Electronic Healthcare Management for the Elderly

Using Technology in Diabetes Management HealthCare in Long-term Healthcare Facilities
The long-term care facilities most often deal with the aging population in the society. This group of people has a low immune system that predisposes them to various diseases. Diabetes is prevalent among the aging population, which results in their commitment to long-term care. The complexity of treatment and care for the diabetic patients is often compounded by comorbidity that is a common characteristic of such patients (Munshi et al., 2016). The aging populations in the long-term facilities have a higher risk of contracting hypoglycemia, and hence this must be a factor to consider when setting glycemic goals. The following study proposes a computerized diabetes management system, which captures all clinical information and translates it into clinical action. The data can be used in improving diabetes care and clinical outcome among patients in long-term care facilities.
Literature Review
The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has greatly increased in America in the recent past. The study focused on the elderly as the most affected people. Surprisingly, it was found that people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes above the age of 65year was six times more than affected among the population aged below 24 years. Multiple studies have indicated that diabetes in long-term care facilities ranges between 25% and 34% (Munshi et al., 2016). The rising prevalence of diabetes among the elderly poses a significant economic strain on the use economy because money is channeled for treatment of the elderly. Further research has attributed the prevalence to physiological changes related to aging such as sarcopenia, increased abdominal fats, and low-grade inflation (Munshi et al., 2016).
The challenge when caring for diabetic patients in long-term care facilities relates to the failure to the entire process of application of evidence-based management guidelines (Dunning et al., 2012). Therefore, it is important to overhaul the whole system of care delivery among diabetic patients in long-term care facilities. The health information technology has been widely used in all areas of care clinical and caregiving processes to enhance efficiency and reduce errors both in caregiving and clinical processes. The electronic medical records are a good example of such health information systems that have been widely embraced all over the American healthcare system (Dunning et al., 2013). Therefore, there is a need for a healthcare information system configured to the specific needs of diabetic patients in long-term care facilities. This will ensure that caregivers adhere strictly to the evidence-based practices and provide the desired care to the elderly suffering from diabetes.
Case Description
Patients in long-term care facilities undergo significant physiological changes that predispose them to numerous health complications. In the end, other health complications crop in. The scenario complicates the caregiving and diabetes management among these types of patients. In a manual system of managing patient records, the information is stored in files, which can be cumbersome to access. Every patient has his or her health records directly kept in a manual file. The system is associated with two challenges that hamper the efficiency in the provision of quality services to diabetic patients in long-term care facilities. First, it allows any physician available to attend to the patient. However, the physician may not fully understand the health history of the patient as well as other complications that the patient may be having due to the strenuous manual checks (Dunning et al., 2012). Secondly, it lowers the application of evidence-based practices in caregiving by limiting the probability and ease of cross-comparison of various successful models in the provision of care to the patients. The electronic health management system embraced in these facilities is very elementary and is mostly limited to employee identification and clinical records. Therefore, they do not offer a solution that can promote the use of evidence-based practices in the management of diabetic patients in long-term care facilities.
Technological Solution
One of the technologies that can be used to solve the case described above is the diabetic information technology. This tool improves the provider workflow and enhances the caregivers’ ability to offer care depending n the reliable and evidence-based solutions. Moreover, it brings to the attention of the caregiver the specific evidence-based practices that are relevant to the patient through monitoring the patient medical records kept by the system. The system is quick in the sense that it helps the caregiver to quickly analysis, a patient’s data, present and past medication as well as laboratory results. The caregiver can carry out the entire analysis by just updating the patient’s medical records to the system. Lastly, the system links the patient to a specific caregiver and physician. Therefore, each caregiver and physician an easily monitor the status of their patients (Dunning et al., 2012).
The technological solution will help tremendously in solving the challenges of caregiving outlined as identified in this paper. First, the system links the patient to a specific caregiver and physician. This enables a long-term monitoring of the patient with in-depth information on the patient’s trends concerning diabetes as well as other health complications. Secondly, it enhances the analysis patient’s data such a history, current symptoms, laboratory results, and other healthcare needs. Moreover, the system brings to the attention of the caregiver best and evidence-based practices that are unique to the conditions of the patient. Therefore, this technological solution will help caregivers to offer evidence-based care (Dunning et al., 2013).
Conclusion
Diabetic patients in long-term healthcare facilities require a unique type of care because of their unique health and physiological status. The current manual and automated systems have not adequately addressed the health care needs of such patients. However, the major limitation is that they do not enhance the employment of evidence-based practices and are hence less effective. The technological solution provided in this study will be effective and conclusive in helping caregivers to employ evidence-based practices in the context of diabetic patients in long-term care facilities.


References
Dunning, T., Duggan, N., Savage, S., & Martin, P. (2013). Diabetes and end of life: ethical and methodological issues in gathering evidence to guide care. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 27(1), 203-211.
Dunning, T., Savage, S., Duggan, N., & Martin, P. (2012). Developing clinical guidelines for end-of-life care: blending evidence and consensus. International Journal of Palliative Nursing, 18(8), 397-405.
Munshi, M. N., Florez, H., Huang, E. S., Kalyani, R. R., Mupanomunda, M., Pandya, N., Haas, L. B. (2016). Management of diabetes in long-term care and skilled nursing facilities: a position statement of the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Care, 39(2), 308-318.