The Impact of Health Information Technology on Patient Safety Essay

Post a brief description of general healthcare technology trends, particularly related to data/information you have observed in use in your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Describe any potential challenges or risks that may be inherent in the technologies associated with these trends you described. Then, describe at least one potential benefit and one potential risk associated with data safety, legislation, and patient care for the technologies you described. Next, explain which healthcare technology trends you believe are most promising for impacting healthcare technology in nursing practice and explain why. Describe whether this promise will contribute to improvements in patient care outcomes, efficiencies, or data management. Be specific and provide examples.

Healthcare Information Technology Trends

The use of Voalte phones is the healthcare information technology that is evident in my organization. The implementation of this technology application in the organization has enabled healthcare providers to use their phones to perform various activities, including receiving secured messages, receive and make direct calls, respond to the call lights of the patients; and receive alarms instantly in case of emergency. The Impact of Health Information Technology on Patient Safety Essay.  According to Hansen et al. (2018), this technology enhances workflows and permits practitioners to respond to patients’ needs faster. Additionally, the application has reduced environmental noise significantly, thus creating a conducive hospital atmosphere for both the staff and the patients.

Nonetheless, the use of Voalte technology in the healthcare organization is faced with a connectivity challenge. Sometimes practitioners are unable to send or receive messages or make calls using their phones due to various factors, including limited network, dropping calls, and interrupted calls. Consequently, communication between care providers is interrupted significantly. For example, a network issue hindered the delivery of a message about a critically-ill patient who needs immediate medical attention. Delay in the delivery of care was putting the life of this particular patient at a risk. Another challenge involves the lack of the required knowledge and skills by some staff members, which limits the use of this application. According to Alotaibi and Federico (2017), medical practitioners should be trained upon the introduction of new technology in the organization.

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Nursing practices will be impacted significantly by the introduction of telemedicine. This technology will facilitate care provision of care service to the patients remotely, thus improving the health status of patients especially those with chronic conditions (Serper & Volk, 2018). With telehealth, the distance will no longer hinder individuals from accessing care services, thus improving efficiency and patient care (Dinesen et al., 2016). For instance, telehealth will allow a person with a history of diabetes to adhere to prescribed management, thus improving glycemic control. The Impact of Health Information Technology on Patient Safety Essay.

References

Alotaibi Y & Federico F. (2017. The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi Med J, 38(12):1173–1180.

Dinesen B, Nonnecke B, David L, Toft E, Kamal J et al. (2016). Personalized Telehealth in the Future: A Global Research Agenda. J Med Internet Res,18(3), e53.

Hansen J, Lazow M & Hagedorn P. (2018). Reducing Interdisciplinary Communication Failures Through Secure Text Messaging: A Quality Improvement Project. Pediatr Qual Saf, 3(1), e053.

Serper M & Volk M. (2018). Current and Future Applications of Telemedicine to Optimize the Delivery of Care in Chronic Liver Disease. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol, 16(2), 157–161.e8.  The Impact of Health Information Technology on Patient Safety Essay.