2.) Based upon your personal, non-professional experiences, briefly discuss 2 or 3 applications of it which have enhanced or hindered your financial or medical well being. It and cyber-commerce/e-commerce do not exist devoid of context; thus please help define and shape this context.
The advent of computerized billing and medical coding has undoubtedly streamlined the process of managing a hospital's income and expenditures, but this aspect of healthcare it has been known to create unanticipated disadvantages as well. Although it is true that "the management of healthcare organizations can be improved through the intelligent use of information ... (and) this requires systematic planning and management of information resources to develop information systems that support patient care, administrative operations, and strategic management" (Citation pg. 21), there are a number of caveats that still apply. In my own non-professional...
For example, after coming down with a sudden bout of strep throat, I visited my local neighborhood clinic to obtain inexpensive antibiotics, but rather than receive treatment for my illness, I left the clinic with no remedy or recourse. When the intake nurse in charge of processing my information was unable to access my patient history, which was apparently misplaced due to an alteration of the clinic's it directory, she became agitated and told me that my visit would be quicker at the major hospital across town. This example illustrates the false promise of healthcare systems automation when human personnel is not trained adequately, as even the most well-designed it systems require a competent and qualified human to supervise the input…
