In the Healthcare information technology field, you can be utilized in many various facets. As a
licensed professional your expertise and knowledge do not change but the way you communicate
to other professionals and document your work does. “Healthcare information technology involves
the exchange of health-related data via electronic systems. The use of information technology has
been proven to offer numerous benefits, including improved medical care, reduced medical errors,
lower health care costs, and more affordable health care overall” (CCHIT.org). e Working in the field
of mental health, substance abuse, and developmental delay, and having co-morbid health
conditions the way you assess the patient and document has varied greatly. e In the hospital and
provider office setting, you are more hands-on, writing in a chart, but also in putting the things
written down into the EHR. e Working in the community as a nurse case manager, there is less
physical assessment and more listening and observing, and mostly everything is electronic, and
radio button assessments. Being nurse care managers with insurance companies, we are assessing
telephonically. Which makes nursing even harder, and you are utilizing various HER to pull data
from to be able to gain a complete picture of the patient. While utilizing these various programs
you often must cross-referenced data to make sure things are accurate. Many systems are very
complex and are not intuitive as one may think. Others can be very streamlined, and pull data
from other EHR’s seamlessly. e It’s hard for one to be open to the use of other EHR when using a
particular one for so long. e The progress that has been made in health care technology is amazing
and beneficial in so many ways. It has made the management of information easier, more
organized, trackable, and more engaging. The online portals are available to view your own
personal information, without the hassle of going through your provider’s office. e “Health Affairs
(healthaffairs.org) reports that clinical errors in the health industry are responsible for an
estimated 44,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, including processing errors that result in the failure
of providing patients with the treatments their doctors recommend. Thanks to technology systems,
including electronic health records and computerized orders for physician-recommended
treatments, the quality of care that patients receive can be significantly improved. The use of
information technology systems allows for easier access to explicit care guidelines, which prevents
processing errors and thus, improves the quality of care” (CCHHIT.org).
One of the main reasons why I chose nursing as my career path was due to the many career
opportunities having a nursing degree could lead to. Having transitioned from a hospital-based
setting to an ambulatory setting, the immediate change I noticed was in the documentation
system through the electronic medical record (EMR). Some of the roles of a floor nurse include in
person assessments, passing medications and placing IVs, among other things. The role of an
ambulatory nurse however is much different. Most ambulatory nurses triage calls which require us
to assess the patient over the phone and determine the most appropriate course of action to take.
Do we provide home care measures or have them evaluated? If the patient needs evaluation we
must determine how quickly and where the evaluation needs to take place (emergency room,
office visit or urgent care). The changes in these two nursing settings alone require two different
documentation and access needs. An ambulatory nurse will not require access to the medication
dispensing system nor will they need the in-person documentation flowsheet. Alternatively, the
floor nurse won’t need access to the triage protocols an ambulatory nurse requires to perform
their daily duties. Understanding the variety of roles and functions each team member plays within
the healthcare system will greatly affect the access they require within a patient’s chart.
Being knowledgeable on the different roles and functions team members hold is crucial when
managing health information. For healthcare systems to continue to provide quality healthcare
they must seek qualified and credentialed persons to manage health information using technology.
To do this, healthcare systems require health information managers. “Health information
managers are considered specialists in handling patient health information and medical records,
administering computer information systems, and coding diagnoses and procedures for health care
services to patients” (Bowie, 2019, pg. 45). In other words, health information managers truly
understand the complexities of healthcare settings across departments and weaves together the
clinical, operational, and administrative factors. This understanding helps to ensure an
organization’s health data will be managed efficiently and with quality care. But I want to exercise
a note of caution here. The flow of in information is for the efficiency purposes so that we will
have more time to address the needs of the patient. We must be careful not create a seven-story
mountain of “process” shining in all its dubious unimportance. It reminds me of story my father
once told me. God and the Devil are walking down the street and they come upon a shiny coin and
God picks it up and says, “Ah, Truth” and the Devil says, “Here give it to me, let me organize it.” e
We must never forget our patients needs take the lead in all we do.
References
Bowie, M.J. (2019). Essentials of health information management principles & practices (4th
edition). Cengage Learning, Inc.
https://www.cchit.org/the-importance-of-healthcare-information-technology
