Unit One 2 Responses

Question: In health care, what are the pros and cons of collaborating with other health care departments both internal and external when separated by physical barriers (e.g., floors, buildings, geography, and training professional differences)?

Response:

Pros: Collaboration between departments lends to improved quality of care for patients. By sharing important information, care is streamlined and the proper care ensured. The government-mandate that all medical records be in electronic format provides easier access to patient information by caregivers and saves time for the patient repeating their story over and over again. It minimizes previous events or previously performed tests being forgotten.

Many facilities provide or have doctor’s offices in or near the facility. Larger organizations often offer highly specialize subspecialties. Caregivers can access the medical records easily and not worry about delay from carrier mail or hand delivery by the patient or family. In some aspects, this provides greater protection under HIPAA regulations.

Cons: Many of the cons are the same or similar to the pros of collaboration. Electronic medical records also makes information available that is not necessarily needed for the particular care of the patient by a specialist. Data is only as good at the data entered, in other words, incorrectly entered data may affect care of a patient – the garbage in, garbage out adage.

When a patient needs a specialist, the specialty may not be readily available in the area they live. This requires travel, sometimes at considerable distance. Then there is the expense of lodging and meals. And of course, the major inconvenience of possibly not sleeping in one’s own bed at night. Very few facilities offer comfortable hide-a-beds and hotels get expensive real fast.

Hackers are always trying to break into what is considered the unbreakable. The number trying to hack medical records for malicious purposes remains small. Attempting to access celebrity’s medical records is the primary target. Employees accessing medical records that they should not be in can be and are terminated.

Substantial & Credible Response needed for the above. This Must be Plagiarism Free or Less than 10% Originality. All References & Citing where or when needed. I will pay $5.00 for this Response.