Electronic Health Record
ANA Position Statement
Approved: December 11, 2009
Statement of ANA Position
ANA believes that the public has a right to expect that health data and healthcare information will be centered on patient safety and improved outcomes throughout all segments of the healthcare system and the data and information will be accurately and efficiently collected, recorded, protected, stored, utilized, analyzed, and reported. Principles of privacy, confidentiality, and security cannot be compromised as the industry creates and implements interoperable and integrated healthcare information technology systems and solutions to convert from paper-based media for documentation and healthcare records to the newer format of electronic health records (EHRs), including individual personal health record (PHR) products.
ANA strongly supports efforts to further refine the concept and requirements of the patient-centric EHR, including the creation of standards-based electronic health records and supporting infrastructures that promote efficient and effective interprofessional and patient communications and decision-making wherever care is provided. Similar attention must address the secondary uses of data and information to generate knowledge that leads to improved and effective decision tools.
All stakeholders, including nurses and patients, must be integral participants in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation phases of the electronic health record. This effort requires the attention and action of nurses, the professional and specialty nursing organizations, and the nursing profession to ensure the EHRs are designed to facilitate and support critical thinking and decision making, such as in the nursing process, and the associated documentation activities. It is ANA’s position that the registered nurse must also be involved in the product selection, design, development, implementation, evaluation and improvement of information systems and electronic patient care devices used in patient care settings.
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