...The use of technology in healthcare Lenward Moore HS544 Diane Harrison-James Keller Graduate School of Management December 11, 2011 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY………………………………………………………………………………………………………3-4 DEFINE THE PROBLEM/ISSUE……………………………………………………………………………………………..5 IMPROVING QUALITY OF HEALTH……………………………………………………………………………5 IMPACT ON HEALTH CARE COST………………………………………………………………………………5 IMPACT ON HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM………………………………………………………….5 LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 WHAT IS HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY……………………………………………………...6-8 INFORMATICS IN HEALTHCARE……………………………………………………………………………….8-9 BENEFITS OF INFORMATICS……………………………………………………………………………………9-10 PROBLEM ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10 THE COST OF HEALTH IT………………………………………………………………………………………10-11 HOW IT IMPROVED QUALITY………………………………………………………………………………….12 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………12 (1). PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS……………………………………………………………………………12 (2). E-PRESCRIBING…………………………………………………………………………………………………13 (3). COMPUTERIZED PROVIDER ORDER ENTRY……………………………………………………….13 SOLUTION AND IT IMPLEMENTATION……………………………………………………………………………14-15 JUSTIFICATION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15-16 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..17 ------------------------------------------------- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The use of...
Words: 3494 - Pages: 14
...remote locations that insufficient access to health care provision results in lower health status when compared to their urban counterparts. Advanced communication technology offers a method for addressing this problem. Nevertheless, examination of this technology indicates that while there is a great deal of potential, implementing telemedicine also encompasses many barriers. In addressing these barriers and associated issues, it is also clear that safeguards are required to protect patients and ensure that the standard defining quality care provisions are upheld. Telemedicine (TM) is defined as the "practice of 'medicine at a distance,'" indicating that it refers to the delivery of health care services in a manner that goes beyond geographical boundaries (Lateff, 2011, p. 17). TM encompasses "diagnosis, treatment, prevention, continuing education, research and evaluation" (Lateff, 2011, p. 17). TM makes it possible for health care practitioners to provide care and share knowledge and expertise via telecommunications and information technology regardless of patients' physical location (Lateff, 2011). TM is differentiated from "telecare," which is defined as the "provision of nursing and continuing support to patient at a distance," and "telehealth," which is defined as "public health services delivered at a distance to people who are not necessarily unwell" (Lateff, 2011, pp. 17-18). The utilization of telecommunication technology does not in any way negate the ethical and...
Words: 1415 - Pages: 6
...Electronic health records (also known as ‘e-notes’, EMR or EHR) have commonly replaced the conventional paper records used in medical facilities. EHRs are a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting. Included in this information are patient demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data, and radiology reports”. Some of the basic benefits associated with EHRs include being able to easily access computerized records and the elimination of poor penmanship, which has historically plagued the handwritten medical chart. This technology can offer a more consistent method for open communication among physicians, nurses, labs and other clinical staff without relying on handwritten notes stored in a single-location, electronic health records can help with the time it takes to treat someone. Electronic health records have provided a solution to a range of health care procedures, have offered cost savings and benefits, and still have greater potential for improvement through future efforts. It is evident that the EHRs have shortcomings that are commonly noted and targeted, but they have solved many more problems inherent in previous systems, they are the ideal path for development and improvement for patients and healthcare providers. Electronic health records have allowed healthcare organizations to provide quality care all of its...
Words: 3962 - Pages: 16
...increase of health information technology implementation and usage. According to the Center for Democracy and Technology, “Health information technology has tremendous potential to improve health care quality and reduce costs while empowering patients to play a greater role in the management of their own care. At the same time, however, electronic storage and exchange of personal health information poses risks to privacy. Unaddressed, privacy concerns can stand in the way of realizing the benefits of health IT, for neither patients nor providers will make full use of a system they do not trust.” One has no choice but to take the two into consideration: do the speed, accuracy, and reduced cost of health information technology outweigh the potential privacy concerns? As stated in a brief article published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, “The combination of these technologies will improve the quality of health care by making it more personalized and reducing costs and medical errors. While there are benefits to technologies, associated privacy and security issues need to be analyzed to make these systems socially acceptable.” While these may not be considered issues that pose a serious, heavy threat or danger to the population, it is nonetheless an ethical problem that should not be underestimated or belittled. As mentioned earlier, patients may not reap the full benefits of a particular health program simply because they do not trust that their information will...
Words: 1190 - Pages: 5
...Use of Health Information Technology and its impact on the United States Health Care System 1. Information technology in health care Health care experts, policymakers, payers, and consumers consider health information technologies, such as electronic health records and computerized provider order entry, to be critical to transforming the health care industry (1–7). Information management is fundamental to health care delivery (8). Given the fragmented nature of health care, the large volume of transactions in the system, the need to integrate new scientific evidence into practice, and other complex information management activities, the limitations of paper-based information management are intuitively apparent. While the benefits of health information technology are clear in theory, adapting new information systems to health care has proven difficult and rates of use have been limited (9–11). Most information technology applications have centered on administrative and financial transactions rather than on delivering clinical care (12). Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine. (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st century The National Academies Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10027 DePhillips,HenryA., I.,II. (2007). Initiatives and barriers to adopting health information technology. Disease Management & Health Outcomes, 15(1), 1-6. Herrick, D. M., Gorman, L., & Goodman...
Words: 529 - Pages: 3
...Course Project: To analyze current medical technology infrastructures and insurance accurate processing demands while recommending improvements for doctor and patient level reports, bills, claims, records and data exchange and enhancements through the use of technology and business re-engineering initiatives. 2. Business Problem Statement: As compared with other sectors of society who have successfully integrated IT into their business practices, the field of medicine has not been as aggressive in its approach to IT integration. Due to the rising cost of healthcare and increasing demands by patients and insurers for better quality care, healthcare organizations are being driven to implement IT to improve results. Healthcare is a very “information-intensive, confidential and sensitive industry,” that remains highly fragmented and inefficient. The use of technology in delivering clinical care, processing insurance claims and performing administrative functions has the potential to yield both cost savings and improvements in the care itself. The automation of electronic medical records and claims processing can be shown to save time and money as well as improve the effectiveness of making pertinent patient information and medical charges readily accessible to healthcare providers and patients. Sensitivity to patient privacy rights and cost audits must also be considered, as this information is considered “highly sensitive,” and must be accurate and...
Words: 4934 - Pages: 20
...Contents 1.1 Discuss how technology can be used to support users of health and social care services in living independently. 1 1.2 Analyze barriers to the use of technology to support users of health and social care services in living independently. 2 1.3 Explain the benefits of these technologies to health and social care organizations and their users. 3 2.1 Describe health and safety considerations in the use of technologies in health and social care. 4 2.2 Analyze ethical considerations in the use of assistive technologies. 5 2.3 Explain the impact of recent and emerging technological developments on health and social care services. 6 3.1 Identify Maggie’s specific needs and recommend appropriate devices in order to support her to continue living independently. 7 3.2 Influence of assistive technology in role workers in health and social care 8 Bibliography 9 1.1 Discuss how technology can be used to support users of health and social care services in living independently. For those people who have trouble getting around places, in making communication with others or in handling the everyday tasks, there are many assistive types of equipment available to help them in such tasks. An assistive technology is the one that is capable of helping the disabled or the elder people in handling the activities they were always capable of doing, but in their present medical condition, they just cannot. In other terms, these devices or tools are also known as “adaptive...
Words: 2931 - Pages: 12
...nursing science with computer technology and information science to identify, gather, process, and manage information. Emphasis on technology based health applications which support clinical, administrative, research, and educational decision making enhancing the efficacy of nursing endeavors. Course Purpose: This course provides an overview of nursing informatics for all student nurse. Focus is on developing an understanding of concepts relevant to health care informatics. Current trends and issues in using, designing, and managing heath care information systems will be examined. Students, applying knowledge from assigned readings, will analyze the design and implementation of health care information systems. The course includes email, electronic discussion forums, computer applications, worldwide web, and internet assignments. Course Objectives: 1. Identify key trends and issues in nursing informatics and the impact on health care information systems. 1.1 Describe the historical perspectives of nursing and computers 1.2 Discuss the term nursing informatics. 1.3 Define basic terms related to hardware, software, World Wide Web, and the Internet. 1.4 Identify informatics visions for the profession of nursing. 1.5 Discuss technology applications utilizing speech recognition, genomic informatics, date warehousing, and virtual reality. 2. Explain how theories, such as communication, information, management, systems, and nursing...
Words: 2003 - Pages: 9
...First HCS/533 Week Six Introduction THIS WEEK FOCUSES ON FUTURE TRENDS IN HEALTH CARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS. THE INTERNET HAS CHANGED MUCH ABOUT HEALTH CARE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT. PATIENT INFORMATION IS NOW READILY AVAILABLE WHEN NEEDED BY A DOCTOR OFFICE OR HOSPITAL WORKER. NO LONGER IS THIS INFORMATION ONLY AVAILABLE VIA HARD COPY FILES THAT MUST BE SHIPPED FROM A MEDICAL RECORDS REPOSITORY. DOCTORS CAN ALSO COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR PATIENTS ELECTRONICALLY USING E-MAIL, THOUGH THIS REMAINS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Health care can be provided to individuals in remote locations using technology, bringing quality health care to communities who might not otherwise have access. Medical students can also be educated remotely by learning from professors who are hundreds of miles away and viewing live medical procedures via satellite, or the Internet. Radiologists can interpret the results of an X-ray scan taken at an office thousands of miles away. Technology will continue to provide exciting opportunities in distance-delivery of health care. Medical professionals are using robotics to improve precision during surgery and other medical procedures. This practice will continue to grow, along with performing procedures—including surgery—remotely. As electronic medical records become standard, we may see individuals carrying their health information in wallets or purses so the information is immediately available when needed. This exciting development would present the challenge...
Words: 718 - Pages: 3
...Technology and Health Care Grading Criteria: Telemedicine Marquera Brooks HCS/531 January 27, 2014 Georgetta Baptist Technology and Health Care Grading Criteria: Telemedicine Telemedicine: is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. Telemedicine is the tool for the twenty-first century. As the health care profession evolves the continued success of health care practice depends on servicing the patient base in ways that are convenient and cost effective. Telemedicine broadens the scope of services where clinics, hospitals, and facilities can offer their patients better assistance. With telemedicine the patients get a confidential consultation with a specialist using interactive body visual technology. The system is easy and affordable. It’s a great way to gain access to a specialist from the comfort of your own health care facility. Telemedicine technologies are tools to improve access to care, improve patient outcomes, and control health care costs. Telemedicine also, allows consumers to use a variety of applications and services such as, two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology. This new technology is spreading rapidly across the health care industry including within the workplace and in consumers’ homes. Products and services related to telemedicine are often part of a larger investment by health care institutions...
Words: 965 - Pages: 4
...and Information Technology Technology is spreading like a wild fire throughout the entire world. In the United States technology is used mostly for communication and is done by the use of wireless phones, text messages, social media, and emails. In health care organizations the use of technology is becoming more popular. According to University of Phoenix Communication and Information Technology (2009), In the 1990s health care organizations have struggled with technology to figure out its purpose in health care. Communication and computer based information technologies are used throughout health care organizations to improve and change the structure of health care delivery, and to increase the quality of care that patients receive. There are many different types of information technologies that are used in various health care organizations. This paper will only be presenting one information technology that is used in many health care organizations, which is Electronic Medical Records or EMR. It will also discuss how efficient and effective communication is with EMRs, the advantages and disadvantages of EMRs, the affect it has on consumers, the short term and long term financial impact, and improvements that could be made in the future. Electronic Medical Records Electronic Medical Records or EMRs are computer based medical records that allow health care organizations such as hospitals and doctors’ offices to store, retrieve, and modify patient’s health information. Health...
Words: 1321 - Pages: 6
...Journal of Emergency Medicine The impact of medical technology on healthcare today LTH Tan and KL Ong Introduction Rapidly changing medical technology and availability of high technology diagnostic and therapeutic equipment together with changing practice pattern of doctors has revolutionized the way health care is being delivered today. Without doubt, medical technology is indispensable for people's health and better quality of life in some areas; and contributes billions of dollars to the economy. Some would go so far to say that the practice of medicine these days is inherently dependent upon health technology. This is probably based on the observations that clinicians use a wide variety of technologies in diagnosing, treating and assessing the care of their patients. Today's medical technology is more advanced, more effective, and in many cases, more costly than ever before. Furthermore there is an ever increasing demand for high technology diagnostic and therapeutic health care facilities and their availability may come into conflict with medical necessity, social justice and cost effectiveness. There is increasing pressure on health care resources that is driving more explicit and public decisions regarding the best use of these resources. The complexity of modern technology and its high marginal cost suggest to us that testimonial reviews of new technologies are no longer sufficient.1 Current trends in health care decision making favour a transition from a rationale...
Words: 3954 - Pages: 16
...Communication and Information Technology Paper HCS 320 April 11, 2011 As the human race has evolved so has the technology that has allowed our lives to be easier and even more productive. In the health care field advances in technology have even gone so far to allow human life expectancy to increase drastically from what it was ages ago. Technology certainly has contributed much to health care, and as we move into the 21st century advances in technology will only continue to benefit our lives. With the invention of television, phones, computers, e-mail, Internet, and videoconferencing, health care has started to use these new forms of media technology to allow patients and health care professionals to work together in a way they never could before known as Telemedicine. According to du Pre (2005), “Telemedicine is the process of communicating across distances for health-related purposes” (p. 76). Telemedicine has been extremely useful in bridging the distance gap between patients living in rural communities and doctors working in larger cities. Another advantage of telemedicine is that it has allowed health care information to be transmitted just about as quickly as it would in real life with only a short delay. This in turn has allowed health care professionals to respond quickly when time can play a critical factor in saving a patient’s life. Telemedicine also has allowed health care professionals the ability to access patient records quickly and from locations all...
Words: 875 - Pages: 4
...computing technology is used to monitor patient’s vital signs. Vital signs are comprised of: body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, sugar levels, oxygen levels, and respiratory rates. Vital signs can be taken using mobile technology today, and this gives patients and health care providers more flexibility. In the past, patients were required to travel to the doctor’s office or a hospital and have their vital signs tested. Typically, a nurses and clinicians would oversee and be responsible for the taking and recording of the vitals manually documenting them with a mobile computer or the results were written on paper and the clinician left the patients room to manually document into the electronic chart using computers. At times, this documentation happened hours later when time permitted. The vitals were hard to take in some cases and errors were not uncommon. These stats are a tool used to communicate patient deterioration to healthcare providers and sadly it also was not uncommon for clinical decisions regarding a patients care to be made using outdated vitals. With today’s technology, patient care can be a lot more effective. The use of smart phones and broadband-enabled devises has allowed patients to do their own monitoring of vital signs and body functions and upload them to their medical provider’s clinical servers. They even have the ability to do videoconferencing via their phones for remote consultations with their doctors. Using technology to take...
Words: 1225 - Pages: 5
...Are Electronic Medical Records a Cure for Health Care? Abstract In the United States, healthcare remains a top priority and is consistently part of the national public policy agenda. Political leaders and healthcare providers attempt to address issues of quality, access, efficiency and affordability. Solutions to these challenges are being pursued through a great variety of strategies and methodologies ranging from adoption of best practices of patient care to negotiated contracts between payers and Care Delivery Organizations (CDO.) (Gonzalez, 2014) This writing assignment will take a look at the adoption of Electronic Medical records and show the strengths and weaknesses of overhauling medical records from paper to digital. Context The purpose of writing this paper is to give me a better understanding on how information systems can help the medical field. However, it is important to understand that you cannot just overhaul the current system in place. There needs to be a process involved to get everyone at stake the proper training and information needed to undergo such a large transition. Introduction Electronic Medical Records are basically electronic versions of paper-based medical records. An Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is essentially an electronic record of health related information on an individual that can be created, gathered, managed and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff in one healthcare organization. Electronic medical record systems...
Words: 1353 - Pages: 6
