Information Systems in Healthcare - Literature review Example

? Information Systems in Healthcare Introduction Healthcare unit is an institute which provides patients with medical services such as medicine, careand treatment among others. Moreover, healthcare units also serve patients with operating, diagnostic and scanning facilities among others during certain serious issues. The aspect of Information Technology (IT) is considered to be quite imperative for healthcare units as it helps to detect or identify the problems being witnessed by a particular patient. This definite aspect also helps the healthcare units to serve the patients with appropriate form of treatments (Bose, 2003). With reference to the context, Kingston Hospital has been considered for this study to evaluate the process of healthcare units in relation to serving their patients. Moreover, the study also intends to describe the technology related functions, advantages and disadvantages. The study will also offer certain solutions to improve the stated functions or processes efficiently in order to competently serve the patients. Describe and Analyze the Chosen Healthcare Facility Kingston Hospital is amongst one of the healthcare units of London which is located in Kingston, New York. It was established on November 27, 1894 and had a two storied wooden infrastructure. Kingston Hospital initially served 56 and gradually expanded with new staffs, patients and technologies over time (Kingston Hospital, 2010). The hospital was initially known by the name of ‘City of Kingston Hospital’ which was later changed to Kingston Hospital. The hospital had the capacity to serve 150 patients. Although, the hospital went through a wide range of developments in terms of their processes and functions, the fundamental vision of the founder to serve the patients as well as the communities with proper and advanced healthcare facilities was still maintained by the hospital officials and the staffs (Kingston Hospital, 2010). With the developments made in services and structure, the hospital is known to presently serve around 320000 individuals with the help of 2600 staffs. The bed capacity was also increased to 200 from 150 (Kingston Hospital, 2011). The hospital is known to possess the primary required technologies and services which include materials and equipments of operation along with operation unit, diagnostic unit and its relevant system and machines such as computer systems in order to maintain the records of their performances and relative information. However, the process of storing information was known to be done manually previously which not only increased the chances of making errors while recording information but also engaged a considerable amount of time. However, the hospital adopted fresh technologies and services presently for serving their patients and the communities with proper treatments. New technologies were also introduced for the reason of catering to the modern demands and keeping pace with the developments of the global market as well (Kingston Hospital, 2010). Describe Users of the Health Information at this Facility Kinston Hospital engages specialized doctors and physicians including Ophthalmologist, Gastroenterologist, Neurologist, Medical Oncologist, Infectious Disease Specialist, Family Medicine Doctor, Orthopedic Surgeon, Internist Infectious Disease Specialist, Geriatrician, Dermatologist, Thoracic and Cardiac Surgeon, Pediatrician, Diagnostic Radiologist and Surgeon for the reason of serving the community and the patients (U.S. News & World Report, 2012). Furthermore, the board members of the hospital comprise Thomas Collins, who is known to be the Chairman, Ronald Myers, serves as the vice chairman and Joanne Frederberg holds the position of treasurer in the hospital. Additionally, Ex-Officio Members of the hospital entailed Mark Josefski, Joseph Christiana, Margo McGilvrey and Robert Seidman. Apart from these mentioned names the other members who are believed to play an active role in functioning the hospital are Emeritus, Robert Hansut, Lew Kirschner, Donald Louie, Donna Moss (Health Alliance, 2010). With reference to the above mentioned context and the usage of the information system, it can be stated that the doctors and the physicians along with the board members are provided the benefit of accessing information according to their requirements as well as specializations. Discuss at Least One Information System Used in the Facility Generally, Kingston Hospital is known to launch new technologies for ensuring enhanced collaborations with the customers and partners along with offering superior services as well as treatments to the patients. The hospital was learnt to implement the technology of ‘Electronic Patient Records’ for the purpose of serving the patients in an enhanced manner. Electronic Patient Record (EPR) can be defined as an application which helps the healthcare units and doctors to maintain proper information about the patients’ health. In other words EPR is also referred as Electronic Health Records. Furthermore, the implemented information system helped Kingston Hospital to improve their services and performances by offering apposite treatment to the patients along with sharing suitable and needed information about the patients to their respective family members. Generally, this particular information system i.e. EPR was served by Hudson Valley Technologies Group Inc. to Kingston Hospital for storing and maintaining information about the patients. The vendor is also known to provide further assistance for maintaining and updating the system in future and also provides training facility to the staffs for the purpose of operating the system. Furthermore, it was also observed in this regard that the Federal Government motivated the other healthcare units to implement the mentioned form of information technology into their processes (EBSCO Publishing, 2003). The EPR system is considered to be quite user friendly and immensely helps in making decisions. The features of EPR helps in storing and providing patients contact information, health problems and insurances along with family histories, treatments and even information related to the doctors among others. Furthermore, the benefits of EPR aids the doctors to serve the patients with proper standards of treatments and medicines, reduces the risk of transcription errors and helps in recording the information of the patients for lifetime (Maddock, 2002). However, the process of acquiring and implementing the system of EPR is considered to be quite expensive makes it difficult to be afforded by the new healthcare units. The huge costs related to the application of this particular system can be considered to be one of its weaknesses. The other weakness identified with regard to the EPR is stated to be its degree of privacy and security as changes in information are learnt to be easily made in this system Cuen, Lowden, & Chojnacki, n.d.). With the involvement of information technology, Kingston Hospital has been able to competently attain their primary vision along with maintaining their position and loyalty among the patients and the communities (Kingston General Hospital, 2010). From the overview of Kingston Hospital’s information system, ANSOS One Staff has been examined among others. Automated Nurse Staffing Office System (ANSOS) is a crucial information system employed by Kingston Hospital. ANSOS One Staff is an information system used by Kingston Hospital in their functional process to meet with their objectives efficiently. ANSOS One Stiff system is a management information system which helps healthcare units or organizations to achieve their primary organizational objective i.e. better patient outcomes by balancing the professional and organizational as well as staff goals. Furthermore, the system also helps healthcare units to select and to recruit suitable and professional staff for the r appropriate tasks or departments. Moreover, ANSOS One Staff information system has been formulated or produced by McKesson (McKesson Corp., 2012). The features of ANSOS One Staff system reveal that it helps healthcare units to maintain proper schedules and also to balance their staffs’ work and personal life. ANSOS also helps healthcare units by automatically updating the status of the staff, rules and regulations along with their primary objectives. Furthermore, it also assists healthcare unit’s managers to assign, identify and allocate staff among others according to requirements and skills. Additionally, it also facilitates to have a track on the cost incurred on the staff and employees (McKesson Corp., 2012). With reference to the context, it can be assumed that Kingston Hospital has been enjoying the benefits of ANSOS One Staff system within their functional process. This is because ANSOS has helped Kingston Hospital to keep proper and up-to-date information about their staff and employees’ requirements and vacancies. Furthermore, it has also helped Kingston Hospital to balance its staff and employee work and personal life (McKesson Corporation, 2010). Recommendations From the overview of Kingston Hospital’s history and performances it can be affirmed that to improve their performance more efficiently it needs to implement more technologies for enhancing the quality of their services along with obtaining feedback from the patients in order to formulate their strategies accordingly. They can also measure the performances of other healthcare units in order to introduce increasingly efficient information technologies for their development. The hospital can also develop a Research & Development department in order to monitor the market as well as globalization trends in order to make necessary alterations in their functional and operational processes. Conclusions Kingston Hospital was learnt to start their journey on a small scale with just a two storied building and limited manpower as well as services. However, the hospital began expanding owing to their quality of services, treatments and facilities offered to the patients. Kingston also introduced new and modern information systems in order to improve their functional process and services as well to attain increased satisfaction of the patients. The introduction of advanced information systems also helped the hospital to meet the global demands of the patients. Moreover, the involvement of information systems aided Kingston Hospital to serve its patients with efficient, proper treatments and care along with apposite services. References Bose, R. (2003).Knowledge management-enabled health care management systems: Capabilities, infrastructure, and decision-support. Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 24, pp. 59–71. Cuen, R., Lowden, J., & Chojnacki, K. (n.d.). Electronic health records: The advantages and risks. Retrieved from http://www.potterholden.com/news/feb09pres.pdf EBSCO Publishing. (2003). Kingston Hospital first to offer electronic medical documentation. Hudson Valley Business Journal, Vol. 14, No. 6, pp. 26. Health Alliance. (2010). Kingston Hospital: Our brand. Retrieved from http://www.hahv.org/kingstonhospital/about/our-board/ Kingston Hospital. (2010). History. Retrieved from http://www.hahv.org/kingstonhospital/about/history/ Kingston Hospital. (2010). Kingston-services. Retrieved from http://www.hahv.org/kingstonhospital/kingston-services/#top Kingston Hospital. (2011). Annual report & accounts 2011-12. Kingston Hospital NHS Trust, pp. 1-453. Kingston Hospital NHS Trust. (2010). Patient services. Retrieved from http://www.kingstonhospital.nhs.uk/RunScript.asp?page=89&id=67&f=2&p=ASP\Pg89.asp Kingston General Hospital. (2010). Strategy for achieving. Strategy and performance, pp. 2-22. Kingston General Hospital. (2011). Patient experience and public involvement strategy. Retrieved from http://www.kingstonhospital.nhs.uk/upload_folder/enc%20i%20tb%20patient%20experience%20and%20public%20involvement%20strategy.pdf Maddock, E. (2002). The benefits of implementing an electronic patient record system. Nursing Times, Vol. 98, No. 49, pp. 34. McKesson Corp. (2012). ANSOS one staff. Retrieved from http://www.mckesson.com/en_us/McKesson.com/For%2BHealthcare%2BProviders/Hospitals/Workforce%2BManagement%2BSolutions/ANSOS%2BOne-Staff/ANSOS%2BOne-Staff.html McKesson Corporation. (2010). ANSOS one-staff application suite. McKesson Provider Technologies. U.S. News & World Report. (2012). Kingston Hospital doctors. Retrieved from http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/ny/kingston-hospital-6212140/doctors?page=2 Read More