Contribution of Information Technology to Health Care Performance

Contribution of Information Technology to HealthCare Performance

The 2001 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on crossing the quality chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century identified the key dimensions of healthcare performance that require an improvement. There is a major role played by the health Information technology in healthcare quality. Health Information Technology entails the use of information processing involving both the computer hardware and software in the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making (Brailer & Thompson, 2004). The essay describes how health Information Technology can contribute to improved performance in the key dimensions described by the IOM.

IT contributes to the improvement of performance in ensuring that healthcare is safe by the avoidance of patient injuries. The use of IT and electronic documentation improves the capture and quality of healthcare data that leads to safer and reliable systems. The existing data from the administrative, laboratory, clinical registry and electronic health record systems provide important information to improve safety and quality. The practice helps to reduce patient injuries due to availability of accurate data about the patient condition and how adverse events like injuries occur (Berretoni, Bochantin, et al., 2011)

IT contributes to improved performance by ensuring that health care is effective based on the scientific knowledge. It helps to provide services to all who benefit as well as avoiding underuse or overuse of services. The use of IT in care delivery ensures that the health care facilities have a record of all the patients in the Electronic Health Record systems. The systems provide support and resources to the care provider about the health issue under focus based on scientific knowledge (Zeng, Reynolds & Sharp, 2016). Hence, the incorporation of the patient data and the existing data in the system ensures that the provider is effective in the delivery of the care services.

The use of IT also ensures that health care is patient-centered. The mandate ensures that the patient receives care that is respectful of and responsive to the specific patient preferences, needs, and values and ensures that patient values guide the clinical decisions. The use of Health Informatics by the advanced technology provides a mechanism for the patients to provide the clinician with critical information. The clinicians use the information systems to coordinate care and share it with other clinicians to enhance the provision of patient-Centered care. The major contribution of IT to ensuring patient-Centered care is to provide a means for the patient to provide the information about themselves as well as their functioning and well-being. The practice assists in designing patient-Centered applications to improve care delivery (Snyder, Wu, Miller, Jensen, Bantug & Wolff, 2011).

The application of Information Technology systems in health care is effective in enhancing timeliness in care delivery. The practice involves the reduction of the waiting period, and harmful delays for the patients receiving care. Electronic documentation tools provide many features designed to enhance quality, the utility of documentation, and enhancing communication between the care providers. The common electronic tool is the EHR systems that capture such data and allow timely retrieval is thereby reducing bottlenecks, waiting period, bills processing, and decision-making about the patient health needs. The ultimate benefit is improved efficiency and performance.

IT systems ensure that healthcare is efficient that contributes to improved performance. The dimension calls for reduced wastage, which includes the use of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy. Health Information Technology is a key element in streamlining the process of providing care to improve efficiency. It leads to the use of the more cost-effective health care system. The use of information technologies in health care like robotics surgery and the chronic disease home monitoring devices are among the major contributors to efficiency (Zeng, Reynolds & Sharp, 2009). The use of HIT for the management of information ensures that it is available to the right patient and at the appropriate time and place hence reducing wastage.

Information Systems ensure that healthcare is equitable. It means that healthcare should not vary in quality due to the personal characteristics of the patient like gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and the socioeconomic status. The use of Electronic Health Record Systems in health care delivery is a major step towards the goal of making healthcare universally available to the public. Every patient can gain access to the care services wherever they are since their data is captured in the EHR systems accessible from all the care subscribed care providing facilities (Snyder, Wu, Miller, et al., 2011). The practice improves trough performance equality regardless of the patient characteristics. The capturing of patient data in the systems ensures equality since the systems do not consider the patient characteristics in processing their health records.

Conclusion

The incorporation of the Health Information Technology in Healthcare has several associated benefits as identified in the Institute of Medicine report. The improvement of the dimensions of healthcare performance requires the efficient adoption of the information systems. The use of IT in healthcare delivery contributes to increased safety, effectiveness, patient-centered care, timeliness, efficiency, and equitable care. Thus, the healthcare sector administrators and policy makers have a mandate of ensuring that the healthcare facilities actively engage in the adoption of health Information Technology in the critical processes.

References

Berretoni, A., Bochantin, F., Brown, T., Busch, R., Chapman, J., Cobia, T.,... & Hugo, K. (2011). HIM functions in healthcare quality and patient safety: Journal of AHIMA/American Health Information Management Association, 82(8), 42.

Brailer, D. and T. Thompson (2004) Health IT Strategic Framework, Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services

Snyder, C. F., Wu, A. W., Miller, R. S., Jensen, R. E., Bantug, E. T., & Wolff, A. C. (2011). The Role of Informatics in promoting patient-centered care: Cancer Journal (Sudbury, Mass.), 17(4), 211–218. http://doi.org/10.1097/PPO.0b013e318225ff89

Zeng X., Reynolds R., & Sharp M. (2016) Redefining the Roles of Health Information Management Professionals in Health Information Technology: Online Research Journal of Perspectives in Health Information Management

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in best custom essay site if you need a similar paper you can place your order for a custom research paper from non plagiarized research papers

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