Role of Social Knowledge Networks in facilitating meaningful use of Electronic Health Record medication reconciliation.

Pavani Rangachari

Scholary Output:

Contribution to journal

Article

Peer-review

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 Good Health and Well

Abstract

Despite the federal policy impetus towards Electronic Health Record (EHR) medication reconciliation, hospital adherence has lagged for one chief reason; low physician engagement, which in turn emanates from lack of consensus in regard to which physician is responsible for managing a patient’s medication list, and the importance of medication reconciliation as a tool for improving patient safety and quality of care. The Technology-in-Practice (TIP) framework stresses the role of human action in enacting structures of technology use or “technologies-in-practice”. Applying the TIP framework to the EHR medication reconciliation context, helps frame the problem as one of low physician engagement in performing EHR medication reconciliation, translating to limited-use-EHR-in-practice. Concurrently, the problem suggests a hierarchical network structure, reflecting limited communication among hospital administrators and clinical providers on the importance of EHR medication reconciliation in improving patient safety. Integrating the TIP literature with the more recent knowledge-in-Practice (KIP) literature suggests that EHR-in-practice could be transformed from “limited use” to “meaningful use” through the use of Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) technology to create new social network structures, and enable engagement, learning, and practice change. Correspondingly, the objectives of this paper are to: (1) Conduct a narrative review of the literature on “technology use”, to understand how technologies-in-practice may be transformed from limited use to meaningful use; (2) Conduct a narrative review of the literature on “organizational change implementation” to understand how changes in technology use could be successfully implemented and sustained in a healthcare organizational context; and (3) Apply lessons learned from the narrative literature reviews to identify strategies for the meaningful use and successful implementation of EHR medication reconciliation technology.

Publication Information

Output type

Scholary Output:

Contribution to journal

Article

Peer-review

Original language

English (US)

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 98 (106 pages)

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Journal of Hospital Administration (Volume 5, Issue 3)

Publication milestones

Published - 2016

Publication status

Published - 2016

ISSN

1927-6990

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Metrics

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