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LEADING CHANGE IN PATIENT SAFETY ISSUE

Topic Description

Adapting to change is essential for any company since it can be the difference between success and failure. When stagnation threatens advancement, the only option for influencing success is implementing change within the company. Change management in healthcare can improve patients' health greatly. As an added bonus, adapting to an EMR system can boost hospital communication and patient satisfaction. Without reliable electronic medical record systems in place, hospitals are always risking a disastrous medical error that might ruin their reputation and, even worse, cause serious harm to patients. Having a fully functional electronic health record in place can completely alter a healthcare facility from relying on paper records to using clinical information to deliver superior patient care. This research is vital because it examines how a nurse manager could handle change to ensure their staff nurses make a smooth transition to an EMR. Lewin's change model is applied to highlight the crucial steps necessary to implement the proposed changes, and the research concludes by examining the type of leadership most suited to implementing these alterations (Harrison et al., 2021). The research will focus on change management in adopting the EMR using Lewin's change model.

Plan for a Research Paper

I would approach the topic by looking into the literature about the adoption of EMR in other institutions and healthcare facilities and understanding it in detail before developing the research paper. In this case, implementing an electronic medical record system within a hospital has been discovered to offer various benefits during the past few years of research into this topic. One advantage is the elimination of poor penmanship, which is prevalent in the healthcare profession. Another is the ease with which electronic information may be accessed. Electronic medical records can enhance clinical decision-making, and the faultless transmission of clinical information can be facilitated. Similarly, it was also discovered that EHRs boost care quality by giving doctors access to patient-specific data like race, medical history, age, and more. In other research, electronic health records have been shown to boost organizational outcomes in general. It was observed that organizations whose electronic medical record systems were well-defined had gains in areas such as financial health and operational efficiency (Harrison et al., 2021). In addition, I would focus on how the patients and nurses feel encouraged and content after using EHRs, and this only happens when their feedback is sourced. The ability to conduct research and improve population health are only two examples of the broader societal benefits of a robust electronic health records system.

The other area that is of consideration is a leadership strategy that would work in the best interest of the healthcare facility during the implementation of EMR, which is a change that demands the involvement of stakeholders, especially employees, to make it a success. A coaching leadership style is the one that I would focus on in this case because it works in making employees appreciate the fact that their contribution is worth it. The other research section of focus is the three-stage process (unfreezing, changing, and freezing) outlined in Lewin's change model provides change agents with a macro perspective on how to bring about organizational development (Harrison et al., 2021). Agents of change are given a framework within which to carry out the often delicate task of implementing a change. In most circumstances, a leader may introduce new procedures and transfer responsibilities throughout any of the three stages of this paradigm, which helps unite people around change.

References

Harrison, R., Fischer, S., Walpola, R. L., Chauhan, A., Babalola, T., Mears, S., & Le-Dao, H. (2021). Where do models for Change Management, improvement, and implementation meet? A systematic review of the applications of Change Management Models in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, Volume 13, 85–108. https://doi.org/10.2147/jhl.s289176