to be managed, updated, and improved with time; they can prove to be more expensive than manual record keeping and incase of a failure that calls for a replacement or loss of data, the economic implication they can have to an economy is massive and detrimental (Marriner-Tomey, 2009).
References
Abdelhak, M., Sara G., & Hanken, A. (2011). Health Information: Management of a Strategic Resource. Pennsylvania: Saunders Elsevier.
Marriner-Tomey, A. (2009). Guide to nursing management and leadership (8th.Ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier.