Proper Patient Record in Diabetes Health Informatics - Research Paper Example

Proper Patient Record- in Diabetes-Health Informatics Introduction Keeping proper records is an important aspect inhealth sciences and medicine. Medical records describe a systematic way of documenting information of all patients in a health institution. Medical records of Diabetic patients should be kept and maintained in the best way possible (Whetton, 2005). It is very essential that proper records of patients are kept by the hospital for various reasons. Keeping these records makes it easy to correct them in case of any error. Maintaining them is also made easy when the records exist in the hospital’s database. This paper attempts to analyze the importance of keeping and maintaining proper health records for Diabetes patients in health institutions. It also seeks to look at the various effective ways which hospitals and related institutions can store such records. It is important that they keep health records using reliable methods so that they ensure reliability of the data and easy retrieval of the same. Proper Patient Record Health informatics deals with ways of storing, retrieving and using information related to health and biomedicine. It has tools that are used in achieving storage and use of the data like computers, information systems and medical terms among others. Health informatics is also known as Health information systems. Areas of application include nursing and in public health. There are international standards that have been set regarding health informatics to ensure a standardized way of medical informatics (Joslin & Kahn 2005). Using computers and technology has been the best way to store data of patients in medicine all over the world. Electronic health records is the most reliable and accurate way of storing data because computers are more accurate than humans. Health institutions do not longer store records of patients manually like before the emergence of technology (Whetton, 2005). A good example of such online application programs is the ICD9-CM. they are codes used to store information of Diabetic patients in health institutions. The United States department for health is encouraging health institutions to migrate to the use of electronic means to store data. International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is an effective way of tracking many types of diseases in the world. Knowledge of this coding method is very important for health professionals because it helps in maintaining proper health records in hospitals. It is a code that contains a set of volumes with some instructions. It contains volume one to volume three which gives the procedures. Volume one contains how to list diseases using numbers, while the second volume has the alphabetical way of locating the codes in volume one. The third on contains a procedure for classifying using tables and indexes. All the above are effective ways of reporting information regarding patients in hospitals. It is also important that confidentiality of the information given by patients is maintained in health informatics.Such information is considered sensitive and personal; hence, ethical to keep it confidential. This ensures that patients have trust when giving any information regarding their Diabetic condition. Such medical information can be kept confidential through the use passwords or unique key words for each Diabetic patient. It makes it hard for unauthorized person to access the medical history of patients for whichever agenda they have (Hall 2007). Importance of keeping Diabetic patient records These records provide the history of patients with Diabetes for the purpose of follow up and checkups. It helps health care providers to plan patient care for such patients. They then carry out the relevant communication to them regarding their recovery progress. Such data is portable from one of their branches to another in case the patient transfers (Joslin & Kahn 2005). The records are also used for auxiliary purpose of auditing internally in the hospital. This ensures quality assurance of the hospital for the sake of offering best services to patients after analyzing and auditing the records (Roach 2008). The medical records of Diabetes patients also help in updating and maintaining any information regarding the patient. For instance, such medical history shows all the types of medicine administered to the patient. In case a doctor wants to give medicine of injections to the patient, then he refers to the data to see if the patient is allergic to any type of medication. Doctors also need this information in case they want to carry out surgery to the Diabetic patient by looking at the surgical history. Research shows that storing Diabetic patient records electronically is helping improve type 2 Diabetes in most health institutions. Doctors look at the growth chart of these patients and their developing history. Their habits also help the doctor to analyze to see the possibilities of improving the type 2 Diabetes. For instance, use of tobacco is unhealthy for a Diabetic patient; hence, the doctor will discourage such a practice so that the patient improves (Hovenga & Kidd 2010). Other habits like diet and exercise indicate the chances of improving type 2 Diabetes because it is a healthy habit. The development history of patients is another important record in health informatics that helps in improving Diabetes. Diabetic patients’ records in health informatics enable easy access of the data. It is easy for health providers to access the history or information of Diabetes when such data is stored in a systematic manner. There is always the need to refer to history and information of Diabetic patients when they go for checkups so that their progress is noted. It is easy and fast to correct errors created during recording data when the records are stored well (Whetton, 2005). There is a law on how to correct any errors in the records. For instance, in the United States striking with one single line indicates correction of the error. The records are important for administrative issues. For instance, the health institution needs to have information of where each single Diabetic patient for the sake of follow up. The law requires that all health institutions keep records of all Diabetic patients (Hayes & Aspray 2010). This is so that the government uses the records to plan on its budget regarding how much funds to allocate to the disease. They also use them to plan on how to educate its citizens on Diabetes. The government goes to educate people on how to handle the disease or how to prevent it to areas that are mostly affected according to the records given by health institutions. Conclusion Records of patients are essential because they show their health history from the time they were diagnosed with for instance, Diabetes (Whetton, 2005). They also show all the types of medication given to them. This makes it easy to frequently refer to such records in case the doctors need to review the progress of such patients. Referring to the history of Diabetic patients is crucial especially when administering treatment and analyzing their recovery progress. It is, therefore, very important for all health institutions to keep proper records of all Diabetes patients so that they have all that data. This data helps in allocating medicine and follow up to the patients even after they leave the hospital. They should also have an official in charge of keeping such records in the institution. This enhances responsibility and liability in case of any errors arising from the records. References Hayes, B. M & Aspray, W. (2010): Health informatics: a patient –centered approach to Diabetes: MIT Press. Hovenga, E. J. S & Kidd, M. R. (2010): Health informatics: an overview: IOS Press. Whetton, S. (2005): Health informatics: a socio-technical perspective: Oxford University Press. Roach, H. (2008): Medical records and the law: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Joslin, E. P & Kahn, C. R. (2005): Joslin’s Diabetes Mellitus: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Hall, G. (2007): Providing Diabetes care and general practice: a practical guide to integrated care: Class Publishing Ltd. Allman, T. (2008): Diabetes: InfoBase Publishing. Read More