Appreciation of Standardized Technology
There is no need to stress that the effects of technological development of the XXI century on the realm of nursing have been tremendous. In addition to the obvious advantages of the standardized technology usage in nursing, the ideas offered by Hebda and Czar provide a lot of food for thoughts. As a future healthcare specialist, I find it crucial that the latest technology has allowed for a better and faster method of information transfer. What used to take days, with a huge chance for losing a part of essential data in the process of information transfer, nowadays takes several minutes or hours at most. As a result, a sooner application of the required interventions and a sooner recovery of the patient become possible.
In addition, the fact that with the introduction of the standardized technology into healthcare setting, the so-called “meaningful use” of information became possible also deserves a mentioning. As a future healthcare specialist, I must admit that the creation of the concept of EHR (electronic health records (Hebda & Czar, 2013)) is a very important step towards the rationalization of a nurse’s actions and responsibilities. With the help of the HER system, a better time management and a far more efficient implementation of interventions is possible, since the HER principle helps focus on the current interactions with patients and not be distracted by planning the next one. The last, but definitely not the least, the fact that standardized terminology has made it practically impossible to lose track of patients’ records should be noted as a major improvement. Therefore, the standardized terminology implementation allows nurses to deliver healthcare services timely and swiftly, thus, contributing to the patients’ faster recovery.
CMS and the Healthcare System
With the advent of a new medical security program, major changes have occurred to the healthcare services provision system. According to the latest regulations, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) deny payment, which has a tangible effect on the healthcare system in general and the documentation related nursing practices in particular. As Hebda and Czar explain, the so-called “Do Not Pay Rules” (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 398) have contributed to a major rearrangement of the healthcare system. To be more exact, the cost benefits to hospitals may be reduced considerably due to the losses that hospitals will most probably incur. According to Hebda and Czar, the further expansion of the Do Not Pay Rules “will have a reverse effect on the quality of care” (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 398), since these regulations cannot be tailored to specific circumstances and, thus, will not help address a particular case properly.
As for the crucial changes in the nursing practices, including documentation, the coding process has been affected greatly by the introduction of new rules. As Hebda and Czar state, the CMS denies the code listed in the Column Two in case the Column One and the Column tow contain the edit pair. As a result, the Medicare beneficiaries cannot be billed based on the NCCI edits (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 136). Hence, additional data can be requested by healthcare experts in the process of documentation. Otherwise, either overpayment or underpayment may occur, which means that the healthcare facility in question may incur impressive losses, not to mention the fact that the patient will most likely be dissatisfied with the quality of the services provided.
Reference List
Hebda, T. L. & Czar, P. (2013). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Prentice Hall.