Nursing Informatics: Background, Quality, Organizational Impacts

Nursing Informatics
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Nursing Informatics
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society describes nursing informatics as “a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice” (Lambooij & Hummel, 2013, p.3). The application of informatics is on the rise within the nursing profession because of the prompt changes in the technological improvements. Health care systems are continuously integrating technology into their day-to-day practice at a high rate. There is need to uphold safe keeping as well as maintaining patient privacy in order to attain the objective of converting data into meaningful knowledge. The integration of informatics together with the implementation of evidence-based practice has the potential to enhance the quality of care given to patients. Nursing informatics is among the developing specialties that are applicable in the nursing practice (Jones, Rudin, Perry, & Shekelle, 2014). The practice of nursing is evolving and the demands for health care services from nurses are increasing. As a result, proficiency in the field of nursing informatics may possibly reinforce the skills for making the best clinical options. Despite the fact that the application of new technology may be challenging for a number of professionals, nursing informatics improves their overall practice. This is because it enables nursing staff to access patient data faster, advance the overall effectiveness and reduce the probability of medical errors (Bowman, 2013). As the nursing profession evolves over time, nursing informatics has the likelihood to modify and improve the practice. This is not only for the nursing personnel but also for the patients. Accordingly, this paper seeks to provide a discussion on the electronic health record technology for health care delivery.
Background
The electronic health record innovative new technology is a strategy to arrange the information of patients, making it useful in the specialty of information technology. The purpose of the new technology is to meet the diverse requirements for data not only for the providers of medical care as well as patients but also for other interested parties. The application of electronic health records in health care systems is may appear complex since it encompasses several considerations. As of now, the use of electronic health records is by approximately 12% medical practitioners and 11% health care facilities countrywide (Bowman, 2013). There has been much support from industries and the state on the use of electronic health record as a way to manage expenses and improve the quality of care provided to patients.
The electronic health record is a digital register that contains the medical information produced by one or more visits in an arrangement for the conveyance of care (Bowman, 2013). It has the data of a patient, which is inclusive of health care issues, previous medical background, radiology reports, vital symptoms, laboratory results, prescriptions, and demographics. The electronic health record was among the key agendas of president Obama and a venture that would make sure that in the future years all of the health registers in the United States would be electronic. Currently, with the development of globalization, the electronic health record technology has the potential to improve within the next five years. This is because of the government is working with health care organizations to ensure that there is adequate support for the implementation of the innovative electronic health record technology (Hessels, Flynn, Cimiotti, Bakken, & Gershon, 2015).
Quality
Regardless of the huge expenditures in the healthcare in the United States, patients frequently lack reliable, quality as well as safe care. Furthermore, health care systems are among the organizations that lag behind with regard to innovative technological applications in order to enhance the quality of care offered and ensure that patients are free from harm. The delivery of data in most cases is normally through manual means, which leads to the accumulation of paper piles practically difficult to analyze. As a result, the healthcare systems in the United States are in dire need of enhancement in the way they operate. This is the impetus for the innovation focused on improving the conveyance of health care to populations in America (Bowman, 2013). With the use of electronic health records, there will be a significant improvement in the accessibility of information. Before the introduction of the technological innovation, the accessibility to medical charts was quite challenging and tiresome. A good instance is that each time an individual visited a health care facility the attending physician had to search for the file manually from the store, sort and stamp it in a single visit. This, in turn, increased the probability of human errors and in some cases; the files of some patients could not be missing. The use of electronic health records has minimized the manual transport, scrutinizing and documentation of charts by enhancing the accessibility of data. The space for storage and inventories has reduced significantly hence increasing the available space in healthcare facilities to enable the relocation of some resources. There is also an elimination of preventable movement, which in turn enhances the dissemination of necessary information and facilitating the flow of patients. As a result, there is a great improvement in the quality of care given to patients (Hessels et al., 2015).
The electronic health record technology has the capability to raise the quality level of care, enhance effectiveness and competence in the delivery of medical care. It is also likely to cut costs, ensure patient safety and increase the probability of achieving positive health outcomes. The innovative technology is concerned with patients since it is a compilation of their medical records. It captures stores and enables the retrieval of the patient data in the needed layout by an approved user. The system recognizes that there is an increase in deliberate roles in healthcare institutions with a purpose to improve the quality of care given to patients (Jones et al., 2014). The technology extends to various patient-care procedures and departments helping a number of stakeholder teams in their daily roles. The design of electronic health records is to enhance health care delivery and support the decision making the process by physicians.
The measurement of the effectiveness of the technology is by assessing the extent of its use in health care systems. Another way to measure the success of the technology is by evaluating whether it meets the expectations of the users. The electronic health record system has an impact on the pillars of patient care, which include patient-centered, timely, effective, safe, equitable and efficient care. The ones affected by the technology include safe, effective, efficient, timely and patient-centered care. Electronic health records give an allowance for preventive health screening. During scheduled medical checkups or emergency care appointments, the attending clinician is able to use the preventative health records with convenience. For instance, if a patient is in line for cancer screening or blood testing the medical practitioner may look at it with ease through the electronic health record and plan a visit for the particular patient. Electronic health record system allows trending th...