How does lack of information technology affect quality of Healthcare?
Abstract
As per Institute of Medicine, “healthcare quality” is defined as the extent to which health services provided to individuals and patient populations improve desired health outcomes. The quality of care which is offered by the US Health Care lags much behind its competitors at the international level, on all measurable parameters. One such field is the failure to use proper Information Technology to support the quality of care. Despite the huge amount of money being spent on healthcare by the US government, the quality of care that is delivered is poor. Several loop holes exist in making proper utilization of information technology in health care which are discussed below. There could be changes made in each aspect of quality of care to overcome such defects and make health care more accessible, affordable and convenient for everyone. For example, electronic medical records (EMR/EHR) are one of the basics in Health Information Technology. Their advantages have been highlighted in this paper. Though the nation spends a huge chunk of its GDP on healthcare, it is still not able to successfully implement the EMRs throughout the nation, in the health care system. Implementing these records in the system will affect the quality of health care delivery enormously. This paper attempts to explain few methods to implement this system for improving health care systems. Overall this entire article speaks about how the lack of information technology affects different sectors in quality of care, existing strategies in market and the goals to improve the health care.
Introduction Institute of Medicine 's Committee on Quality Health Care in America states “Information technology must play a central role in the redesign of the health care system if a substantial improvement in quality
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