Health Care Technology & Nursing Leadership

 

Health information technology is a broad concept that involves the use of technology to collect, analyze, store and share health information.  The utilization of health information technology is not only for health care providers but also for patients to strengthen their communication with health providers. In addition, technology utilization allows patients to become engaged in making decisions about their health to improve their quality of life.

 However, in 2009, health information technology for economic and clinical health act (HITECH) enacted and signed into law. This act entails the utilization and meaningful use of health information technology to improve care delivery and patients’ outcomes. Accordingly, health care organizations have been focusing on utilizing technology to enhance the quality of care. Nowadays, the majority of the activities in the health facilities have been transformed from the traditional paperwork to electronic health records. Databases also have replaced the piled files, filing cabinets, and made information immediate and convenient.

 Since, the digitization of the healthcare sector is happening at a very rapid speed, nurse leaders and administrators have to be informed about new technological advances in health care. Leaders play a pivotal role in technology adoption, as they advocate nurses toward implementing the change. Moreover, nurse leaders should focus on adopting a vision and future plan for more technology utilization, as well as sharing this vision with frontline nurses. Also, leaders should monitor staff on an ongoing basis to evaluate their health informatics literacy. Frontline nurses health informatics literacy facilitate technology adoption and utilization. Accordingly, health care delivery will change and continue to improve leading to better patients’ outcomes.

Citations:

Dykes, P. & Collins, S., (2013). "Building Linkages between Nursing Care and Improved Patient Outcomes: The Role of Health Information Technology" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 18 (3).

Scherb, C. A., Maas, M. L., Head, B. J., Johnson, M. R., Kozel, M., Reed, D., & ... Moorhead, S. (2013). Implications of Electronic Health Record Meaningful Use Legislation for Nursing Clinical Information System Development and Refinement. International Journal Of Nursing Knowledge, 24(2), 93-100. doi:10.1111/j.2047-3095.2013.01235.x

Workflow management

Health care organizations are facing many challenges that impact the hospitals’ workflow. Health care consumers demands, technology adoption, and health care reforms are factors that influence hospitals’ productivity and performance. Hence, workflow management is the solution for meeting consumers’ needs while increasing productivity. Workflow management in health care is defined as a process of managing the organization work, consumers including patients and health care providers as well as monitoring all the hospital’s activities. Additionally, workflow management includes the integration of information technology systems that can coordinate specific action, create consistency, and deliver visibility by automatically connecting caregivers with relevant tasks and information. Moreover, successful organizational workflow management has to direct the care team on how to accomplish a goal and help them accomplish those goals in a timely manner; that will lead to care that is delivered more consistently, reliably, safely, and in compliance with standards of practice.

However, in my workplace, one of the great challenges faced nurses was the implementation of electronic health care records. Nurses were frustrated because they lacked the proper skills to deal with the new system. This issue led nurses to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to overcome this problem. The hospital offered educational sessions for nurses presented by IT professionals. That created another problem in some of the hospital’s busy units. Those units needed additional staff to cover for nurses who went to attend the educational sessions, which led to creating disturbances in the units’ workflow. My proposed solution to this problem is to create online tutorials explaining how to properly access electronic health records. Instead of attending educational sessions and leaving the units, creating online tutorials available in the units’ computers for nurses to use will be helpful. Nurses will use the tutorials to solve any problems, reduce the time they spend on documentation and provide patients with the care needed.

 

Citations:

Amorosano, D. (2014). Document management gets personal. Streamline your healthcare workflow. Health Management Technology, 35(6), 12-15.

Cain, C. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2638/

Chaiken, B. P. (n.d.). Workflow in Healthcare. Retrieved from http://www.docsnetwork.com/articles/BPC97112.pdf