Technology across the Care Continuum Free Essay

Technology across the Care Continuum Free Essay

Nursing Informatics Best Practices Sample Essay

Technology across the Care Continuum

Executive Summary

In the modern healthcare systems, information technology stands out as one of the essential tools that help the healthcare givers to offer the best quality and to plan for the future.  Healthcare modernization can be understood best by comparing the systems used at least 30 years ago and what is there today. There was a great need for improvement which was stimulated not only by curiosity but also the need to provide better services. Patient care in the modern age is becoming the center of focus, and new health systems are coming up quickly to boost the quality of healthcare systems. Over the last several years, the focus has revolved around establishing new computer programs and hardware that speeds up the process of administration in clinical procedures. The technological advancement has and will continue to play a critical role in the clinical process since it makes work easier through minimization of errors and improving the speed of operation and so on.

Health information systems denotes any electronic device that can capture, store, and transmit information related to healthcare of individuals and other activities which give the managers of the organization an opportunity to make informed decisions. Some of the systems an organization can have in place include disease surveillance systems, laboratory information systems, and hospital patient administration systems and so on. When the team uses the systems efficiently, they can deliver outstanding results in the overall quality of healthcare. However, incorporating health systems within an organization may not be obviously smooth. Some complexities are likely to ensue mainly from objection by the staff, cost, and culture of the organization. The systems present many strengths and weaknesses as seen in this paper.

Overview of the Care Continuum

Ambulatory care refers to a type of medical care delivered on outpatient care basis. It includes diagnosis, consultation, intervention, and rehabilitation services. Just like most other types of nursing, ambulatory care involves advanced technology and procedures irrespective of whether the service takes place within or outside the hospital. The World Health Organization authors and directs health technology. It encompasses knowledge and expertise in the form of procedures, medicines, systems, and vaccines, all which are developed to solve most health problems within the hospital and also to improve the quality of health care services. Ambulatory care services have several classifications and among them being Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions whose aim is to reduce the need for hospital admission. Some diseases such as diabetes are given deeper attention using technology for more specialized screening, which gives the patient intensive care and avoids patient admission.

According to Nguyen, Bellucci, & Nguyen (2014), there are several medical investigations and also the treatment of some chronic and acute diseases which ambulatory services can be used to achieve. There are also other treatments such as dental services, minor surgeries, dermatology services, blood tests and x-rays that are achievable on an ambulatory basis. Ambulatory care resources include Telehealth pricing worksheet, diagnostic centers pricing worksheet and Telehealth surgical only pricing among others.

Types of Patient-care Technologies

The following types of patient care techniques are some of the most core and which are preferable because of minimal costs. One of the systems is EHR. The federal government provides stimulus payments to all hospitals and also pushes for ambulatory services’ implementation for all hospitals. It means that EHR systems are necessary to facilitate such services. Another type is Hybrid operating rooms. These rooms enable the surgeon to perform catheter-based and minimally invasive interventions.  Another type of technology is the Telehealth tools which ensure reliable and secure internet connections, custom-configured hardware and peripherals as well as electrical medical records (EMR). The hospitals can also adopt the ultrasound imaging device which is a common type of technology but not used extensively. This kind of technology has many applications such as assessing bone fracture, viewing breast tissue, and analyzing the heart among others. Other types of modern technologies for patient care include infection detecting technologies such as procalcitonin (PCT) and social media which can be used to disseminate health information to the patients (Kuperman, Gardner & Pryor, 2013).

Strengths and Weaknesses

There are many strengths as well as weaknesses associated with the health systems within the hospital. One of the most notable and direct benefits of the health system is that communication becomes very convenient. Giving orders to subordinates when you are a nursing leader or manager can be achieved electronically using emails and other means. The nurses and other hospital attendants can also communicate back electronically while giving reports, feedbacks, or suggestions. Another key strength of health information system is that it has become very convenient for administration since patients records and any relevant information can be stored, retrieved, and easily modified to other forms (El-Kareh, Hasan & Schiff, 2013).  This allows the caregivers to make decisions quickly regarding the type of care to offer to a particular patient. The use of health systems has enhanced basic clinical processes by increasing speed, accuracy, and reducing costs. With systems like e-prescribing, it is easy to minimize errors and increase the speed of operation.

The health information systems come not without some weaknesses. When it comes to security issues, there are several controversial debates raised that amounts to weaknesses. Information disseminated electronically is likely to betray the confidentiality of the patients because different personnel operate the systems. Secondly, the information is likely to be manipulated in various ways. For example, unqualified staff can damage the information if they have no professional skills of handling the systems. On the same note, manipulative geniuses can hack and tamper with the information or the information can be corrupted by computer viruses.  Apart from that, integrating the information within the hospital can be expensive and may not be embraced well by the staffs who believe that they may lose their jobs to technology.

To implement the use of health systems in the organization successfully, the managers and other leaders need to make a prior communication to the staff and mobilize them to embrace the technology. Doing so can involve training the staff before adopting the systems and convincing them why it is important to have them. Once the team has developed a positive attitude, it will be easy to put the various systems in place.

Nursing and Informatics Theoretical Ideas Nursing informatics is created by three scientific fields namely nursing science, computer science, and information science. The use of electronic and digital devices in healthcare has increased, which creates the need for interdisciplinary alliance aimed at making the most out of technical prospects available (Boulware et al., 2016). This information is according to the thirteenth Summit on Nursing Informatics that took place in Geneva, Switzerland, mid-2016.  This conference offers an important opportunity for healthcare providers across the world to share information and expertise in research about nursing informatics

Nursing Informatics Best Practices Sample Essay

Technology across the Care Continuum Free Essay