HEALTH INFORMATION SERVICES

Effectiveness of Health Care IT Systems

Information technology has transformed almost all the sectors, and health care is a sector where technology has worked to improve efficiency and productivity. The quality of services offered to patients and the ease of storing and retrieving patient information. Information technology has further enhanced the security of information with data encryption. Despite these huge benefits of IT in technology, officers within the health system have a huge role in ensuring that healthcare IT system is efficient.

Question 1

The chief information officer and the chief technology officer are two roles that are related but important within the healthcare setting. The CIO is responsible for developing and advancing technology use in healthcare facilities. The CIO has to involve all health officers with the use of IT systems to improve the quality of services. CIOs work by identifying critical areas and creating roles for healthcare personnel. The CTO on the other monitors the development of technologies in the market and identify those that can be useful in health care (Sultz & Young, 2013). The person in charge is more knowledgeable on technology issues as they evaluate and determine technologies that can better healthcare provision. Together with the CIO, the CTO can help in the evaluation of technologies to determine if they will offer value for investment before advising the management on the right path to pursue.

The CIO and CTO have expert knowledge of IT infrastructure and are therefore better placed in helping staff in enhancing patient satisfaction. The two identify training needs for all the staff that ensure that the staff understands how to use IT systems. They can additionally provide real-time help to clients using the web portal of the hospital (Kellermann & Jones, 2013). They can additionally come up with real-time phone calls whenever staff and patients need help. The main role in which the two is to improve communication with the staff so that IT infrastructure can be fully utilized.

Question 2

Several technologies have come up with the goal of lowering costs and improving the quality of health services. The main technology mHealth has transformed health care by allowing people to access health services through remote devices. The power of this technology is on access to health information through smartphones and tablets. Physicians can be able to access patient’s health information and offer expert advice to the patient (Boudreaux et al., 2014). The interconnection provided by mHealth promotes the participation of patients towards their treatment. The interconnection to different databases has allowed patients to monitor things like blood pressure remotely without visiting the hospitals. It is through this technology that healthcare quality is continuously improving while eliminating unnecessary costs. The last few years has seen the number of people with smartphones surging globally. The figures have seen mHealth technology advanced to allow more people to access health information (Boudreaux et al., 2014). The technology provides a guide in which people can check the signs they possess with possible diseases. Conducting health checkup is now possible with most hospitals coming up with units that exclusively serve remote patients. The technology has gathered information from almost every citizen which can be shared upon approval whenever a person visits a doctor (McGinnis et al., 2013). It has reduced health cost and increased access to health care thus achieving the main goal of equality in healthcare. The technology has proved to be efficient during epidemics as it allows experts and government agencies to provide information to citizens on how to avoid diseases. They additionally provide symptoms which can help patients to seek immediate medication to save their lives.

Wearable technology has impacted healthcare by improving diagnosis and monitoring terminal diseases. Companies such as Apple have come up with different wearable devices that monitor health and send signals to hospitals. The same devices can notify a person on important health issues that need to be checked by a physician. Third parties are involved in monitoring a person’s health and even though this has been cited to contravene privacy rights, its ability to allow doctors to detect abnormal health condition immediately is laudable (Kvedar, Coye & Everett, 2014). Wearable devices have helped terminally ill patients to improve the quality of their lives. These devices monitor signs that could be fatal if not immediately addressed (Fernández-Alemán et al., 2013). Remote monitoring of these patients helps doctors to recommend hospital visits before the situations worsen. Deaths from such diseases have been minimized with cost also coming down. It is now affordable for many patients to receive quality health services without the need to visit hospitals. Quality and costs are two things in which the technology has helped to improve for both the patient and hospitals.

Question 3

The main challenge of using IT systems in healthcare is data security and privacy. It is the role of the IT department to safeguard patient data. According to HIPAA, any institution that use IT systems to engage customers must provide adequate security for data. A such, hospitals must put in place administrative, physical and technical measures that guarantee data security. The following methods can be used to safeguard health information and guarantee data security and privacy.

· Access controls such as the use of passwords and PINS should be put in place to limit users having access to information.

· Information stored in IT systems should be encrypted. Data encryption prevents unauthorized persons from reading information that is exchanged between different units.

· The regular audit trail should be conducted to provide information about individuals who accessed information. The method will ensure that there is a good use of IT systems since misuse can be easily detected.

The presence of access controls with the health facility provides an administrative and technical solution to data safety. Access controls allow access to user profiles through password and PIN use (Fernández-Alemán et al., 2013). The hospital should establish a standard for access control such as a regular change of passwords. An access control policy should be put in place to ensure that employees do not share passwords with colleagues (Sadeghi, Wachsmann & Waidner, 2015). Data encryption can further enhance the security by preventing hackers from obtaining the information from servers and IT systems. Data backup should also be put in place to facilitate easy retrieval of health information in the event of system failure.

Question 4

Health organizations use training as a method of teaching its workers on how to use different technologies. Depending on the organizational structure, appropriate teaching strategy must be put in place to support the same. Three methods are available that are best suited for health organizations.

Process based training

The method focuses on overall training on the use of health systems. Employees are made to go through various processes gaining experience and knowledge in different areas.

Role-based training

The method is functional where each employee receives training based on their areas of specialization. Employees specialize such that a pharmacist will receive training on how to use technology to locate drugs and bill customers accordingly.

Mock clinic training

The method is integrated and continuous such that employees go through mock sessions to a point where they attain competency. Mock testing focuses on specific areas of need and change from time to time.

Based on the three training methods, role-based training is appropriate as it equips staff will develop relevant skills in using IT systems. It additionally enhances competency which can spill to improve the quality of services (Sultz & Young, 2013). The training allows employees to be attentive so that they can effectively execute their duties. The training is further tailored to meet specific needs thus creating synergy in the use of technology.

Question 5

IT is crucial for efficiency, enhancing reliability and promoting trust and confidentiality. As such, an organization must have a plan to align IT together with other strategic initiatives. Best practices must be in place to ensure that strategic planning initiative is fully realized.

Providing a reliable and safe environment

A safe and reliable IT environment is required to facilitate easy transmission and sharing of information. The environment IT infrastructure should guarantee data security such that it establishes confidence among the users. A safe environment should put in place access controls such as securing the building through CCTV surveillance, hiring security guards, use of passwords and encrypting all the information used in the organization (Loeppke et al., 2015). The technical, physical and administrative controls is a practice that can help the organization align its IT strategies.

Improving quality, availability, and delivery

Information is crucial in health organizations and as such, the information should be readily available, quality and can easily be transferred to end users. The health organization must ensure that there is efficient infrastructure that can facilitate communication with other healthcare partners. In most cases, insurance companies would demand evidence of patients being treated, and the hospital should readily disseminate such information (Loeppke et al., 2015). By focusing on the three issues, the organization will adopt best practices that will go a long way in building trust and loyalty with other stakeholders. The infrastructure should accommodate other technologies such as the internet to help in sharing knowledge and information that could improve and promote a healthy society.

Implementing approaches that promote innovation and collaboration

Technology changes and as such, the organization must put in place infrastructure that accommodates change. Innovation is key in healthcare, and implementation of approaches that promote innovation should be the guiding principle in aligning IT strategies. Regarding collaboration, the IT system should link up and share information with other systems within the organization (Loeppke et al., 2015). The financial and billing system is crucial for a health facility and an approach that could collaborate both technologies should be fostered at the organization. Through collaboration, activities within the organization can be simplified by creating a unified infrastructure that focuses on enhancing quality and reducing costs.

In concluding, IT, systems are crucial for health facilitates in regulating information storage, retrieval, and use. It would be challenging for health practitioners to perform their tasks without technology. The past decade has seen a revolution of technology in healthcare, something that has promoted quality access to health services at an affordable cost.

References

Boudreaux, E. D., Waring, M. E., Hayes, R. B., Sadasivam, R. S., Mullen, S., & Pagoto, S. (2014). Evaluating and selecting mobile health apps: strategies for healthcare providers and healthcare organizations. Translational behavioral medicine, 4(4), 363-371.

Fernández-Alemán, J. L., Señor, I. C., Lozoya, P. Á. O., & Toval, A. (2013). Security and privacy in electronic health records: A systematic literature review. Journal of biomedical informatics, 46(3), 541-562.

Kellermann, A. L., & Jones, S. S. (2013). What it will take to achieve the as-yet-unfulfilled promises of health information technology. Health affairs, 32(1), 63-68.

Kvedar, J., Coye, M. J., & Everett, W. (2014). Connected health: a review of technologies and strategies to improve patient care with telemedicine and telehealth. Health Affairs, 33(2), 194-199.

Loeppke, R. R., Hohn, T., Baase, C., Bunn, W. B., Burton, W. N., Eisenberg, B. S., ... & Hymel, P. A. (2015). Integrating health and safety in the workplace: how closely aligning health and safety strategies can yield measurable benefits. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 57(5), 585-597.

McGinnis, J. M., Stuckhardt, L., Saunders, R., & Smith, M. (Eds.). (2013). Best care at lower cost: the path to continuously learning health care in America. National Academies Press.

Sadeghi, A. R., Wachsmann, C., & Waidner, M. (2015, June). Security and privacy challenges in industrial internet of things. In Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2015 52nd ACM/EDAC/IEEE (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Sultz, A.H., & Young, M.K. (2013). Health care USA: Understanding its organization and delivery. (8th Ed.). Burlington, M.A. Jones & Bartlett Learning.