Health Care Information Technology Changes in health information technology

Healthcare and Information Technology

Information Technology (IT) can be briefly defined as "the branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers and telecommunications to retrieve and store and transmit information." (Word Net, 2011). IT has evolved and still is evolving the way organizations communicate and carry on with their businesses. The office setting in the contemporary society is fully dependent on the advancement of technology for an up-to-date setting and functionality. More and more organizations integrate the IT ideologies into their office development and furniture purchase. Before any organization sets up an office or buys furniture, they first consider the IT provisions that they will need like the computers, fans, phone links, projectors, faxes, shredders, air conditioners and so on. This is a trend that is fast catching up with the medical industry and more than before, there is need for implementing information technology in hospitals to help the nurses carry out their activities.

Need for better health has facilitated greater awareness of health-related problems hence high expectation about performance of healthcare to the citizens. The main focus has been to maintain high quality healthcare services and the only way to achieve this is by introducing more information technology within our health care systems especially in line with reducing the number of hours that the nurses have to stay in a shift.

Health care Information Technology provides various opportunities that can be used to improve health care delivery system. The main driving force for quality improvement initiatives are always meant to better as well as increase timely access to information, together with minimize medical errors. Other major aim is cost saving, however this might need further proof since quality of outcome has been linked to financial incentives but generally it is cost saving at the end, (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). The capability and sharing Health Information Use of technology among the most appropriate departments within the health care forms the backbone that can...

Various software products can be used by providers in computerizing their different customized data entry. For a smooth sharing across and among such entities, a standard language (data dictionary) is to be developed, together with standard entry requirements, as well as consistency among the software systems that are to be used in automating the information. Such standards forms the base point for information interoperability in which health care information system can be developed. It will also form a base point for consumer-centric health care system, and this will make every individual to own their EMR, take part in their own case management, as well as have their capability to permit or deny access to others. This personalized information management for each nurse will mean lesser time will be taken in compiling and retrieving information by the nurse in order to attend to the patient. In effect, with the multiple effects on various patients, there will be reduction in the time needed to complete a given number of tasks within the hospital which currently are taking longer prompting the longer shifts of up to 12 hours.
Within the hospital, there are various departments through which am patient may have to go through. These present a time lapse in the treatment process especially when there is no standardized way of passing information f rom one department or unit to another. The nurses in such instances end up losing valuable time. In the endeavor for patients to cross these lines, it is important to have timelines and standardization of data so that relevant information can be passed across these departmental lines in a manner that should be understandable to the nurse responsible in the next department.

There is also need to make sure that what is used by the entire providers can be communicated easily to one another, incorporating open architecture as well as embracing interoperability principles with the aim of saving time over having to wait for specific persons to make the process move or operate the information system platform installed hence wasting time. Most of the larger providers have already shifted to the idea at their area of operation, thereby paving…