Electronic Health Record

Finally, here's a textbook that the market and the industry have been looking for. The author has captured the details of the information flows involved in the EHR while processing an order or prescription from inception to completion. The book should help any clinician or informatics professional understand what's happening in the process of medication order, dispense, and administer. --Joseph T. Finn, RPh, MBA, Supervisor (WillowRx), Nemours Health Informaticsa ... encompasses high-value, high-volume therapeutic transactions of indescribable complexity that touch nearly every licensed professional in a hospital, enrobing drug ordering, dispensing, and administration in sophisticated layers of clinical decision support, caregiver work lists, and back-end charging and continuum of care functions. I am pleased that the topic merits its own formal review and analysis in Dr. Scarlat's book. I found the user interface chapter immediately useful -- in fact, I'm hoping the vendors of my own hospital's systems take its recommendations to heart. --Mr. HIStalk, Healthcare IT Blogger The informatics transformation of American Healthcare as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Meaningful Use (MU) program is now truly underway, creating an entirely new language and dimension to the practice of medicine. As physicians (and other clinicians) move through MU, past the stage of commercial technology acquisition and implementation, the need for a deeper understanding of the structure AND function of these new knowledge systems is not only necessary but essential. Dr. Scarlat's comprehensive and logically structured handbook acts as a common sense guide to this new world of informatics that should prove invaluable to the clinician making his/her way past the commercial hype into the realm of true understanding of the systems of medical informatics. Well referenced and comprehensive, this work is strongly recommended to the new meaningful user as well as those that work with and support clinicians in this essential next generation of American Medicine. --William F. Bria MD, CMIO Shriners Hospitals for Children, President of the Board, Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS) !a thoughtful and well-constructed manual to understanding and incorporating the complex and many-sided aspects of medication concepts into a coherent and logical informational framework. Drawing upon foundational data modeling and structured systems analysis techniques, the extensive use of graphical tools such as workflow, dataflow, and entity relationship diagrams to illustrate medication management processes provides the IT professional with a clear and accessible entry to this challenging topic. The chapter on medication prescribing is particularly illustrative of the author's facility for deconstructing complex, intricate medication processes into their granular tasks and activities to show the key interactions and communications among patient, clinician and technologist. I believe both the experienced and novice healthcare informatics practitioner will find Dr. Scarlat's book to be a welcome and essential addition their toolkit. --Don Martin, Managing Consultant, Novia Strategies What is the ideal medication workflow? Simple -- from doctor's brain to patient's vein without handwriting, handoffs, or hassle. Dr. Scarlat's clear explanations empower healthcare professionals with tools that will enhance any IT project ! it provides a framework that will enable clinicians to communicate with technologist. I plan to use this book in the BIDMC medication work, which seeks to achieve zero defects, cost reductions, and patient engagement. Both clinicians and IT professionals should find the book to be a valuable resource as they create the reformed healthcare delivery system of the future, beyond Meaningful Use. --From the foreword by John D. Halamka, MD