week 15 course reflexion Community Nurse

Student’s Namen Zoraida Seoane

Institution Florida National University

Health information technology

Health Information Technology (HIT) refers to the use of processing information that involves the hardware and software of a computer that mainly deals with sharing, retrieval, storage, health care knowledge use, data, and information for decision making and communication (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). HIT includes technologies spanning from simple projecting to innovative integration and support of decision with the medical technology. HIT presents various opportunities for changing and refining healthcare, such as improving practice efficiencies and clinical outcomes and care coordination facilitation. The use of HIT has positive effects on the safety of the patient.

In clinical practice, health information technology is applied in numerous ways. For instance, it is used in telemedicine, which refers to the use of telecommunication technologies to facilitate the communication of patients and health practitioners. This communication may either be synchronous or asynchronous, involving two-way video communication or transmitting the clinical information of the patient (Braithwaite, 2018). Also, the technologies under telemedicine may be used in providing health information collected remotely from the medical devices. The data is then used to monitor, change, or track the behaviors of various patients. Also, the technologies can be used in remote monitoring of patients, which improves their outcomes for different chronic conditions such as hypertension and heart failure. Some systems, such as patient data management systems, are designed to automatically retrieve data from medical equipment such as ventilator and patient monitor. The systems are efficient in reducing the occurrence of errors, therefore increasing the time spent by providers on direct care to patients.

Health information technology is used in allowing health practitioners to report incidents electronically through the designed systems. The systems are usually web-based and enable the practitioners to voluntarily report incidents in case they are involved in safety events. The systems are integrated with the electronic health record, which allows data abstraction and automatic detection of adverse events (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). The electronic incident systems have numerous advantages, such as improving clinical processes, standardization of the reporting structure, and rapid identification of trigger events and solemn events. Moreover, information technology is used by practitioners in providing patient portal. This secure online application is essential in providing patients with access to personal health information and communication with the health providers while using a mobile device or a computer (Braithwaite, 2018). The online electronic portals play a vital role in improving the outcomes of disease awareness and preventive care and self-management.

Barriers to the adoption of HIT

Although the use and adoption of information technology in the field of healthcare have numerous advantages, it faces various challenges that hinder practitioners and patients from adopting it fully. For many patients, training is required together with caregivers. The training is necessary for the efficient use of different devices. In many cases, caregivers are not well equipped to troubleshoot or check the problems that arise from insufficient of poor infrastructure such as a wireless network of the remote patient monitoring interface to the given network. Also, patients may lack the willingness to take part in making the participation active. This hinders the development of programs like telehealth due to issues in the collection and handling of sensitive information (Eden et al., 2016). Moreover, for clinicians they fear that the new technology may be a burden by increasing the burdens of documentation. Also, the technology may increase the pressure of learning the art technologies state, making the collaboration difficult toward the adoption of these technologies. The practitioners may also fear the fact that data is unrealistic. This is due to information being transmitted by the various systems being noisy or incomplete due to the issues related to network and other devices in patients’ homes.

Health information technology devices may be too expensive and therefore require a considerable investment of money. As a result, many health care centers may not afford to adapt to new technologies. Also, some applications found in various digital devices, such as the electronic health records, may not be standardized, which in turn lowers the implementation leading to disturbance in workflow and reduction in practice productivity (Ajami & Arab-Chadegani, 2013). The use of technology is also believed to benefit payers and society mostly, while health practitioners benefit less. As a result, the caregivers may build a negative attitude towards the technologies, leading to a slow or lack of adoption. Moreover, information technology may become a threat and barrier between caregivers and patients. For instance, the introduction of electronic health records hinders physicians from owning the medical records of patients (Ajami & Arab-Chadegani, 2013). Instead, patients are allowed to own their own health records and access them freely. The patients’ portals are, in most cases, unfriendly to the users, creating a barrier between the patients and the health practitioners.

In conclusion, the HIT prays an essential role in improving the safety of patients by reducing adverse drug reactions, medication errors, and improvement of compliance with the practice guidelines. The tool is vital in enhancing the quality and safety of healthcare. However, healthcare organizations should be selective on the type of technology to invest in, since some of the technologies lacks evidence in the improvement of outcomes of patient’s safety.

References

Ajami, S., & Arab-Chadegani, R. (2013). Barriers to implementing Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Material socio-medica, 25(3), 213–215. https://doi.org/10.5455/msm.2013.25.213-215