Manuscript for Publication 

The Electronic Treatment Administration Record (eTAR) enables healthcare providers to document the medications and treatments they provide to patients. eTAR serves as a system that makes the process of documenting the information easier which saves time and effort of healthcare providers and improves patient care (Janett & Yeracaris, 2020). eTAR can also help healthcare providers track the medications ordered and make required changes if needed. The most noticeable feature of eTAR is that it has safety measures such as patient identification photos and bar codes to prevent data from any harm. This assessment will discuss the role of eTAR in enhancing medication process management, reducing medication errors, and enhancing the quality of care for patients.

eTAR for an Interprofessional Care Team/Stakeholders 

When healthcare providers work in collaboration with one another, the patient treatment results and outcomes also improve. This collaboration also helps in increasing patient satisfaction and the care quality they receive from healthcare providers (Morris et al., 2020). In interdisciplinary collaboration, healthcare providers create a team to create improved patient treatment outcomes. This collaboration is helpful for patients with chronic health conditions that require healthcare providers’ attention and customized treatment plans. Multiple healthcare providers from different departments such as physicians, nutritionists, nurses, surgeons, and psychologists work together to develop treatment plans for patients to address all healthcare needs of patients. Interdisciplinary teams must form effective communication strategies so that they can share information, ideas, best practices, and treatment interventions even if they are geographically distant from one another. EHR plays an important role in providing smooth communication among healthcare providers so that they can make better-informed decisions for patients (Kefi & Asan, 2021). To improve the communication process, EHRs can enhance coordination during hospital rounds by using information systems. EHRs allow quick gathering and access to patient’s data so that healthcare providers can give better care to patients. Healthcare providers can make better-informed decisions by using credible information stored in eTAR. Furthermore, eTAR allows healthcare providers to understand patients’ unique needs and develop customized treatment schedules for them. In research by Vos et al. (2020), nurses reported that EHR systems used in outpatient clinics enhanced coordination by making the process of referring patients from one healthcare professional to another easier.  The eTAR system allows healthcare providers to enhance the quality of the patient’s medical records. The organized system makes it easier for healthcare providers to input data which enhances the healthcare providers’ ability to diagnose and treat patients because they don’t have to spend a lot of time entering data and can attend to patients efficiently. This also makes it easier for healthcare providers to refer patients to other departments and develop detailed health records. The nurse informatics who works on the EHRs and manages information systems of a healthcare organization use eTAR in hospitals (Kilańska et al., 2022). The efficient timely recorded patient information within EHRs assists healthcare providers in reducing their workload and prevents burnout. Furthermore, EHRs, including eTAR, have shown better recording quality and higher healthcare provider satisfaction (Pradhan et al., 2024). These systems benefit the healthcare providers and allow them to improve patients’ health results. Utilizing eTAR in patient care management also helps enhance care coordination, ensures reduced medication mistakes, and increases patient safety.

Enhanced Information System Workflow 

The numerous advantages of eTAR are crucial to increase the efficiency of the system. Some of these benefits include ensuring healthcare providers improve patient diagnosis and help in enhancing the better-informed decision-making process for patients. eTAR also helps the nurses assigned to data entry to reduce errors and decrease medication mistakes for patients. This electronic process enables patients to view, print, and share their records which promotes their involvement and satisfaction in their care process. It also makes it accessible for patients and healthcare providers to have medication prescriptions right away to improve care coordination (Butler et al., 2020). The eTAR ensures safe practices because it provides data on patients, medication, and treatment data easily available to healthcare providers. This system also uses barcoding which reduces the number of clicks required to be done manually by the healthcare providers and it also makes the system automated. Moreover, barcodes can reduce the time and effort needed by healthcare providers to enter medical information and also decrease medication errors (Svensk & McIntyre, 2019).

The following are the benefits of using eTAR for improving healthcare for patients:

• Follow-up notifications of eTAR ensure that patient’s medications are not missed or delayed.
• The eTAR administration screen enables healthcare providers to directly manage medication and treatment orders.
• eTAR can help healthcare providers to stop, pause, or reorder medications during a Med Pass.
• eTAR automatically updates the dosage of medications if it is changed by the healthcare provider. 
• It enables to set of backup medications and treatments and can also add emergency backups. 
• It helps healthcare providers to maintain patients’ 5 Rights to medication including, medicine, time, dose, and route. 
• It enables healthcare providers to add and review documents during or after the treatment. 

Strategies of the Organization or Practice Setting

Using the eTAR helps healthcare providers to achieve the healthcare goals of the healthcare organizations. It enhances patient care safety and the quality of care and also reduces the costs of medical procedures. eTAR requires an initial cost to spend on the technology and healthcare providers’ training but the cost proves to be worth it in the long run because eTAR is a cost-effective method that saves healthcare providers and patients time and effort. 

Financial Benefits

eTAR is a cost-effective system that enables easier documentation of information and management of medications. This process requires a lot of time and resources but eTAR saves the costs, time, and effort. It reduces expenses in the future because it provides sustainability (Awad et al., 2021). This improves operational expenses by reducing medication errors and enhancing the workflow of healthcare providers. 

Patient Safety

Patient safety and care quality are the most important factors in accessing treatment quality. eTAR improves the safety of the patient and the quality of their treatment. It enables healthcare providers to make records easily accessible and enhances clarity in documentation.  Utilizing eTAR reduced medication-related issues with error rates falling by 2, ranging from 8% to 16% (Implementing a Modified Quick Reference Barcode Scanning Guide to Improve Compliance by Reducing Medication Errors and Workarounds – ProQuest, 2024). This improvement in healthcare also enhanced patient care and reduced the risks and errors.  

Role of Nurses

Nurses are the primary users of EMRs including the eTAR among other healthcare professionals. That is why, they play a crucial role in using eTAR systems. Research by Tsai et al. (2020) proves that users of eTAR have higher productivity because it reduces the time and effort they used to spend on paperwork (Awad et al., 2021). eTAR allows healthcare providers to document and provide medication to the patients without errors and it improves their treatment quality.

Enhancing Communication

eTAR improves healthcare providers’ interaction and processes involved in patient treatment and care. It provides healthcare providers tools which include a patient problem list, work list, and task list that improve teamwork of interdisciplinary teams. eTAR can also be used in developing huddle sheets to keep track of patient appointments and problems (Awad et al., 2021). This enhanced communication can prevent healthcare providers from burnout and work stress.

Implementation and Testing

Incorporating eTAR requires effective planning and detailed organization of the plan. Healthcare providers, nurse informatics, and administration teams must organize a trial period in the plan to ensure that the efficiency of the EHR system is not compromised. Furthermore, training trials should also include evaluating how the healthcare providers understand eTAR. The test run will help in evaluating the performance of eTAR and its effectiveness in improving patient care (Awad et al., 2021). It is also important to incorporate monitoring and feedback to test the issues and outcomes of using eTAR. 

Recommendations to Improve eTAR 

There can be several issues when incorporating eTAR in the healthcare organization such as power failure. Power failure can restrict eTAR from working efficiently. To avoid this issue, preventive measures should be implemented such as using a power backup source. This can include battery backup or generators if the main supply of power goes out (Nøland et al., 2020). Moreover, the technology requires regular checkups and updates to ensure the system is running operations and functionally. For this purpose, hardware should be regularly checked, and also if any updates are required. Backup processors should also include copies of the data that can be used if the main system breaks down. It is important to keep the work of the system running smoothly so tasks can be accomplished even if the system needs an update. Furthermore, effective communication is important to ensure that the problems with the system are communicated to all staff members so that patient care goes on (Musheke & Phiri, 2021). The HIPAA regulations ensure that such information remains secure even in complicated situations. Before incorporating a new system, an evaluation of technology should be carried out. The evaluation involves the voluntary participation of some healthcare providers such as nurses who will be trained in the use of the eTAR system before introducing it to the whole healthcare staff. This means that these first-trained staff should be provided with resources to solve problems and support other trainees (Marano et al., 2020). Training should be focused on getting healthcare providers familiar with the system before its use so participants are not stressed. However, after implementing the system, refresher training workshops should be organized to introduce the staff to new features of the system. Furthermore, manuals and guides for using eTAR should also be provided to healthcare staff so they can have a resource to consult if they face any issues with eTAR. 

Conclusion

eTAR improves the efficiency of healthcare organizations, patient security, and resources to adhere to the rules and regulation requirements. Every time a healthcare organization decides to install a new EHR system it is important to carry out some steps to ensure it provides the benefits the healthcare organization needs. The right system and plan make the process of implementing eTAR easier. Therefore, a clear strategy is crucial to successfully implement this strategy. However, applying different strategies, such as having a power backup and training workshops increases the efficiency of eTAR.

References

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Butler, J. M., Gibson, B., Lewis, L., Reiber, G., Kramer, H., Rupper, R., Herout, J., Long, B., Massaro, D., & Nebeker, J. (2020). Patient-centered care and the electronic health record: exploring functionality and gaps. JAMIA Open, 3(3), 360–368. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooaa044 

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Kilańska, D., Ogonowska, A., Librowska, B., Kusiak, M., Marczak, M., & Kozlowski, R. (2022). The usability of IT systems in document management, using the example of the adpiecare dorothea documentation and nurse support system. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(14), 8805. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148805 

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