Medical Health System - a Future Reform - Term Paper Example

 MEDICAL HEALTH SYSTEM – A FUTURE REFORM Introduction Over the last few decades, people have find the need to organize and develop new and innovative ways of providing efficient and effective health care services which has been accompanied by major development in the information and communication technology. This has made a drastic increase in the use of technology in health care. The incorporation of e-health in the developing and the developed countries has resulted into a great help to the Health care workers (e-Health for Health care delivery, 2007, p. 4). Though it is believed that technology will lead to an improvement to the health care quality, cost, service, safety and efficiency but few general public believes that technology may induce some errors and adverse effects (Cope, Nelson, Patterson, 2008, p. 1). The study will be based upon prediction of the forms and functions of medical health in 2030, impediments that may occur by 2030 and how to embed efficient health care system in the organization. Based on this study recommendations and impacts will be given. Prediction of The Forms And Functions Of Medical Health In 2030 Patient care applications Patient care technology has brought about a radical change into the concept and delivery of nursing care. Earlier the nurses used to heavily rely upon their senses of touch, smell, sight and hearing to monitor the status and development of a patient. But now all their natural senses have been replaced by technology (Cope, Nelson, Patterson, 2008, p. 1). Patient care technology provides the nurses with a varied range of products. The products range from simple devices like catheters and syringes to complex devices like electronic health record and barcode medication administration system (Cope, Nelson, Patterson, 2008, p. 1). In future, with the technological advancement few more devices and equipments are to be brought in, which can be used in complex operations. This will help in reducing time, will increase the accuracy and provide better service. Enterprise system Due to the complexity in the hospital environment, there exists incompatible structure related to the medical information system. To establish an enterprise system these heterogeneous incompatible systems were integrated together. The whole integration process should have three aspects: workflow integration, data integration and function integration (The architecture of enterprise hospital information system, n. d.). For instance El Camino Hospital has undertaken the complete redesign and re-engineering of its IT storage infrastructure which included ILM, storage consolidation and business continuity. By this way the hospital could gain access to the database of critical patients which in turn helped them to provide uninterrupted service. More over it is also helpful in taking managerial decisions (Improving patient care with enterprise system technology, 2005). In future there are chances of research in determining additional system engineering tools and the methods where they can be applicable to lead advancement in the enterprise system. E-Health E-Health is the concept used in health sector to store, transmit and retrieve digital data to support health care both locally and at distant places. WHO says that e-health is very vital in the developing countries. Previously they lack computer but now they are used in increasing numbers. Now connections are set up between equipments and different types of health personal (e-Health for Health care delivery, 2007, p. 4). For example SevenHills e-Health hospital has designed customized and paperless solutions for healthcare units. By this they have erased errors, improved efficiency and optimized resources to bring the world class service to their customers (SevenHills e-Health, n. d.). In future this concept of e-health will spread almost all the corners of the world. With the advancement in technology one can expect that by 2030 each and every hospital will have e-health and will be benefiting from them. Decision Support System Decision Support System is defined as “an interactive, flexible, adaptable computer based information system to provide solution for the non- structured management problem”. This system stores data, retrieve data that can be utilized, provides an easy access and thus provides the decision maker with every data required to reach to a decision. It is software that provides effective decision making. The main advantage of this system is that it allows judging the performance of the health care, on the basis of which improvements are made and this in turn increases the efficiency of the hospital (Rajalakshmi, Mohan, Babu, 2011, p. 42). While designing a Decision Support System (DSS) the stake holders involved and the types of decision they are intending to take should be kept in mind. The health care unit should also give importance to the strategic planning procedures, decision making procedures and the organization’s governance structure should be given importance. In near future Decision Support System will make a boom in the health care segment. More and more departments will be incorporated into this. Though there are complexity of cost and accepting new technology but as gradually more and more people are getting up techno savvy and changes in the government policy is obviously good for the Healthcare segment. By 2030 we can expect the globalization will at its highest point. That is expected to affect the Healthcare segment too. Many international hospitals will be opening their subsidiaries in other countries. The developing countries will be beneficial from this. The local hospital will be facing challenges and will automatically try to incorporate the changes to be at par with the international hospitals. This will in turn again lead to the employment in large scale. More and more young people with the knowledge of updated technology will come in. Moreover since the volume of work will increase and the hospital staff will be over burdened so to reduce their pressure they may go for outsourcing. Impediments For any type of change in the organization, employee becomes a very big parameter which has to be considered. If new technology is introduced in the system then at fist the employee need to be prepared to accept the change. If the employees are not ready then it may affect their performance. Though technology is good but too much dependency might be bad. Studies have shown that in the past many types of equipment that were used were found faulty like 57% of foley catheters, 17% of arterial catheters, 17% of central venous catheters and 7% of peripherally inserted central catheters (Cope, Nelson, Patterson, n. d., p. 1). So the above problem can there be in future also. New technology is difficult to be incorporated in older buildings. Since the infrastructure to be strong enough to support the new equipments. Otherwise the hospital staff will be struggling with the equipments instead of the patient. Political reforms are an obvious threat to the hospitals. Any political unrest may result to a difficult situation in the technological upgrading. In study of Black et. al. done in the year 2011 e-prescribing was found not giving the expected improvement . This was due to human errors. Such mistakes may lead to severe risk to the customer safety (Black et. al., 2011, p. 7). In future also this mistake may affect the development of the health care section. Outsourcing of enterprise system may lead to incurring cost for the organization. So cost can be the area of concern for the hospitals. In the study of Catwell and Seikh in 2003 they have pointed out that too much investment towards e-health may result in shortfall of funding towards other operations of the hospital (Catwell , Seikh, 2003, p. 3). For instance buying of equipments, staffing and change in basic infrastructure may be hampered. This may be a threat in the future projects too. Threats of cyber crime are always there. With the advancement of technology cyber crime is taking a huge shape and in future also the organizations may suffer from data loss. Decision Support System is the system using which important decisions can be taken. In future this system will take a vital position in taking decisions and will be used more widely. But doctors and nurses may feel reluctant to use this since they are pre occupied and over burdened with work. Ways of removing the Impediments Before going for any type of change in the system the employee of the organization must be prepared beforehand. They should be trained to face any type of challenges. They must know the ways of dealing with faulty equipments. Moreover, the infrastructure of the hospital must be change from now only to support the change in the in the system. The budgeting part should be considered a vital part for decision making regarding going for any kind of change, whether it is buying new equipments, outsourcing the work or going for any change in infrastructure. Keeping of surplus capital in hand has to be started from now only. The plan should be designed in such a way that it does not affect the normal operation of the hospital. Health Information System The Health information System (HIS) refers to a system that receives, stores, manages and retrieves data whenever necessary, related to the health of an individual and any activity that is taking place in the organization. HIS incorporates all types of routine information, disease surveillance system, laboratory information system, patient administration system and last but not the least resource management system. Sound decision making is based on analysis of relevant data, which HIS can provide (Regional Health Information System Strategic plan- 2012-2017, 2011, p. 5) . The Six components of HIS are: Resource: To make a system fully functional resource plays a very vital role. The resources related to financing, logistics, personnel, information technology and coordinating mechanism helps to take decision. Indicators: The core set of indicator is the basis for strategic plans and decision. Data sources: It is categorized into two parts 1) population based approach (Census data and population survey) and 2) Institution based data (resource, service and individual records). Data Management: It deals with every aspect of data handling starting from collection, compilation, storage, processing to analyzing. Information Product: Data when processes lead to information. This becomes the basis for evidence and knowledge. Use: When the information is used for decision making then only the utility of HIS comes in (Regional Health Information System Strategic plan- 2012-2017, 2011, pp. 6-7). Thus HIS is a very useful way to take decision quickly. But the efficiency of this is related to the efficiency of the employees who are feeding the data. So they should be always encouraged and proper incentives should be provided to those who use HIS fruitfully. Health Care Bake in The Health sector is undergoing fast changes. The developed countries have already achieved success in changing the perception of people towards health sector. They have brought about radical changes using technology. The developing countries are also following the footsteps of the developed. At present one most significant change that can be incorporated is to introduce the concept of robotics. Robots can be engaged to some simple day to day operations. Since it is a machine and runs on software so manual errors can be avoided. The performance of the robot should be evaluated. After judging their performances robots can be engaged in doing some simple surgery which involves less complexity. But the only drawback that may be suffered is the since robots are machines and machines are prone to defects or even failure. Doctors and other employee should be prepared for these types of critical situations. Cost is also a constraint that may be affecting this implementation. Since these type of steps involves huge capital so organization has to be prepared for any type of future consequences. Conclusion Though many changes have already occurred, many more are yet to occur. We can expect some very big changes in future which human being has never thought of, credit goes to the technological advancement. Computer literacy is also decreasing day by day; this is a very positive symbol towards development. REFERENCES Black A.D. et. al., (2011), The Impact of eHealth on the Quality and Safety of Health Care: A Systematic Overview, PLOS Medicine, ICMCC, 8(1) Catwell L., Sheikh A., (2009), Evaluating eHealth Interventions: The Need for Continuous Systemic Evaluation, PLoS Medicine, 6(8) eHealth for Health care Delivery, (2007), WHO Bulletin, retrieved on December 13, 2012 from www.who.int/eht/en/eHealth_HCD.pdf Improving Patient Care With Enterprise Systems Technology, (2005), retrieved on December 13, 2012 from www.cwhonors.org/laureates/medicine/20055355.pdf Powell-Cope G., Nelson A.L., Patterson E.S. (2008), Patient Care Technology and Safety, Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurse, retrieved on December 14, 2012 from: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/nurseshdbk.pdf Rajalakshmi K., Mohan S.C., Babu S.D., (2011), Decision Support System in Health care Industry, International Journal of Computer Applications, 26(9), pp. 42-44 Regional Health Information System Strategic Plan 2012-2017, (2011), Pacific Health Information Network retrieved on December 14, 2012 from www.uq.edu.au/hishub/docs/PHIN_Stategic_Plan.pdf SevenHills e-Health, (n. d.), retrieved on December 14, 2012 from http://www.sevenhillsehealth.com/ The architecture of enterprise hospital information system, (n. d.), retrieved on December 13, 2012 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17281875 Read More