...Using technology to Improve Patient Safety and Quality of Nursing Care Yelitza Guzman Walden University Information Management in Nursing and Health Care Nurs-3010-7 Dr. Annita Manns May 19, 2013 Using technology to Improve Patient Safety and Quality of Nursing Care The current severe shortage of nurses and health care workers contributes to an ongoing crisis in the US health care system that has many consequences. The inadequate number of qualify personnel in the care setting has a direct impact on the ability of nurses to deliver an appropriate level of care to their patients. Technology holds the promise of alleviating some of these problems by managing and organizing information that will facilitate the nurses, physicians and other members of the health care system to provide adequate and high quality of care. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the issues of data quality, patient safety, and access to health care in relation to information technology. Data accuracy and safety Ensuring data quality and accuracy is the most important factor to guarantee that the use of health technology is successful. To have an optimal working system in an electronic record we should have the most accurate, up-to date, and complete database. Having accurate identification of the patient should be the first step when gathering patient information. This is a task that most times is initiated by triage or admission nurses. Nurses are knowledgeable workers who require the use...
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...Wesley D. Pointjour Final Research Paper: Telehealth In Nursing Homes Health Quality Management April 02, 2015 Introduction In many nursing home facilities, patient safety is little to non-existent and if they are, there displayed on a need be and not obliged basis. They are displayed case by case rather than nursing home protocol. Even with changes in regulations, reporting systems, and documentation over the past couple of years, the nursing home industry still has its share of problems. Patient safety is meant to provide patients freedom from healthcare associated preventable harm, meaning when things go right, nothing bad happens. Nursing home organizations have been constantly trying to improve their reputation and the way people view them, but how? Don’t patients make up a nursing home? What about their safety? Shouldn’t we start there? How do we make improvements? Telehealth, a new approach to improving patient safety in nursing homes, will use telecommunication technologies to deliver health related services and information that support patient care, administrative activities, and health education (Dixon, Hook, McGowan, 2008). In this paper I will explore the major benefits of Telehealth and how its implications can improve patient safety in nursing home care. What is Telehealth and why is it important? Telehealth is the means and methods to improving access to care and reducing healthcare associated costs. It is also a system that can be used for education...
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...benefits that information management and electronic information systems brings to delivery of informed, safe, and quality healthcare. Discuss how healthcare informatics might be integrated into the pre-licensure nursing curriculum. Provide two examples of teaching strategies utilizing the following: Electronic health record as a learning tool A teaching strategy from the QSEN project specifying a specific student assignment relevant to nursing informatics. Conclude your discussion with a well-developed reflection on the significance of healthcare informatics to 21st century nursing education. In response to the Institution of Medicine call to improve the quality of healthcare the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative was started. The QSEN initiative consisted of the development of quality and safety competencies that serve as a resource for nursing faculty to integrate contemporary quality and safety content into nursing education. Nurses are on the front line of patient safety. It is important for the nursing profession to realize all the benefits healthcare informatics can offer to ease their jobs and improve patient safety. Introducing health care informatics into the nursing curriculum will prepare the student for new and innovative technologies on the horizon in the healthcare community. Safety benefits are consistent with the use electronic health record. If electronic medical records are being used by the nurse, the physician is using them as...
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...Electronic Documentation Nursing is a fast changing profession that has been vital to providing care in the medical setting. Throughout the past several years one of the most recognizable changes in the medical field is the transformation from paper charting to electronic forms of documentation. This has led to a decrease in the amount of paper charting by allowing nurses to use check boxes, cell formatting, and computer databases to keep patients records more accessible and organized. As new forms of technology become available we find that there are often flaws that need to be assessed and corrected to properly implement an optimal computing system. The clinical integration paper examines the positive and negative aspects of electronic documentation in the nursing field as it pertains to time management, patient safety and its efficacy. It was found that nurses spend the largest proportion of their time at the nurses station documenting and coordinating patient’s care with twenty five to fifty percent, which results in less time spent on patient care (Blair & Smith, 2012). This is alarming knowing that approximately a quarter to half of a nurse’s shift is done sitting in front of a computer documenting the day’s events. At Central Baptist Hospital I believe that more than half a day could be taken up by computer charting. From what I have experienced, a nurse may begin their shift with anywhere between four to six patients. These patients require a general assessment...
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...Use of Information Technology to Improve Patient Safety and Quality of Nursing Care Introduction We are in a great evolution in the way we are gathering data, gaining information, and increasing our knowledge to provide our patients’ with safe quality care. Without information technology (IT) in today’s healthcare industry, it would be impossible to delivery high quality care. The purpose of this paper is to explore data accuracy & safety, data integrity, and the contributions of IT. Data Accuracy and Safety One of the biggest obstacles to interoperability among information systems is the vast amount of medical terms used to describe the same concept. One strategy that is being implemented in IT to increase data accuracy and safety is to ensure that all electronic health records (EHRs) in all hospitals share common standards for data, classifications, coding systems (Qamar, R., Kola, J.S., & Rector, A.L., 2007). The aim is to standardize medical vocabulary to reduce differing interpretation of information and errors resulting from the traditional paper records. This is an accomplishment that groups have been working on for the last decade. The health IT Standards committee has endorsed a single set of vocabulary standards and a single guide for putting them in place for each area of quality reporting measures (Mosquera, 2011). Two work groups, The Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) and The Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes...
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...a Website for Credibility Lori M. Rankin Chamberlain College of Nursing NR500 MSN Foundational Concepts and Application Summer 2015 Introduction Identifying and Evaluating a Website for Credibility The Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) http://www.ahrq.gov is a website that provides a plethora of information. I was able to locate this website using the Google search engine. The purpose of this website is to enhance and provide guidelines for clinicians, impacts on health care, and knowledge of where products and tools are used. This site also lists tools of improving patient care. A credible website also provides quality of journals, peer-reviewed articles and systematic reviews. I chose this data base for best practice information on current issues. Analysis The ARHQ is a website with a search engine database that is owned and published by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. It provides information on evidenced-based practice, provides continuing education opportunities, explores treatment options and gives up to date information on latest news and events. ARHQ is not limited to healthcare providers but is also available to consumers and patients and is labeled for simple navigation. Additionally the website provides a link in Spanish. The website in Spanish is identical for the website in English. The category link for patients and consumers provides information such as “Questions To Ask Your Doctor.” (AHRQ, 2015) The category...
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...make sure the organization is benefiting from it and to modify components if necessary. Outcome measurement strategies for BCMA are not conclusive but single studies show its positive impact on patient safety. Additionally, cost, quality, and staff satisfaction are important when determining the effectiveness of BCMA and they all support the use of BCMA as technology that increases patient safety. Effectiveness of Organizational Change Organizations evaluate the effectiveness of change after it is implemented to determine if the change is valuable or costly. Effectiveness of BCMA also needs to be determined to ascertain its ability to increase patient safety by decreasing medication errors. Empirical data on BCMA’s effectiveness is limited and data is also inconclusive. Although, data collection conducted by the Veteran Health Administration (VHA) was used to offer suggestions for improved effectiveness. From 1999 to 2003 data was collected by VHA on the barriers that was making BCMA less effective. Laboratory use, nursing informatics, and interviews were used to determine suggestions VHA would recommend to improve BCMA’s effectiveness. The data was given to the VHA’s Office of Information and the Director of the National BCMA Joint Program Office gave the recommended information to every VHA facility (Patterson, Rogers, & Renders, 2004). Fifteen practices were recommended to increase the effectiveness of BCMA and reduce iatrogenic harm that may come if BCMA is...
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...informatics is not only beneficial for health care team patients and their families but also and the community. The use informatics in nursing is so vital in every day work. As a nursing assistant for many years I have seen that without informatics and technology health system would not be as successful as it is today. Informatics technology improves communication among health care providers, research, documentation, diagnosis, treatment, education and error reduction in health care settings. With the constant stress in health care setting it would have been more stressful for nurses to...
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...facilitating enhanced care and safety to the patients and potentially saving millions of dollars. The EHR is a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information compiled from all the different encounters that an individual comes upon in various different medical care settings and automates all the data, allowing providers to have all the information in one electronic record. Electronic health records have enormous benefits to offer the healthcare industry, an important one being that they are permanent and cannot be lost; however, it is imperative that all facilities take the time, effort, and resources to incorporate it into their systems. Electronic Health Records: Transforming Today’s Healthcare The electronic health record and the use of clinical informatics have made great strides in improving the quality of care we provide for the population and also saving the industry millions of dollars. “The EHR has the ability to generate a complete record of a clinical patient encounter - as well as supporting other care-related activities directly or indirectly via interface - including evidence-based decision support, quality management, and outcomes reporting.” (HIMSS, 2011) Nurses play an important role in helping to facilitate the success of the EHR because they are often at the forefront in the documentation process in many healthcare settings. The EHR uses clinical document architecture (CDA) data standards. Using one type of standard...
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...NURSING INFORMATICS LEADERSHIP Evaluation of Computerized Management Systems Kathryn Rawson Western Governors University Abstract This paper will demonstrate: A. How using computerized management systems could increase quality of care B. Why active nursing involvement in the planning, choice and implementation of the systems is important C. How handheld devices used by the nursing staff could be integrated into the management system for better quality care D. Security standards of data and patient confidentiality, including the need for data storage integrity and data backup and recovery and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) requirements impact the use of the systems E. How the new system can affect healthcare cost F. The benefits these new systems can offer to patient care and nursing care delivery with a recommendation and justification of the system the hospital should put in place In today’s modern healthcare environment it is important to provide a variety of technology based resources to nurses and other providers to ensure productivity and efficiency are maximized. This requires an effective understanding of available computerized management systems and what resources are available to ensure continued effective, efficient, quality care to patients. Keeping that perspective in mind while creating a technologically advanced environment in which to deliver that care is critical and of vital importance to...
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...Proposal Title: Nursing Care Center By: Nightingale Nurse Recruit, Nursing Director: Anesta Parris; Medical Information Technology Directors: Dawn Froemel & Ernestina Ayon; Laboratory Services Director: Andrea Dabney April 12, 2013 Introduction Please accept this proposal for the new Riverview Hospital Nursing Care Center. Key health care directors have contributed to this plan. Each director’s perspective is shared as related to his/her department. The following pages of this proposal contain their ideas and touch on the following considerations for the planning of this new facility: The specific department services provided How nursing care center services coordinate with the services the hospital provides How nursing care center departments interact and coordinate with each other to provide efficient and effective care Potential grants to assist with funding the nursing care center project How departments demonstrate consideration and application of the nursing care center code of ethics Executive Summary Nursing Director Executive Summary Nationwide, nursing staffs is changing in today world include not only long-term to care for their patients’. The population of people receiving treatments in the hospital is becoming highly trained and committed to health care staffs. The goal is to make a difference and to take action to improve the nursing staffs. Highly recommend to improve the nurses to limited access to information systems and technology that could...
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...Annually, millions of Americans receive high-quality health care that restores their health to the best it can be and allows them to carry on functioning in society at their optimum best. Unfortunately this story does not resonate with some Americans who are far from happy about the level of care they received while sick. Quality problems are present in wide variation across board when talking delivery of health care services, in some instance, the issue could be with underutilization of a particular service, and other instances may include misuse of service which is generally preceded at onset by prior unacceptable level of errors. The purpose of this paper is to highlight medication errors as a health care safety issue. One solution involving automation would be explored since it has long been recognized as an important factor in reducing human errors in work processes. It is crucial to showcase this because numerous studies have substantiated the positive effects of health IT on quality and safety improvements, Slovenky & Menachemi (2011). A safety Initiative With new tools provided by the Affordable Care Act, hospitals can now aggressively implement programs with sole aim of assisting in the reduction of preventable errors. The act provides hospitals with incentives to improve the quality of health care, and provide real assistance to medical professionals, to support their efforts to reduce harm, McKinney & Zigmond (2011). The government predicted that this could save...
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...Baccalaureate Prepared Nurse Marie L. Niragira Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing 1. Discuss the general differences between the Associate Degree/Diploma nurse and the Baccalaureate prepared nurse with regards to Provider of Patient-Centered Care as stated in the Competencies. Do some of these differences surprise you? Were you aware that the BON had these differences in competencies in writing? In patient-centered care, the patients are actively involved in their care and the services they receive are focused on their individual needs. Patients’ involvement and shared decision making promote adherence and lead to improved outcome (Hinds, 2013). Nursing curricula include patient-centered care strategies in order to prepare and empower nurses about this level of care. According to the Texas Board of Nursing (2010), with regards to the provider of patient-centered care, diploma and associate degree nursing (ADN) prepare the nurses particularly to provide safe, compassionate bedside patient care in the hospital setting. A nurse with a baccalaureate degree in nursing (BSN) is prepared for greater orientation to community health, public health issues, leadership and management in addition to what a registered nurse holding ADN or diploma is required to do. A nurse with a baccalaureate degree is also required to develop a plan of care for patients, families, populations, and communities based on evidence-based practice and published research. In addition...
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...Informatics Shannon S Goff Western Governors University Nursing Assignment The technology necessary to meet the federally mandated requirements which will affect the merged healthcare organizations. Electronic health records with satellite facilities supported by remote technology. Electronic health records emerged as one of the most relevant topics in health care; EHRs are central in the strategy of federal government to transform health care providing in the U.S. (Henricks, 2011). Federal actions are promoting EHR in order to guarantee important implications for nursing practices. The technology implies also payment penalties for those providers who do not manage to meet the requirements of EHRs use. EHR technology has to be certified according to technical and functional criteria that are set forth by the government. The using of EHR technology is significantly important for laboratories (Henricks, 2011) since the certification criteria of EHR have to be related directly to laboratory testing or laboratory management. Federal government identified the goals for improving healthcare and EHRs are central for these goals. EHRs with satellite facilities aims at the following points, it should: * improve safety, efficiency, and quality of public healthcare and reduce people's health disparities; * engage the patients and their families in healthcare services; * improve healthcare coordination; * improve public health and population in general; * reduce...
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...Dannielle Caddell Nursing Informatics- NUT1 EPIC VS MCKESSON For this research, I am conducting my search based on two well-known systems for computerized charting in the medical field. These two vendors are known as, EPIC and McKesson. In the next few pages, I will be comparing these two vendors; and at the end of this project I will choose which one I would not mind being associated with or using in the future. I will be analyzing how these systems can improve quality of care for patients, how hand-held devices can or cannot help the medical professionals, how the computerized systems can help nurses, but also how these systems can possibly increase and improve patient involvement of care. Computerized management systems can amazingly increase the quality of patient care, as well as safety for the patients. Electronic Medical Records aid nurses in being able to identify if a patient may have an allergy to a medication that will be given. As a nurse, you may not always know if a certain antibiotic is in the same class as an allergy that the patient may have. If the patient does have an allergy, there will be a warning that will pop up for you to view. If the provider approves this patient to have the medication, it may be given, but the pop up is there for patient safety and for the nurse’s own awareness as well. These systems can also help increase quality of care because they will make the patients feel safer. When in nursing school you are always...
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