Solving Explosion of Information in Electronic Media Records - Literature review Example

Solving Explosion of Information in Electronic Media Records Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 3 LiteratureReview 3 Proposed solutions 5 Applications of the solutions 6 Conclusion 9 Works Cited 10 Introduction Electronic media record is a long-term storage media that considers and incorporates all the essential features in data storage like accessibility, durability, trustworthy and converter ability. The data stored in the electronic media record should be accessible when necessary within the shortest period. The media should also be able to be trusted by the data providers or the patients. It should neither fail the users nor disappoint the patients by providing a leakage to the public. Convertibility is the ability to convert the stored data into another media in case the subject media becomes obsolete which is inevitable. The media can be obsolete, but the information is still useful (Albarran 103). An electronic media record is divided into two main types; digital media and magnetic media. Digital media stores data digitally in the form of magnetic like on tapes, optical like in CDs and DVDs and solid states like in USB removable media and memory cards. Magnetic media includes magnetic disks like hard drives for programs and files, magnetic tapes and external and drivers. The media expectancy will always different depending on the manufacturing quality, maintenance, condition of the media prior recording, frequency of access and the storage conditions. The life of media has a finite span though not well defined hence need to protect the data (Albarran 103). In care and handling, one responsible should use quality media for storage; review periodically to identify any data loss as well as maintain the storage media accessibility. Literature Review Electronic Heath Record and Electronic Medical record contains health information for an individual or a population. The information is stored digitally with capability of been shared. The information collected may include; patients medical history, laboratory test results, billing information and personal details like age, sex and weight. Electronic Medical record contains patients details generated in a hospital and it is the data source for Electronic Heath Record. Electronic Heath Record contains data created and maintained by an institution. The information is within reach of institutions like hospitals, employers and insurers. Media records contain private information hence the need to mitigate the possible risks, which can affect their reliability and privacy. Threats to such information can be human beings who can be the employees in the hospital, natural happenings like fires and technology failures like a storage system collapse. These threats need to be managed well for both paper and electronic details. Information explosion is the increase in the published or shared data of a particular person or an institution and the effects, which comes after the information is circulated to several users. In the health sector, such increase raises the amount of medical information to which patients and the providers have access. Explosion of information is highly fuelled by the technology advancement as well as growth in the EMRs. To the hospital or health centre that is faced by the explosion, it is always a challenge to the information technology department. The information technology department is tasked with a responsibility of managing bulk data whereby some of it is not useful and the useful one can be a subtle percentage. It is also a challenge to the finance department in the health facility because it comes with maintenance costs. Management of the health facilities has come with a number of strategies to see it through solving the challenges brought about by the explosion (Pearlson and Saunders 201). These strategies may include, Proposed solutions Information planning where Management makes plans, directs, coordinates and controls their implementation. In information planning, the management comes up with an excellent mission statement, which shows the facilities concern for the health records. The second is Records process simplification since complications and misunderstandings are very rampant when it comes to data. Some information will be provided in the process of providing the final and significant patients information. The third solution is Records clarification that states that information should be clear and precise. Management encourages data understanding before making initial storing. Fourth solution is Records synthesizing, which comprises three main activities; accessibility, categorizing and cross-referencing. The team responsible for the task should make the information accessible when needed for use. The fifth solution is Training strategy for record handlers a management tool used to ensure that the responsible record managers have the right required skills and knowledge in collecting, sorting, updating and preventing information explosion. Sixth, it is Records qualifying to determine their value; the record value determined the importance and usefulness of the record. Seventh solution is Records Updating and elimination strategy, which ensures that once the ones necessary for data collection do it, they have to be keen and conscious in its updating of the existing records. The data should be handled sensitively to avoid any minimal leakage out of the system. Next solution is Records routine systemization laying down the process. Records management is a process that starts with data collection up to updating the records. The management information plan allocates responsibilities to different people giving them specific tasks. The process cannot be done by one person hence need of the corporation by the group in records management. Applications of the solutions In information planning, management should be able to express to their patients and other information providers that it will assume the ultimate responsibility for the data collected. In planning, the management allocates responsibilities to different employees in the organization. The plan makes it clear that particular person will be responsible for collecting, updating and availing the information when necessary (Pearlson and Saunders 205). The responsibility allocation process creates accountability to the employees and avoids confusion, conflict of any form of duplication, which may come because of different employees handling the same task unaware. The management then provides guidelines on how data will be collected and updated. In updating, for example, only the employees responsible for updating have the exclusive rights to access to the storage media. The management controls the process by checking regularly the state of the records to ensure that the proper methods are followed and no probability of losing any data or leakage to unauthorized persons. The periodic reviews are paramount for the information explosion because any signs of the explosion are identified early and rectified. Records process simplification means putting the process in simple terms to avoid storing data that is the same in definitions (Freeman and Peace 112). Such complications can arise when one gets different reports and without analyzing them carefully to get the central information, he or she enters all of them in the electronic media record. If the data is not well sorted at the initial stages, it will be difficult to recognize the repetition but the same records will be shared with different departments with the same mistakes. The process should then be made as simple as possible. In records clarification, the first understanding of data is always carried forward to all areas the information will be used no matter the life span of the media. If the data was misunderstood and stored with a different meaning from the providers meaning, it would be misunderstood for the rest of its lifespan. The management trains its employees to equip them with best skills and knowledge in handling the information. Only the employees responsible can benefit from such trainings and they are supposed to give periodic report to the management about the records management. To avoid information explosion in the future, the management encourages responsible persons to take time in scrutinizing the available data to make the last significant conclusions and store (Yu 100). Record synthesizing works towards protecting information from reaching unauthorized persons. Providing information only when required avoids unnecessary sharing of the stored information hence prevention of information explosion. Protecting the stored data from unauthorized access like other employees in different departments also minimizes the chance of the data been in circulation hence less information explosion. The information should also be categorized well before storage. Categorizing is possible after sorting whereby one gets the opportunity of getting to understand the provided data well, making it clear and the placing it in different categories. Categorizing will mostly help in the retrieval of the information upon demand. The other part of information synthesis is cross-referencing which shows the different places or positions the data is kept. Like categorizing, cross-referencing helps in retrieving quickly when necessary. The two should be done carefully because unauthorized people can have access to such information by use of both cross-referencing and categorizing (Freeman and Peace 120). The management supports information explosion in the health facilities through the training strategy by providing the necessary resources. It does this by providing trainers, finances to cater for the training exercise as well as the relevant electronic media to support the training. With the right person been responsible for the health records, the management is assured of reduction in growth of the information exploration. Keeping only useful records helps the management solve some of the problems, which come out as a result of information exploration. Such is achieved by qualifying. The maintenance and handling costs are reduced because one does not have to keep unnecessary records but only the important ones. Unimportant records are then discarded in a manner, which prevents their circulation in the health facility (Niles 89). Only useful information should be updated and the unimportant one eliminated. Elimination of such records like reports is also important just as its updating because some people can take advantage of it and decide to publish and circulate it hence information exploration. Proper management of the updating and eliminating processes prevent information exploration and the management is in full support by taking the periodic reviews to check on these two processes. In the health facility, for example, data is collected from a patient, his/ her fail is opened and then whenever he/ she visit the facility, the same file is used. The initial stage of records management involves data collection (Niles 100). That is made possible when the patient gives out the personal details like name, address, age and weight among other details. Then the next stage can be the examiners office where the doctor checks all the provided information to check the primary cause of an illness example the file is then returned to the records after treatment. Many health facilities in the country have databases for patient. Maintaining each patients file in the database is a system frequently made hence the term routine. The trained employees master the necessary records management if they do their work as a routine hence perfection. That provides information exploration because one is aware of what can result to exploration and how records should be handle to prevent it. They learn more through the daily experience (Niles 302). Conclusion Health records are critical in the country because these are the detail of the health status of the nation. They are also a source of data for the criminals or an enemy since ones file, for example, will contain all necessary information including home address. Recently, there is a noted growth in the information explosion whereby the content in circulation for the patients and providers is so huge. Such growth is a risk and threat to the health media records and needs to be prevented. The health facilities management has initiated some of the strategies, which should be followed in the health facilities where the records are generated to avoid the explosion. These strategies are well discussed above, starting with management doing some information planning in support of the move. Explosion of information comes about with different problems to the health facilities, the patients and the nation as a whole. The health facility, for example, can be sued by patients if they get their information shrewd or published for the public. The patients themselves can be an easy target for the enemy who by use of the given data knows whereabouts of the patient. The country is also at risk if its citizens are attacked. That creates insecurity, which is a national problem. Works Cited Albarran, Alan B. Management of Electronic Media. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Babione, Carolyn. Practitioner Teacher Inquiry and Research. Wiley, 2015. Print. Canary, Heather E and Robert McPhee. Communication and Organizational Knowledge. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print. Davis, Nadinia A, Melissa LaCour and Nadinia A Davis. Health Information Technology. Print. Freeman, Lee and A. Graham Peace. Information Ethics. Hershey, PA: Information Science Pub., 2005. Print. Goundrey-Smith, Stephen. Principles of Electronic Prescribing. London: Springer, 2008. Print. Goundrey-Smith, Stephen. Principles of Electronic Prescribing. London: Springer, 2008. Print. Hristidis, Vagelis. Information Discovery on Electronic Health Records. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis, 2010. Print. Nightingale, Virginia. The Handbook of Media Audiences. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print. Niles, Nancy J. Basics of the U.S. Health Care System. Print. Pearlson, Keri and Carol S Saunders. Managing and Using Information Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print. Pearlson, Keri and Carol S Saunders. Strategic Management of Information Systems. [S.l.]: Wiley, 2009. Print. Yu, Faxin. Three-Dimensional Model Analysis and Processing. Berlin: Springer, 2010. Print. Read More