Final Project Submission

Jessica Seifert

Rasmussen College

September 6, 2017

Health Information Technology in Home Health

Information technology is critical to home health care. The in-home health care services based on the internet of things can resolve challenges presented by the aging population. Key elements get identified as information system integration architecture, business model, and device and service integration design. In the new development and integration of informatics in health care, different distributed devices get used to gather, analyze, and communicate real-time information to private, open, or hybrid clouds. As a result, it has been possible to collect, store, and analyze big data streams in several new forms. The integration of information technology in home health has provided the opportunity to a continuous and ubiquitous access to medical data from any connected devices over the internet. Furthermore, health care organizations have been able to transform themselves into more efficient, coordinated, and user-centered systems. However, necessary hardware and software support gets required for the support of individual elements in the internet of things. In this paper, we discuss the opportunities, risks, and challenges of the integration of information technology in home health. Furthermore, specific details get provided on the various dimensions of information management in health information technology.

Information Management

The implementation of successful healthcare ecosystems requires the collaboration of between corresponding stakeholders such as application domain experts, software and hardware designers and developers, and road mapping strategists among others. Substantial investments have gotten made in the adoption of the electronic health record systems (EHR). From this, physicians have gained the ability to secure message their patients. Identically, patients have been able to download, transmit, or view their health records online. Despite the above developments, necessary policies get required for the proper management of health information technology (McCullough, Parente & Town, 2016, 221). Complex and sophisticated methods are not necessary. Simple tools are more manageable for effective data management on both the part of a patient and a physician, usability and interface design elements have to get taken into consideration. Other issues that need to get considered include:

• The ability of technology to reduce face to face visits

• Effect of technology on the daily routine of patients’ lives

• Affordability

• Effect of technology on the self-concept and potential stigma of a particular technology in the home setting

• Whether a technology has the potential to sustain positive behavior

Technology has the potential benefit to create vital links that facilitate communication, collaboration, and improved coordination between patients and teams of caregivers (Lee et al. 2016, 268). The management of HIT requires the continuous quality improvement approaches to address unsafe health IT. Furthermore, risks should be monitored to identify potential hazardous concerns before they harm patients. According to Singh & Sittig (2016, 230), information management can only be achieved through shared stakeholder involvement, shared responsibility, and the refinement of measurement tools and strategies. A way to accomplish an efficient management of information about health information technology, a recommendation gets provided on the integration of HIT safety with existing clinical risk and safety management programs of a healthcare organization.

Challenges

There are various problems presented by health information technology. First, problems get encountered with installing HIT systems in a physician’s office. In addition to this, HIT has the potential to cause new errors than reducing them. Given HIT is the growing importance of wireless networking. Unfortunately, it has proved to be quite a challenge to transform older facilities to support wireless access. An increasing flood of data in healthcare since the development of HIT has led to the challenges of secure storage and management. On the other hand, the current storage infrastructure as provided by the HITECH Act and Data Retention Laws threaten to exceed the existing storage capacity (Jha et al. 2014). On the other hand, hospitals with a share portion of sick patients lag behind in the implementation of EHR systems.

The integration of IT in home health has led to the active participation of data analytics in the management of diseases. Furthermore, data analytics can also serve in the quality of care improvement efforts. Unfortunately, the integration of a data analysis system has proved to be quite expensive and a massive undertaking. Another challenge gets professed with wireless networking that has made it difficult to adopt telemedicine. Arguably, obstacles get presented with the varying state policies on the utilization and reimbursement of telemedicine. HIPAA compliance, on the other hand, has imposed strict fines and repercussions for data breaches of personal information. Health care organizations are required to implement stringent procedures for backing up data and the recovery of data from emergencies. Consequently, high standards that are challenging to achieve have gotten set for encryption technology.

Risks

Even though various benefits and opportunities have gotten realized since the unprecedented development of HIT, various risks exist in relation the technology adoption. As mentioned above, health information technology systems utilize the cloud for the coordination of data. However, challenges get presented in issues that concern data encryption, HIPAA compliance, ownership, and overall security. Failure in the IT systems can lead to patient-data mismatches in the electronic health records (Asan & Carayon, 2017, 256).There is also the risk of interoperability failures in medical devices and IT systems. If designed and applied inappropriately, HIT has the potential for loss of data, dosing errors, and the have-nots human-computer interactions that can lead to delayed illness. Malware and virus threats pose risks to information security.

There has been a history of hackers attempting to access private information of patients in electronic health care information. Even though medical organizations have taken the initiative to implement anti-hacking security measures, some hackers seem to find a way to break into the security codes. Human errors made during data entry pose the risk of providing incorrect information and medication to a patient. Notably, HIT requires human-computer interaction. In cases of human errors, it becomes a bit challenging to correct the incorrectly put information. Identity theft is another risk of health information technology, in particular for both paper and electronic files.

Opportunities

Health information and communication technology can achieve efficiencies in enhancing distributed health care systems with the capabilities to fulfill the diverse demands of home health. With the newly available information technology options, a cooperative Health IoT system gets formulated that can integrate stakeholders in a collective health cloud. Furthermore, in-home health care station (IHHS) can get extended to patients home. The design principles of the IHHS included the certification of the health extension, convenient and trusted software extension, reuse of 3C platform, efficient service composition and data fusion, and interoperability and extensibility. Information technology can support disease management for home-care patients that are diagnosed with chronic conditions especially the elderly (Town et al. 2016, 215). Internet utilization provides patients with access to continuous individualized help to the daily routine of disease management, self-care, and alerts health care if specific conditions arise.

In such a telemonitoring system, a patient or an informal care giver gets tasked with the operation, and it usually involves web-based questionnaires. Examples of such technologies are technology-based diabetes management applications, home asthma telemonitoring system, and web-based systems for COPD and congestive heart failure. Health technologies provide the opportunity to foster the community-based independence for individuals in the health care system. IT has the potential to improve the quality of home health care delivery. Home health delivery can be made possible using physiological monitoring to capture vital signs of patients in remote areas. Furthermore, monitoring patient function and detection of emergencies are made possible with the use of active and passive systems. Next, IT in home health facilitates safety and security using detection systems. Human-centered designs should be established to improve the care processes and outcomes.

Health Information Technology in Home Health

There are various challenges faced by home health care such as clinical workforce distribution and large geographical distances especially for the rural patient that pose barriers to home health services. Information technology can, however, address the above challenges and enhance home health services. The integration of IT in home health has the substantial benefit of increasing patient empowerment whereby patients take an activist role in their health. As a result, patients can get involved in decision-making processes. On the other hand, IT integration in home health leads to the involvement of patients in the management of their diseases through the use of home monitoring devices and software, use of personal medical records maintained by patients and the access to information through online communities (Lee et al. 2016, 272). There are some ways in which the management of informatics can get introduced in home health.

First, there is active monitoring and management that requires the end-user involvement and participation such as telehealth applications, personal health records, and web-based communities for home care patients. Secondly, there is passive monitoring and management that require robotic applications and smart homes. Health information technology has the potential to change the healthcare delivery. Furthermore, the relationship between patients and physicians has improved with the new coordination between different stakeholders. Cost-control has to get achieved with the integration of HIT and the clinical quality of work.

Overall, the unprecedented development of health information technology has led to improved outcomes in the health care system. The aging population is more inclined to prefer home health whereby they can be in the company of their families as they receive treatment. The implementation of HIT provides significant benefits to home health delivery such as improved performance, improved communication, collaboration, and coordination between patients and physicians, improved decision-making capacity on the part of patients, and quality care because of improved healthcare delivery. Improved safety and monitoring or patients have also been made possible by the integration of IT. However, HIT also poses some risks and challenges to the healthcare system. Security issues are the primary concern especially with the increased attacks from hackers who possess malware and virus threats. Barriers also get presented in the adoption of IT and the elimination of human errors.

Reference

Asan, O., & Carayon, P. (2017). Human Factors of Health Information Technology—Challenges and Opportunities. Taylor and Francis Online, 33(4), 255-257.

DesRoches, C. M., Painter, M. W., & Jha, A. K. (2014). Health Information Technology in the United States: Progress and Challenges Ahead, 2014 (Executive Summary) (No. f95ed120718f4601ab79f9067bd96d5e). Mathematica Policy Research.

Landers, S., Madigan, E., Leff, B., Rosati, R. J., McCann, B. A., Hornbake, R., & Lee, T. (2016). The Future of Home Health Care: A Strategic Framework for Optimizing Value. Home health care management & Practice, 28(4), 262-278.

McCullough, J. S., Parente, S. T., & Town, R. (2016). Health information technology and patient outcomes: the role of information and labor coordination. The RAND Journal of Economics, 47(1), 207-236.

Singh, H., & Sittig, D. F. (2016). Measuring and improving patient safety through health information technology: The Health IT Safety Framework. BMJ Qual Saf, 25(4), 226-232.