A recommendation report

Based on the previous suggestion our work would include the creation of a strategy to research patterns in the use of ERM. Our primary objective is to establish Sutter Health workers with awareness of ERM (Electronic Records Management). The behavior of the team members towards the ERM must also be improved. Currently, Sutter Health has not implemented a protocol outlining the use of ERM by team members. In that case, both the ERM and the manual are the operating methods. Our approach is not the best strategy for healthcare institutions to follow. It is only a matter of improving accuracy, safety, and productivity in the workplace. Also, Dr. Stockman wanted our team to come up with an action that will ensure full adoption of ERM (Electronic Records Management) at Sutter Health. As requested by Dr. Stockman, our solution involved four tasks.

Task 1: Finding out how electronic records management can be used by the staff members of the healthcare organization across the nation.

Evaluate the knowledge possessed by staff members of Sutter Health regarding ERM.

Researching how many healthcare sectors who have implemented and benefited from ERM.

The final task was to establish criteria that will be used in evaluating the usage of ERM.

Recommendation based on the presented tasks

Recommendation 1: Based on the suggested tasks by Dr. Stockman, Sutter Health, our team came up with some recommendations and solutions as per the project proposal. According to task one, which is about understanding on how the ERM can be used by staff members of the Sutter Health across the nation, implies that implementation of ERM should focus on the priorities given to the patients and community service in general. By implementing the use of ERM, healthcare organizations will be promoting business operation aspects such as effectiveness, continuity, compliance, and efficiency. With electronic records management, there will be no loss of data. Information will be readily available, and understanding of the complete picture of operation will be easy because staff members can share records and documents with ease. Integration of electronic records management at Sutter Health implies quick asses of records, space savings, and reduced handling costs. At times, records can be vulnerable to lose, or the business activities of Sutter Health might fail because of the already lost records. Fortunately, this can be corrected through electronic records management. The approach can also speed up the recovery of the lost records (Galvin, 1996).

Recommendation 2: When integrating ERM in an organization, records should be created, used, and created following the organizational activities. In that case, Sutter Health should create and maintain usable, authentic, and reliable records. The same records should be organized properly with the aim of supporting access and management at the same time. Electronic records are designed in a manner that only authorized users can access them. The designed process ensures that the records are arranged in usable formats. In order to achieve all of the benefits that come with the integration of the ERM at Sutter Health, we will work closely with Peter Kings and Catherine Hoffman. They have commendable experiences, which will make our work easier. Catherine Hoffman has worked as the IT Director of Sutter Health for more than ten years. Similarly, Peter Kings has worked with Sutter Health for 15 years as the nursing director. These two people are well informed about the healthcare records influencing activities at Sutter Health.

Recommendation 3: From our interaction with the staff members of Sutter Health, we realized that most of the staff members were positive about the adoption of the ERM integration. Some of them even had the true reflection of knowledge regarding ERM. In that case, it is imperative that they dwell more on the technical specifications and skills. Through technical skills, staff members will have the advantage of handling the activities that require the usage of ERM with ease (Center, 2008). Moreover, Electronic Records Management ensures an audit trail. All of the data and records are traceable during auditing and any other form of investigations (Mims, 2006). For that reason, Sutter Health will avoid cases that come with managing risks and liability. The ERM must be comprehensive enough in that it initiates security of the files, which will be required for auditing.

Recommendation 4: Regarding task 4 as proposed by Dr. Stockman, establishing the best criteria for integrating the usage of ERM requires further literature study. Though Peter Kings and Catherine Hoffman had volunteered to help with that, it is still imperative that a comparison is made with similar healthcare centers. By carrying out a comprehensive research study, factors such as the cost of the design and implementation will be reduced. This is because the collected information will be integrated with the one obtained from similar organizations. In implementing the ERM, factors such as efficiency and security features of the ERM should be given priority.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the integration of ERM should initiate the utilization of metadata. Files that have metadata aid with the ability to locate relevant files, secure backup, and version control of the files. ERM must also be potential enough in promoting the availability of reusable resources.

Experience in our team

A team consisting of experienced individuals made the recommendation. The team was made of:

Catherine Hoffman who is the current IT director at Sutter Health.

Peter Kings who has worked at Sutter Health for more than 10 years. He is the current Nursing Director at Sutter Health.

References

Center, C., & Association of Research Libraries. (2008). Records management. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries.

Mims, J., & International City/County Management Association. (2006). Electronic records management. Washington, D.C: International City/County Management Association.

Galvin, T. J., Kahn, R. L., & Society of American Archivists. (1996). Electronic records management as strategic opportunity: A case study of the State University of New York, Office of Archives and Records Management : teaching notes. Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists.