The Development of Healthcare - Assignment Example

Introduction The collection of data and information about the healthcare records of the individuals play an important role in ensuring overall delivery of excellent healthcare services. The collection as well as the movement of the larger scale data is considered as the future of the overall healthcare management. However, despite such critical importance of these technologies and the promise they hold for future, their current use is largely under-utilized. Even in this age of highly technological sophistication, physicians as well as other healthcare services staff fail to adequately deal with the use of electronic health records for their advantage. Recent legislation process undertaken at the Federal Government level has been initiated in order to ensure that significant resources are put into the development of healthcare. These legislations set the overall vision for the integration of information technology with the healthcare in order to improve the overall healthcare services delivery within the healthcare settings. The Federal IT Health Strategy is therefore focused upon delivering certain initiatives in order to accelerate the process of integrating information technology with that of the health care services. One of the central elements of the Medicaid and Medicare is the electronic health records which are now forming the critical part of the overall initiative by the government to improve healthcare IT. This paper will provide a review of the various initiatives undertaken by the Federal Government in terms of digitalization of health records and implementation of information technology besides making an evaluation in real time case study. Federal Government Initiatives The recent revolutionary changes in the health care industry and new demands from the industry has actually necessitated the use of technology which can help healthcare professionals to actually take benefit of the information technology. The new IT strategy for the health care industry has been hallmarked as one of the right steps in right direction to seamlessly integrate the technology with the healthcare. In order to achieve this vision, regional information networks were created in order to allow them autonomy and power to utilize all the resources necessary for using IT for healthcare. These regional networks have to work in defined governance roles in order to achieve their overall objectives and the set their own business targets. These centers were established in order to exchange information with each and have been gaining traction over the period of last few years. (Protti, 2008) Federal government is also providing implementation support to healthcare through regional extension centers. Regional extension centers were established in order to ensure that those healthcare facilities involved in the implementation process of information technology should get required support for trouble free implementation. These centers were to be opened with the help of federal government grant to secure staff and resources necessary to implement e-health care within different health care organizations. Federal Government, in order to train the staff and meet the new requirements of I.T. Training also offered funds in order to train the staff to use the new I.T. initiatives skillfully after their implementation. Federal Government has also taken steps to implement better education standards for the implementation and end use of technology. With the help of various Medical boards, Federal government has actually envisioned a better and more integrated education for end users of the technology to be used in the healthcare industry. Federal government has also put in place improved certification process under which eligible hospitals and healthcare service providers to receive the aid and grant under Medicaid would have to follow strict certification guidelines. Hospitals must actually implement HER certified technology in order to ensure that right kind of technology is implemented at the hospitals to deliver the objectives set under I.T Strategy policy of the government. (ONC, 2011) Government has also planned to increase the awareness of this program by coordinating different events which increases the overall awareness for this program in various healthcare settings in order to help physicians to know about changing trends in information technology and how they can use them. (Ferris, 2005) It is also important to note that Federal Government is involved in collaborating with researchers and industry to actually increase the usability of EHR. Industry experts and researchers are actually working towards the development of better and easier technologies which can effectively help physicians and other healthcare provides to better use this technology. Real Life Example My primary healthcare providers has though implemented technology but it seems that the people involved in using this technology have still lot to learn in terms of using this technology. The machines as well as the equipment used are state of the art and it seems that the new initiatives have taken place in the healthcare provider. But it is also important to note that people involved in managing the overall affairs of the information technology resources may not seem to be adequately trained and skilled. Overall my primary healthcare provider has all the Information technology resources, better access to the technology but it seems to be lacking to have the right kind of attitude and skills to actually run and manage this type of initiative. It is however, important to note that the physicians are performing their normal duties brilliantly but the activities related with the use of information technology use to be slow and it seems physicians are unaware of how to use them effectively. Conclusion It has been argued that the integration of technology with the overall healthcare has become the need for future. Better record management, data storing, retrieval and exchange of data between different networks can actually allow a seamless integration of data with the healthcare facilities provided by these institutions. Government has undertaken various initiatives under which regional information networks were created in order to exchange information and data of the patients. Apart from this, government has also established implementation centers in order to help hospitals to seamlessly implement various I.T. related resources in order to meet the new challenges. Further, training and development needs have also been taken care however; it seems that end users still require some sort of training to use the technology more efficiently. Bibliography Ferris, N. (2005, June 09). Regional health information networks gain traction. Retrieved September 24, 2012, from Government Health IT: http://www.govhealthit.com/news/regional-health-information-networks-gain-traction ONC. (2011). Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan 2011-2015. New York: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology . Protti, D. (2008). US Regional Health Information Organizations and the Nationwide Health Information Network: Any Lessons for Canadians? Electronichealthcare, 6(4), 96-103. Read More