Computerized Health Care - Essay Example

The old patients need urgent medical attention and constant monitoring and medication. Moreover, patients also have to be physically available at the time of inspection which may be a daunting task for old and weak patients. However, if the disease is diagnosed at the early stages, the life of a patient can be saved. Hence, if the same tasks can be performed by incorporating clinical information systems, the quality of curing diseases will improve significantly. Clinical information systems add value to clinical practices and provide advantages that may also contribute to significant factors affecting the life of a patient.
The factors are demonstrated below:
Clinical Information Systems provides health care with quality and value
Clinical Information Systems eliminate clinical or medical errors
Clinical Information Systems eliminates cost associated with healthcare procedures
Clinical Information Systems improve the productivity of the administrative staff of hospitals.
Clinical Information Systems decrease paperwork and can be accessed via the Internet to anywhere on the planet.

Moreover, the cost related to health care is also an emerging problem (Demographics of aging, n.d). For instance, expenditures in the United States will grow to 15.9% for health care from the GDP of $2.6 trillion by 2010 (Keynote, n.d). The leadership of a global economy has a caterpillar approach, to addressing computerized healthcare systems. The increment has been observed over recent years and some steps are taken for the resolution of these issues. Various computerized applications are developed to improve clinical practices in an organization or hospital. In an organization, computerized clinical practices are vital to handle clinical procedures daily in healthcare organizations. These clinical procedures are utilized to promote the productivity of an organization equipped with computerized healthcare systems. Moreover, the contribution of a healthcare system is applied, to utilizing resources and modifying activities of the clinical staff by best practice guidelines. Currently, there are complex diagnostic tools for processing medical records, laboratory reports, and various forms available in print form, and there is a requirement of exchanging information among the clinical staff. This is where the role of clinical information systems makes their presence.

Electronic Medical/Health Records, Tele consultation, and continuing medical education are contributing to the healthcare industry. EHR is defined as “The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting. Included in this information are patient demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data, and radiology reports” (HIMSS - electronic health record (EHR), n.d). Electronic health and medical records maintain the health data of a patient to create an individual set of medical data. The data is maintained in an independent set because healthcare providers gain access to EMR from anywhere to diagnose a patient based on the patient’s health information. Moreover, EMR also facilitates the establishment of a personalized health plan for a patient. Moreover, EMR improves health planning and policies at the national level by demonstrating the information and services of people or individuals. In addition, the EMR system also facilitates clinical procedures, which are mentioned below:
Health insurance companies access EMR to process claims from their insurance policyholders
EMR system constructs computerized checks and balances on allergy and drug
EMR system provides interactions, clinical notes, and prescriptions.

Continual medical education operates within the scope of family medicine that supplies activities and information associated with augmenting the performance of a family physician, to provide a high level of patient care (Continuing medical education (CME), definition -- policy & advocacy -- American academy of family physicians, 2011). CME also provides similar services as compared to EHR/MHR, as they are accessible anywhere via an Internet connection. Moreover, CME provides rich graphical access to the application i.e. by incorporating multimedia technology along with regular updates of the latest inventions in the field of medicine via telemedicine. CME also boost morals for physicians as they communicate with other medical physicians and health care providers located geographically far, enabling them to feel less isolated and motivated.
As per the American college of nurse practitioners, Telehealth is defined as “new uses of information and technologies that are emerging, as well as the ability to move the caregiver and information to where the patient is rather than moving the patient to centralized places to deliver health services and information. Today's telemedicine model is evolving to "teleconsultation," where a physician consults with other specialists or a patient, using high-quality video-conferencing, with that consultation enabled by online information access.” Read More