Health Information Technology In Healthcare
Technology and Healthcare
Norberto S. Hernandez
Western Governors University
In many cases in all healthcare settings, the times of paper charting are coming to a close. Many facilities, agencies and offices are moving towards electronic medical records and electronic charting. This allows for swifter documentation and allows for the patient’s medical record being able to be accessed by all and any clinicians or physicians to access the patient record at any given time. This helps with being able to read nurses notes, progress notes, and reports not only from radiology but lab reports that are pertinent to allow for better patient care and more effective treatments. As healthcare costs are rising, quality of …show more content…
care is being sacrificed causing more errors in the mainstream of it all. Healthcare systems are thus moving to the use of technology to overcome the growing problems in today’s healthcare ensuring quality and safer patient care and keeping in line with HIPPA regulations to ensure the safety of patient information with accessibility. The healthcare industry is choosing their own systems to use for the better of the organization and ensuring that all medical staff is trained in the system for accuracy in documentation and use.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act of 2009 provides monetary incentives for organizations that adopt an electronic medical record system for their organizations to help improve the quality of the healthcare system.
Healthcare organizations have begun to realize that errors are costly and have begun to move towards computerized management systems to increase and improve the quality of care a patient receives. Having a computerized management system, is not only beneficial to the patient and his care but to the organizations staff. It improves the quality of care by allowing for secured accessibility to the patient chart by all departments and clinicians working with a particular patient from multiple locations within the healthcare system which leads to quick real time reporting and results. In turn this allows for clinicians to better attend to patients and their needs for care. Electronic records are much more efficient not only to physicians but to front line clinicians, by allowing the access to previous records for review …show more content…
on patient instead of requesting a record and waiting for the records to be retrieved and delivered as they were previously. Clear communication with computerized documentation leads to fewer errors and better care, since records no longer have to left to interpretation, nor do clinicians have to track down physicians to clarify what exactly the physician is requesting. Most computerized management systems also have specific programming such as protocols the clinicians can use based on the patient’s diagnoses to assist clinicians in appropriate documentation as to not forget a specific aspect of the patient’s care. With innovations of a computerized management system, most systems have a medication administration protocol which utilizes barcode scanning to ensure the patient is the correct patient receiving the medication and that the medication being administered is the correct medication and dosage for the patient (Topol, 2013). The information entered into the patient’s medical record can be seen automatically by all clinicians involved in the care with this patient as well as physicians (Coutts, 2012). Clinicians along with physicians are able to view previous data for a patient including previous health and physicals, medications, radiology reports, and labs, helping with appropriate diagnosing and diagnostic testing that will be needed. Computer management system help clinicians become more efficient not only in documentation but with the hands on patient care by being able to care for patient more effectively and quickly. Computer management systems can also improve decision making with instilled programming that can assist with guidelines for documenting for a patient. Patient safety and quality of care have become the number one goal for healthcare organizations, the use of computerized management systems has paved the pathway to achieving this.
As healthcare organization move towards reviewing computerized management systems, it has become apparent that active nursing involvement is important in the planning, choice, and implementation of the system. Most organizations will form committees consisting of administration, physicians, and other leaders of the organization. Although these choices good, nursing, especially front line nurses, should be involved since they are the ones that will be utilizing the care management system on a daily basis as well as other frontline clinicians. Nurses are able to review a system that will work better on the floor and user friendly to the clinicians for better documentation. Nurses know what is needed on the floor for patient care, physician orders, and what is being asked of them and where they will be able to find the information quickly for physicians (Weckman & Janzen 2009). Nurses play in intricate role in the choice and implementation process for any care management system. Nurses will be at the forefront of training and ensuring that other staff are trained appropriately to use the system. As in most organizations, nursing is the staple in documentation of the care of the patient. It seems to be that as nurses and creatures of habit, that nursing plays a large part in the implementation of the system due to nurses being able to offer feedback on what works well and what will not work at all in a system based on what needs to be documented and the care the patient should receive. Thus allowing for safe and a better quality of care for the patient and in documentation. Transparency in an organization allows for decisions within an organization to be made with input from all staff members. Nurses are the experts on clinical processes within their practice, and should be consulted where computer management systems are concerned for the most effective choice process (Topol, 2013).
Most care management systems offer a point of care or handheld device that can be utilized by the staff, allowing for bedside documentation or clinicians not being tied down to a workstation. In most healthcare organizations, a nurse can utilize a computer on wheels (COW) which can be taken from room to room to assist with bedside documentation and medication distribution for each of their patients. Although in some instances, the COW is very bulky and sometimes cannot be taken to the bedside for documentation. As we move forward, handheld devices, from smartphones to tablets are being utilized for documentation not just because of size but for convenience. Most care management systems can be accessed from any web based devices allowing for access from anywhere and real time documentation that can be seen by other clinicians and physicians. Clinicians will be able to retrieve information for the care of a patient at their fingertips at bedside allowing for better quality care and more efficient documentation instead of waiting and finding a computer to document on. Physicians will be able to see assessments, or other history and physicals of the patient from previous admissions to allow for a better system of treating patients appropriately.
As with any healthcare organization, moving towards and computerized management system the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) must be considered to protect the patients since patient information becomes more vulnerable to accessibility by others. With computerized management systems, data storage as well as back-up and recovery is essential for a computerized management system. Data storage is usually off site from the organization and usually is stored for minimum of five to seven years with limited access to those who are required to view stored data. Data storage varies in type from solid state storage to cloud storage depending on cost. Most data storage is broken down into tiers from which time frames are placed for data storage from 6 months to 10 years. The most common data storage breakdown is in 3 tiers, tier 1 data is stored for up to but not limited to 6 months, tier 2 data is stored for up to 7 years, tier 3 data is stored up to 10 years, and beyond 10 years the data is the data is deleted and all items related to the information (Hardy 2010). As we are moving forward with electronic medical records most organizations will move towards cloud data storage with is 100% compliant with HIPPA regulations and encryption standards to limit external influences from retrieving the information (HIPPA Compliant Cloud Storage, 2014). Back-up and recovery systems are also needed to be implemented, within most healthcare organizations data back-up usually occurs every 24 hours to back-up data from the previous day with a weekly back up of all data. Backing up data ensures that should there be records deleted by accident, natural disaster, or power outage all the information can be retrieved without data loss hence the recovery of information this allows for a safeguard of the medical information. To keep in line with HIPPA regulations, most facilities will ensure the privacy of patient information by having policies and procedures that keep information private by locking computers when not in use, screen shields, and lock offices where patient data is stored. Each clinician in facilities, have a unique sign in and password to access patient information that is relevant to the care of the patient, as well as, an agreement between the person who has authorization to access the information and the facility that patient information will not be used for other then what it is intended for.
As healthcare moves toward computerized management systems, the question of cost begins to surface on whether it helps reduce cost or increase cost in a healthcare setting.
Even though The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act of 2009 provides monetary incentives for organizations that adopt an electronic medical record system for their organizations to help improve the quality of the healthcare system, on average, costs both increase and decrease depending on the organization (McBride, 2012). Since cost containment is important to any healthcare organization, cost are reduced in the area of productivity and better quality or care by increasing the productivity of the clinicians and the increase in patient to clinician ratio and by not having to perform unnecessary procedures, labs, and diagnostics that often time are at cost for the hospital. This will include hospital based infections and wounds that the hospital would have to pay for, but with a better quality of care these areas of concern are reduced and the healthcare organization can reduce cost. On the other hand, even though cost of care will decrease the cost will also increase in other areas for instance the maintenance of the care management system will become an added cost to the healthcare organization. Within this area the cost of maintenance, acquiring computers or handheld devices, software updates, and storage for data become an added cost and at times at a lofty price
(McBride, 2012).
As we move forward with computerized management systems, there are quite a lot of choices for an organization to consider. As the healthcare industry evolves into a computerized entity there are numerous aspects that must be considered, from cost, adaptation, implementation, and choice. Each healthcare organization will make their decisions on what systems to use that will best fit their organization. With computerized systems, there is less concern for inaccuracies with documentation, less room for interpretation with orders, and everything is right at the fingertips. Nurses become more independent with the type of care they must give their patients with almost error proof results. With fail safes written into the programming for systems there is less likely a possibility of medication errors, documentation errors, and orders being transcribed wrong. There is a less likelihood that diagnostic procedures will be duplicated due to the real time documentation this resulting in lower costs not only to the organization but to the patient as well. Many systems argue their system is the best system to utilize and some organizations have even developed their own system by hiring programmers. The system that seems to be widely chosen by any healthcare organization would be the Honeywell Integrated Information Management System (HIIMS). This system not only allows for real time documentation and user friendliness, it offers a wide array of assessments, protocols, and clinical pathways. The system is designed to ensure adequate and quality support to the clinicians and their objectives as well as best practices. HIIMS has many areas that are beneficial to any clinician, for example HIIMS offers clinical pathways for nursing that enables the nurse to follow best practice healthcare for the patient, drug references within the program, and assessments designed for specific patients based on diagnoses and co-morbidities to only name a few. It allows for physician access, as well as, other clinicians via a land computer or a portable device allowing for easy access for the clinician to document on their patients and physicians to read reports pertinent to their patients and their care with only one downfall that the system can only be accessed while in the healthcare facility. Aside from the HIIMS system, another computerized management system that can be utilized is the Kinnser Software Program. Kinnser offers clinicians almost the same benefits as the HIIMS system with computerized real-time documentation, clinical pathways, drug references, and teaching topics; however, one aspect of the use of Kinnser that is not allowed with HIIMS is being able to access Kinnser in and out of the healthcare setting from any web accessible device. The downfall with the use of Kinnser is that with the ability to access from any web device as needed, and although information is encrypted patient information become highly more vulnerable especially if the device being used to access the patient’s information is not anti-virus protected. Over all, both computerized management systems are excellent for use; however, the recommendation for a healthcare organization would be the HIIMS system for use due to the ease of use and with fail safe programming to ensure the safety of the patient. Kinnser’s system does not allow for fail safes and it is left to the discretion of the clinician that the safety of the patient is not being compromised. HIIMS would be the recommendation for any healthcare facility as their computerized management system.
Work Cited
Coutts, B., (2012) Health Care Technology Implementation Needs Nurses’ Input. NurseZone.com, Retrieved from: http://www.nursezone.com/print article.aspx? articleID=24268
Department of Health & Human Services (Version 1.1 022312) Guide to Privacy and Security of Health Information, Privacy & Security and Meaningful Use, chapter 2. Retrieved from: https://www.HealthIT.gov
Department of Health & Human Services (April 2011) Managing Data for Performance Improvement, Retrieved from: http://www.hrsa.gov/quality/toolbox/methodology/performanceimprovement/part3.html
Hardy, K., (2010) Data storage of top concern to healthcare providers. Healthcare IT News, Retrieved from: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/data-storage-top-concern-healthcare-providers
HIPPA Compliant Cloud Storage & Data Management (2014), Retrieved from: http://www.carecloud.com/hippa-compliant-cloud-storeage?
McBride, S., (August 2012) Health Information Technology and Nursing. American Journal of Nursing (AJN), Vol. 112, No 8
Topol, E., (2013) How Technology is Transforming Health Care. US News, Retrieved from: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/hospital-of-tomorrow/articles/2013/07/12/
Weckman, H., Janzen, S., (May 31, 2009) “The Critical Nature of Early Nursing Involvement for Introducing New Technologies” OJIN The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Vol. 14, No.2, Manuscript 2.
Norberto S. Hernandez
Western Governors University
In many cases in all healthcare settings, the times of paper charting are coming to a close. Many facilities, agencies and offices are moving towards electronic medical records and electronic charting. This allows for swifter documentation and allows for the patient’s medical record being able to be accessed by all and any clinicians or physicians to access the patient record at any given time. This helps with being able to read nurses notes, progress notes, and reports not only from radiology but lab reports that are pertinent to allow for better patient care and more effective treatments. As healthcare costs are rising, quality of …show more content…
care is being sacrificed causing more errors in the mainstream of it all. Healthcare systems are thus moving to the use of technology to overcome the growing problems in today’s healthcare ensuring quality and safer patient care and keeping in line with HIPPA regulations to ensure the safety of patient information with accessibility. The healthcare industry is choosing their own systems to use for the better of the organization and ensuring that all medical staff is trained in the system for accuracy in documentation and use.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act of 2009 provides monetary incentives for organizations that adopt an electronic medical record system for their organizations to help improve the quality of the healthcare system.
Healthcare organizations have begun to realize that errors are costly and have begun to move towards computerized management systems to increase and improve the quality of care a patient receives. Having a computerized management system, is not only beneficial to the patient and his care but to the organizations staff. It improves the quality of care by allowing for secured accessibility to the patient chart by all departments and clinicians working with a particular patient from multiple locations within the healthcare system which leads to quick real time reporting and results. In turn this allows for clinicians to better attend to patients and their needs for care. Electronic records are much more efficient not only to physicians but to front line clinicians, by allowing the access to previous records for review …show more content…
on patient instead of requesting a record and waiting for the records to be retrieved and delivered as they were previously. Clear communication with computerized documentation leads to fewer errors and better care, since records no longer have to left to interpretation, nor do clinicians have to track down physicians to clarify what exactly the physician is requesting. Most computerized management systems also have specific programming such as protocols the clinicians can use based on the patient’s diagnoses to assist clinicians in appropriate documentation as to not forget a specific aspect of the patient’s care. With innovations of a computerized management system, most systems have a medication administration protocol which utilizes barcode scanning to ensure the patient is the correct patient receiving the medication and that the medication being administered is the correct medication and dosage for the patient (Topol, 2013). The information entered into the patient’s medical record can be seen automatically by all clinicians involved in the care with this patient as well as physicians (Coutts, 2012). Clinicians along with physicians are able to view previous data for a patient including previous health and physicals, medications, radiology reports, and labs, helping with appropriate diagnosing and diagnostic testing that will be needed. Computer management system help clinicians become more efficient not only in documentation but with the hands on patient care by being able to care for patient more effectively and quickly. Computer management systems can also improve decision making with instilled programming that can assist with guidelines for documenting for a patient. Patient safety and quality of care have become the number one goal for healthcare organizations, the use of computerized management systems has paved the pathway to achieving this.
As healthcare organization move towards reviewing computerized management systems, it has become apparent that active nursing involvement is important in the planning, choice, and implementation of the system. Most organizations will form committees consisting of administration, physicians, and other leaders of the organization. Although these choices good, nursing, especially front line nurses, should be involved since they are the ones that will be utilizing the care management system on a daily basis as well as other frontline clinicians. Nurses are able to review a system that will work better on the floor and user friendly to the clinicians for better documentation. Nurses know what is needed on the floor for patient care, physician orders, and what is being asked of them and where they will be able to find the information quickly for physicians (Weckman & Janzen 2009). Nurses play in intricate role in the choice and implementation process for any care management system. Nurses will be at the forefront of training and ensuring that other staff are trained appropriately to use the system. As in most organizations, nursing is the staple in documentation of the care of the patient. It seems to be that as nurses and creatures of habit, that nursing plays a large part in the implementation of the system due to nurses being able to offer feedback on what works well and what will not work at all in a system based on what needs to be documented and the care the patient should receive. Thus allowing for safe and a better quality of care for the patient and in documentation. Transparency in an organization allows for decisions within an organization to be made with input from all staff members. Nurses are the experts on clinical processes within their practice, and should be consulted where computer management systems are concerned for the most effective choice process (Topol, 2013).
Most care management systems offer a point of care or handheld device that can be utilized by the staff, allowing for bedside documentation or clinicians not being tied down to a workstation. In most healthcare organizations, a nurse can utilize a computer on wheels (COW) which can be taken from room to room to assist with bedside documentation and medication distribution for each of their patients. Although in some instances, the COW is very bulky and sometimes cannot be taken to the bedside for documentation. As we move forward, handheld devices, from smartphones to tablets are being utilized for documentation not just because of size but for convenience. Most care management systems can be accessed from any web based devices allowing for access from anywhere and real time documentation that can be seen by other clinicians and physicians. Clinicians will be able to retrieve information for the care of a patient at their fingertips at bedside allowing for better quality care and more efficient documentation instead of waiting and finding a computer to document on. Physicians will be able to see assessments, or other history and physicals of the patient from previous admissions to allow for a better system of treating patients appropriately.
As with any healthcare organization, moving towards and computerized management system the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) must be considered to protect the patients since patient information becomes more vulnerable to accessibility by others. With computerized management systems, data storage as well as back-up and recovery is essential for a computerized management system. Data storage is usually off site from the organization and usually is stored for minimum of five to seven years with limited access to those who are required to view stored data. Data storage varies in type from solid state storage to cloud storage depending on cost. Most data storage is broken down into tiers from which time frames are placed for data storage from 6 months to 10 years. The most common data storage breakdown is in 3 tiers, tier 1 data is stored for up to but not limited to 6 months, tier 2 data is stored for up to 7 years, tier 3 data is stored up to 10 years, and beyond 10 years the data is the data is deleted and all items related to the information (Hardy 2010). As we are moving forward with electronic medical records most organizations will move towards cloud data storage with is 100% compliant with HIPPA regulations and encryption standards to limit external influences from retrieving the information (HIPPA Compliant Cloud Storage, 2014). Back-up and recovery systems are also needed to be implemented, within most healthcare organizations data back-up usually occurs every 24 hours to back-up data from the previous day with a weekly back up of all data. Backing up data ensures that should there be records deleted by accident, natural disaster, or power outage all the information can be retrieved without data loss hence the recovery of information this allows for a safeguard of the medical information. To keep in line with HIPPA regulations, most facilities will ensure the privacy of patient information by having policies and procedures that keep information private by locking computers when not in use, screen shields, and lock offices where patient data is stored. Each clinician in facilities, have a unique sign in and password to access patient information that is relevant to the care of the patient, as well as, an agreement between the person who has authorization to access the information and the facility that patient information will not be used for other then what it is intended for.
As healthcare moves toward computerized management systems, the question of cost begins to surface on whether it helps reduce cost or increase cost in a healthcare setting.
Even though The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act of 2009 provides monetary incentives for organizations that adopt an electronic medical record system for their organizations to help improve the quality of the healthcare system, on average, costs both increase and decrease depending on the organization (McBride, 2012). Since cost containment is important to any healthcare organization, cost are reduced in the area of productivity and better quality or care by increasing the productivity of the clinicians and the increase in patient to clinician ratio and by not having to perform unnecessary procedures, labs, and diagnostics that often time are at cost for the hospital. This will include hospital based infections and wounds that the hospital would have to pay for, but with a better quality of care these areas of concern are reduced and the healthcare organization can reduce cost. On the other hand, even though cost of care will decrease the cost will also increase in other areas for instance the maintenance of the care management system will become an added cost to the healthcare organization. Within this area the cost of maintenance, acquiring computers or handheld devices, software updates, and storage for data become an added cost and at times at a lofty price
(McBride, 2012).
As we move forward with computerized management systems, there are quite a lot of choices for an organization to consider. As the healthcare industry evolves into a computerized entity there are numerous aspects that must be considered, from cost, adaptation, implementation, and choice. Each healthcare organization will make their decisions on what systems to use that will best fit their organization. With computerized systems, there is less concern for inaccuracies with documentation, less room for interpretation with orders, and everything is right at the fingertips. Nurses become more independent with the type of care they must give their patients with almost error proof results. With fail safes written into the programming for systems there is less likely a possibility of medication errors, documentation errors, and orders being transcribed wrong. There is a less likelihood that diagnostic procedures will be duplicated due to the real time documentation this resulting in lower costs not only to the organization but to the patient as well. Many systems argue their system is the best system to utilize and some organizations have even developed their own system by hiring programmers. The system that seems to be widely chosen by any healthcare organization would be the Honeywell Integrated Information Management System (HIIMS). This system not only allows for real time documentation and user friendliness, it offers a wide array of assessments, protocols, and clinical pathways. The system is designed to ensure adequate and quality support to the clinicians and their objectives as well as best practices. HIIMS has many areas that are beneficial to any clinician, for example HIIMS offers clinical pathways for nursing that enables the nurse to follow best practice healthcare for the patient, drug references within the program, and assessments designed for specific patients based on diagnoses and co-morbidities to only name a few. It allows for physician access, as well as, other clinicians via a land computer or a portable device allowing for easy access for the clinician to document on their patients and physicians to read reports pertinent to their patients and their care with only one downfall that the system can only be accessed while in the healthcare facility. Aside from the HIIMS system, another computerized management system that can be utilized is the Kinnser Software Program. Kinnser offers clinicians almost the same benefits as the HIIMS system with computerized real-time documentation, clinical pathways, drug references, and teaching topics; however, one aspect of the use of Kinnser that is not allowed with HIIMS is being able to access Kinnser in and out of the healthcare setting from any web accessible device. The downfall with the use of Kinnser is that with the ability to access from any web device as needed, and although information is encrypted patient information become highly more vulnerable especially if the device being used to access the patient’s information is not anti-virus protected. Over all, both computerized management systems are excellent for use; however, the recommendation for a healthcare organization would be the HIIMS system for use due to the ease of use and with fail safe programming to ensure the safety of the patient. Kinnser’s system does not allow for fail safes and it is left to the discretion of the clinician that the safety of the patient is not being compromised. HIIMS would be the recommendation for any healthcare facility as their computerized management system.
Work Cited
Coutts, B., (2012) Health Care Technology Implementation Needs Nurses’ Input. NurseZone.com, Retrieved from: http://www.nursezone.com/print article.aspx? articleID=24268
Department of Health & Human Services (Version 1.1 022312) Guide to Privacy and Security of Health Information, Privacy & Security and Meaningful Use, chapter 2. Retrieved from: https://www.HealthIT.gov
Department of Health & Human Services (April 2011) Managing Data for Performance Improvement, Retrieved from: http://www.hrsa.gov/quality/toolbox/methodology/performanceimprovement/part3.html
Hardy, K., (2010) Data storage of top concern to healthcare providers. Healthcare IT News, Retrieved from: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/data-storage-top-concern-healthcare-providers
HIPPA Compliant Cloud Storage & Data Management (2014), Retrieved from: http://www.carecloud.com/hippa-compliant-cloud-storeage?
McBride, S., (August 2012) Health Information Technology and Nursing. American Journal of Nursing (AJN), Vol. 112, No 8
Topol, E., (2013) How Technology is Transforming Health Care. US News, Retrieved from: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/hospital-of-tomorrow/articles/2013/07/12/
Weckman, H., Janzen, S., (May 31, 2009) “The Critical Nature of Early Nursing Involvement for Introducing New Technologies” OJIN The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Vol. 14, No.2, Manuscript 2.