Health Management Information Systems

Health Management Information Systems Student’s Name Institution Affiliation The Next Big Thing in HMIS Virtual Care Clinics According to WHO telemedicine can be broadly defined as the health care services delivery from a distance using electronic technology for “the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, research and assessment and education of health care facilitators” to improve health status (Serper & Volk, 2018). Since, no single definition is why telehealth is usually cast-off as the umbrella to accommodate telemedicine and other activities inclusive of public health promotion, research, and education. “Virtual Care” is evolved from this umbrella and is meant to withhold all health care clinical interactions that do not require the patient and the health care professional to be in the same place at the same time. According To McGrail, Ahuja, & Leaver (2017), these virtual consultations can be asynchronous in which structured clinical questions are answered by patients online, and then they are given care from a physician later, called as “e-visits.” They can also be synchronous in which patients and physicians interact with each other through telephone called “teleconsultations.” If this consultation is through video conference or by texting, then it is called as the “virtual visit.” Mercy Virtual Care Center is a virtual care clinic that is said to be among the forerunners of the next big thing in telemedicine. In this virtual care clinic, a bulk of care is provided by health care professionals from being miles away from the patients. This virtual clinic has taken the concept of virtual care to the next level. There are no waiting rooms and hospital beds, but a team of 300 medical professionals that deliver health care services to patients of 38 hospitals of seven states (Howard, 2016). Designing and development of such virtual care clinics can be the next big thing in telemedicine. Advantages and Limitations of Virtual Care Centers According to Safavi & Dare (2018), it is now time that the conventional thought of best care delivery from experienced caregivers can be overturned. Rising cost expenditures, lack of physicians and the aging population, all are contributing to making the traditional health care system less capable in terms of its sustainability. New digital technologies and virtual health can assist the health care industry in managing these forefront challenges. There are several advantages of employing virtual health care set up according to McLean et al. (2013) that are as follows: * Information can be easily accessed * Delivery of care to the areas where it was previously not deliverable * Services and care delivery can be easily accessed * Better-quality professional education * Keeping quality control of screening programs * The decrease in costs of health care Although there are some clear cut advantages of virtual care it may also pose some potential disadvantages that are mentioned as under: * The breaking of the relationship between patient and health care providers and also among different health care professionals * Quality issues about health care information * Difficulties on organizational and bureaucratic levels In the study by Hjelm (2005), it was mentioned about the six potential barriers to the delivery of virtual care. These were highlighted in 1994 in The (US) Western Governors’ Association Tele-medicine Action Report, that is as under: * Issues with planning and development of infrastructure * Issues with regulations of telecommunication * Issues with compensation for telemedicine services accompanied by deficient or varying policies * Issues with licensing and giving the credentials (on account of different concepts of care quality delivering) * Issues of liability of medical malpractice regarding the uncertainties of legal status among different states * Issues of confidentiality, since the risk of unauthorized access, will get increased as compared to information handle through papers Virtual Care Centers and "digital equity." According to López, Green, Tan-McGrory, King & Betancourt (2011), the health care system of the US is not well-designed and developed to facilitate equitable care. There is evidence of prevailing disparities on accounts of social status, language, race, and ethnicity. As virtual care is gaining momentum within the US, therefore it should be considered about the influence of such care on cost and quality of healthcare for all patients, inclusive of those suffering disparities. Any health care technology alone cannot ...