Trends in Health Information Systems and Applications - Essay Example

"Trends in Health Information Systems and Applications" is a great example of a paper on the health system. The need to focus more on the assessment of the immediate environment as well as the recovery plans of institutions instead of focusing on disaster recovery (Gartner Report, 2002) is the reason behind the need for systems that make service delivery more accessible, effective, efficient and result-oriented are needed. Empirical examples of major health institutions such as Orion Health, which implements a hospital information system (HIS) has come to prove that the key answer to the quest for a system that will help in meeting the demand of health supply is by the use of “full suite of tools for improved hospital management, clinical tasks, and patient administration” (Orion Health, 2012) based on the principles of information system. With a hospital information system, very basic information technology devices such as desktop computers, laptops, tablet computers, printers, wide area networks, scanners, and storage devices are used to make the traditional roles of health workers very simple and efficient. It also helps in ensuring the safety and security of data collection about patients are very secure and safe for future retrieval and use.

Relevance of Wireless Technology

Based on the successes recorded with the previous experience of Orion Health and other health outfits, it is strongly recommended that a hospital information system (HIS) be also implemented to cater for the current problems recorded in the health institution. More importantly, it is suggested that there will be an additional component of the hospital information system that makes use of wireless technology. Most importantly, this wireless technology should be rooted directly in the access to the internet and the construction of a wide area network within the various departments of the hospital. The rationale behind this suggestion is that wireless technology makes the flow data on the network more accessible as one would not have to be linked to a cable wire, which makes accessibility more static to be on the network. In the long term, this helps in avoiding must problems associated with data storage such as “frequent operator intervention, lack of policies, and device and media failures” (Hinegardner, 2004). The impact that this would have on patient care is tremendous as they will be the end-users, of whom any improvement in service delivery would directly benefit.

Implementation of new technologies as applied to healthcare environments

The impact that this would have on patient care is tremendous as they will be the end-users, of whom any improvement in service delivery would directly benefit. Indeed, improved patient care could therefore be pointed to as the major benefit that the hospital information system would bring. This notwithstanding, corporate advantages including the fact that job performance will be achieved with much effectiveness, manual application of energy will be minimized, storage of files will be more secured, and reputation of the hospital shall be raised will all be attained as benefits of the system. In the light of all these benefits, the hospital faces the risk of security violation (Collmann and Cooper, 2007), which has become a common problem associated with all forms of information systems of late. In fact, cyber has been a form of information security threat that results in hacking and hijacking of information systems; as well as leading to possible virus attacks.

Viability of the information and technology system

In fact, the approach used to identify the viability of the hospital information system that is recommended for the hospital is what will be called an evidence-based approach. This is because care was taken to undertake a comparative analysis of what has existed in other institutions, as well as making time to analyze the level of success rates that these systems have had on the selected health facilities in comparison with the weaknesses of the system. In cases where weaknesses and risks such as cybercrime were even recorded, the good news is that there were equally viable mechanisms used to confront them. A typical example of such an interventional mechanism that has been used to control the risk is information assurance. It is therefore recommended that ahead of the implementation of the hospital information system, an information assurance system be put in place to critically evaluate the chances of the hospital in dealing with all potential threats that could confront the system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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