Health Informatics in the Clinical, Administrative and Research Settings

Health Informatics in the Clinical, Administrative and Research Settings
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One of the sources of medical errors is planning and execution mishaps. A planning error involves undertaking a wrong plan to achieve a particular objective. An execution error involves performing a particular action in a way that is contrary to how the caregiver intended. Another source is the accidental action that results in active errors which are detectable almost immediately also referred to as active errors. Active errors occur mainly when caregivers have diverted attention resulting to errors such as forgetting to restart an infusion or entering an incorrect infusion rate or giving wrong prescriptions. Another source of errors is when caregivers are oblivious to faults in the system resulting to latent errors. Latent errors involve actions that result in unintended consequences such as poor staff management decisions that subject employees to undue pressure, faulty installations, designs, maintenance that cause accidents (Moyen, Camire, & Stelfox, 2008).
Medical errors result in a myriad of negative health outcomes. They include prolonged stays at hospitals, which add to the cost of care burden. Some medical errors have permanent health implications that patients never fully recover from. The errors may also result in death and a report by the institute of medicine in the US estimated that almost one hundred thousand patients dies annually due to medical errors (Moyen, Camire, & Stelfox, 2008). Fatal medical errors also have a psychological effect because such incidents might haunt caregivers for many years and because patients, friends and families loose trust in the affected health care institutions (Khoo, et al., 2012).
Reports indicate that many medical errors result from inadequate information about a patient the appropriate medication and people often miss to detect such errors. To resolve such problems, it is imperative that health care institutions invest in information technology systems. Computerized order entry systems that integrate physicians and the clinical decision support render significant improvement in quality and medication use as well as significantly reduce error rates. Such systems provide information such as allergies and eliminate errors that often result from illegible handwriting. Patient records are also easily accessible in various locations when patients move between health care organizations. The historical information is very crucial in emergency cases because caregivers are able to initiate treatment in a timely way (The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2013).
Information technology health systems that integrate measures to promptly communicate alert messages to wards and physicians about life-threatening laboratory test results also play a significant role in preventing errors by omission. It is because the concerned caregivers receive such alerts in a timely fashion and avoid delays in administering appropriate interventions. A certain study indicated that caregivers adjust medications or discontinue particular medication almost twenty two hours earlier when they receive alerts than vice versa (Bates, Cohen, Leape, Overhage, M. Shabot, & Sheridan, 2001).
Information technology also facilitates electronic order transcription which enhances speed and accuracy which significantly reduces errors. The use of automated dispensing also reduces errors because automation offers accurate dosage. It also eliminates error...