Implementation of E-health as a Quality Management System - Coursework Example

Download file to see previous pages The healthcare environment is adjusting to the rapidly changing world of technology. This paper focuses on the implementation, critical evaluation of the importance and challenges of information management and information communications technology in the environment of healthcare. The paper also analyses how health information management systems and related infrastructure requirements like resources, technology, culture, standards and consumers, are utilized appropriately to deliver the healthcare providers' and consumer’s needs. The paper majorly focuses on the importance of information technology in enhancing the provision of healthcare, particularly eHealth. Information Technologies (IT) is modifying the way in which healthcare is provided. Developments like patient records that are computer-based, hospital information schemes, decision support tools that are computer-based, telemedicine, information networks of community health, and latest methods of delivering health information to clients are starting to affect the quality, cost, and health care accessibility. Transformations of the delivery system in the health care, including the materialization of integrated delivery systems and controlled health care, are breaking down the barriers of organizations that have stood in the way of insurers, public health experts, care providers, and medical researchers. Currently, the incorporation and integration of eHealth into the daily life of healthcare professionals is turning out to be a reality in both developing and developed countries.

• Introduction

Systems of healthcare are of significant interest to every level of the hospitals within our societies. Ultimately, increasing magnitude and dependence are centered on total quality management (TQM) and quality management systems (QMS) within various industries like healthcare (Deming, 1994). Because of the increasing significance that is as well mirrored within the rising percentage of international and local resources for the public and private division to allocated in management systems in hospitals. Hospitals and various organizations of healthcare all over the world have been increasingly implementing TQM and QMS to lower costs, enhance efficiency and offer high-quality care to patients (Lighter & Fair, 2004). There are various ways in which healthcare organizations can improve their healthcare delivery thus promoting the quality of healthcare to citizens. This paper will therefore report on how various hospitals within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (American Hospital Dubai, Emirates Hospital, Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital) are implementing quality management through eHealth as a way to provide quality healthcare to the patients.

• Need to change to Information and communication technology for quality healthcare

During the initial years of the 90s, the hallmarks of the contemporary hospitals were the kitchen, the telephone system and the laundry room. X-ray machines as one of the diagnostic equipment were not predominantly considered important in placing a hospital as advanced or modern. More so the quality of healthcare during the early 1900s was not very advanced as the devices used in the hospitals were very primitive. In the first century though, the transformation of healthcare delivery through modern technology has greatly impacted the quality of health care that people receive (Goldzweig et al, 2009).

Presently, people and specifically patients seek the best quality in healthcare delivery. Due to this demand, hospitals in the UAE are now turning into modern technology so as to meet people’s demands and also fit into the competitive world of the healthcare industry (Dubai International Conference & Exhibition Centre, 2012). Because UAE is a vast country with Gulf regions, modern hospitals within the UAE are competing to provide quality healthcare to the public, including remote regions (Town & Vistnes, 2001). To achieve this, modern hospitals are introducing contemporary technologies like e-health so as to promote the quality of healthcare by meeting their clients’ needs through online technology and also enhance the quality management of the hospital.

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