History and Growth of Health Information Systems - Essay Example

Module Health Information Systems: History and Growth Health Information System is among the few revolutionary discoveries which infused new dimension to both information technology and the health care system. The earliest recorded use of health information system was in the 1950s when Robert Ledley used it for dental projects. The process of transforming health care with technology owes its necessity to umpteen numbers of reasons. Health Information systems forms the backbone of an integrated, cost effective and efficient health system. There is no denial of the fact that there is a cost control drive on a global scale and most of the organizations are eager to install automated process of delivering medical information than paying the data operators. Present day concern of disseminating information at a faster rate has led to the rising use of Data Systems that will monitor programs and services. Aging of the Population - Although the main impact of the aging of the population will not be felt for two decades or more, the growth of the population 85 years old and older will continue to strain nursing homes, home health, and other components of the long-term care system. Unprecedented growth of pharmaceutical industries has led to the emergence of new drugs and treatments in the market. Health Information system becomes indispensable since it will help in tracking drug interactions. In the recent times there had been considerable rise in the frequency of information exchange among the healthcare organizations. It becomes essential to have accurate records of treatment procedures. Inclusion of personal digital assistants (PDAs) into the healthcare system has also become of significant use. The major reason for the rising importance of Health Information System is the development of complex treatments and technologies. The organizations feel the need for a comprehensive data base since the volumes of patients and treatments have escalated in the last few decades. Inclination to opt for paperless records is another major reason for the popularity of this system of storing information. The vital factor among all the factors mentioned above is the growing number of patients and the advent of various complicated drugs and therapies. This has made the health care system highly dependant on computed system of acquiring information. Sleek and easy accessibility of information through computer s is preferred to bulky paper records. Advent of a host of new diagnostic tools and tests certainly require extra attention in information management with added emphasis on processing and storing documents. Heal Information system has proved to be a boon for clinicians, consumers and the health system. Besides reducing the amount of time spent in recording the details of patient care this automated system helps in eliminating inaccuracies and redundancy of data. Through this updated information system you get optimal access to information which also helps in improving the quality of care by rendering the streamlined information to the experts. (Conrick p 241) Module 2 As the head of Slainte health care organization I have to pay due attention to some issues arising due to the decision of accommodating the professional, administrative and maintenance Earlier Slainte health care organization had to cater themselves to the need of 1, staff of the destroyed hospital in the neighboring community. Due to this makeshift arrangement supposedly for4 years, I have to attend to the related matters about various layers of administration and smooth operation. Earlier my hospital had to serve 100,000 residents but now it has got the added responsibility to accommodate 50, 000 more people from its neighboring community. In order to provide the medical care to both the communities a plausible expansion process is to be sought out. Factors like present infrastructure of my hospital, staffs in every department and the number of beds available are to be considered before assessing the added requirements. I have to take into consideration the departments where expansion is required and the extra cost to be incurred. Presently the Slainte health care organization has the capacity to accommodate 385 patients at a time. Apart from the general beds this hospital has a provision of 12 intensive care units and 45 suite rooms. This health organization has 9 well-equipped operation theaters. Keeping in mind the fact that the hospital has to serve 50,000 more people it has to certainly better its statistics. With the added onus I recommend an increase of at least 50 general beds and 5 operation theaters in the hospital. One more floor has to be added which will house thee added rooms. The ENT department of our hospital had always run short of sufficient visiting doctors and modern equipment. In this state of emergency is to be given main priority and the department has to be provided with modern medical equipments making it convenient for the doctors to treat. The number of nurses and housekeepers amount to 98 and the new entrants in the list are the maintenance staff from hospital B. A separate maintenance department has to be built which will contain the combined maintenance staff of Slainte health care and the staffs of the destroyed hospital. Presently there are more than 45 visiting doctors associated with this hospital. The general physicians and the specialists from the Hospital B are to be appointed with their respective sections. The on-site medical shop has to increase its range of storage with more emphasis on emergency drugs. The process of reorganizing Slainte health care shall also include the additional buying of the medical equipments, especially those used in the operation theaters. The laundry department has to add around 200 more bed sheets and quilts for the future need. To take care of the safety concern of the patients the hospital requires 4 more fire alarms and 18 extra fire extinguishers. At present, our hospital has 4 ambulances, which is not sufficient for meeting the needs of 150,000 residents. 3 more ambulances are to be called for which will offer round the clock service. If this strategy is to be executed the approximate cost that will be incurred is $500,000. It will take few months time for Slainte health care to brace itself completely to serve the residents of both the community. Module 4 In the early 21st century when information technology has infiltrated in almost every sphere of documentation, health care system has not been able to remain aloof. Automated health information has become a priority in all major health organizations. Instead of maintaining paper copies and files of patient records it is always feasible to opt for medical information by using technology. Time has come to evaluate the feasibility and adoption of a new health information system which will help in assembling patient medical history information electronically. The elementary knowledge that clinicians and other healthcare practitioners should be know that in Health Information system medical database is maintained which is a planned device for storing medical records of the patients. Database also helps in managing and retrieving information. The medical database is completely an automatic device which can retrieve all records (matching certain criteria), update records in bulk and perform complex aggregate calculations. This also helps in the cross-reference of the stored records. Medical data and information is collected through various sources starting from the physicians to the laboratory personnel and the pharmacists to the therapists. In this Health Information System a comprehensive record is maintained of the diagnostic reports, laboratory tests and the results of the treatments along with the treatment plans every time the patient opts for medical check-up. It is the duty of the Medical records and health information technicians to collate these records and evaluate them with complete accuracy. Some technicians have to specialize in coding patients' medical information which is required for insurance purposes. They are responsible for assigning a code to each diagnosis and assign the patient in one of the diagnosis-related groups. The categorization of the patients on the basis of code is done with the help of classification systems software. It is to be assured the uniformity is maintained in coding and standardization of the data. This can avoid any discrepancy of important records in the future. (Medical Records and Health Information Technicians, 2008) The Health Information System, all over the world maintains certain standards as prescribed by their respective standards organizations. Clinicians and administrators have to know how the standards can be useful for them and how the systems can be either integrated or extended. There are certain clinically useful standards which improve the potentiality of accessing and exchanging medical records of the patients. Knowledge about the basic standards will help the clinicians to extending and upgrade the systems. Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel was established to develop useful set of standards to enable the healthcare software applications to work together and communicate in a both regional and national network of health information in the US. Before embarking on electronically based information system the clinicians and the health care practitioners should be accustomed with these fundamental ideas. The whole process of Health Information system requires prudent use of your knowledge on medical database, information standards and the significance of uniform terminology and codes. Apart from the large-scale organizations, both the small and medium sized units accept automated medical information system as the basis of tracking the reports of their patients. Module 5 (Section 1) Introduction: The development of Electronic Health Information on a global scale has also led to the rise in privacy and security concerns. The health care industry has realized that security concerns of the patients should not be overlooked. It has come up as a matter of prime importance since the health organizations have to deal with the medical records of a large number of patients and it is their responsibility to maintain the patient's privacy. Statement: It is to be understood that privacy and security concerns of electronic health information covers two major aspects. Firstly, every organization has to put emphasis on concerns about the proper dissemination of information from individual organizations. In order to avoid any distortion in information the organizations are entitled to take steps. Secondly, it should also be the concern that the flow of information is systemic in the health care and associated industries. In the first case, the concern about sending proper health information is given due importance since wrong or inappropriate releasing of medical reports from an organization can take place only when an authorized user access and send information leading to the violation of organizational policy. In the second case of systemic concerns it is to be understood that revealing patient's health information openly to those who are not authorized to see increases the chance of patient's interest being betrayed. The root cause of the rising concern is the fact that the confidential medical data is being accessed by a number of people associated with the health care industry which the patient's might not be aware of. These two major concerns are to be treated distinctly since they differ in concepts. Every individual organization has to be aware that the medical information stored in their data is prone to be manipulated by the internal or external agents which will ultimately violate its confidentiality policies. This certainly can be a threat to every health care organization. (The National Academic Press, 2008) In order to conform to the privacy rule, it is most apt to implement new policies for more protected health information (PHI). Administrative, technical and physical safeguard measures have to be implemented to ensure that the medical information is kept secured. The physicians should make it a point that only they have the privilege of accessing the computers where the medical records of their patients are stored. They also have to look after the fact that they can easily access the backup files and the hard copies of confidential medical reports are kept protected in a locked file cabinet. (APA Online, 2008) HIPAA also gives emphasis on the need to maintain the physical security and integrity of medical information to make sure that these records are not accessed by any unauthorized internal and external agents. The technical concern regarding the safety of medical information includes securing of database and giving its access only to few which will avoid any future risk of violation of privacy. The organizations have to declare certain privacy policies to aware their employees about proper handling of information. The smooth functioning of medical health information system is possible only when technical, physical and organization privacy is maintained. Module 5 (Section 2) Breach in confidentiality by Kaiser Permanente Introduction: Kaiser Permanente is put under the scanner for sending personal health details to other members instead of sending them to the person concerned. In such circumstances, few inevitable questions do arise. Is it the fault on the part of the organization or its employees Will this incident deter the subscribers from maintaining further link with this organization Is it possible to convince the subscribers that such goof-ups will not be reiterated in future And if yes then what method should be adopted for the same. Statement: It is quite expected that Kaiser Permanente, which has around 8.7 million health plan members spread across 8 regions in the United States, would make some buffer arrangements when they are upgrading their system. Firstly, it is the confidence of the subscribers that is being slaughtered and secondly company's system is being upgraded at the cost of the invading subscriber's privacy. The Kaiser Permanente employees failed to realize that maintaining patient's confidentiality is a legal as well as an ethical duty. Be it the carelessness of the staffs or the laxity of the managers, it has been proved that this incident is a joint failure in taking early preventive measures. Kaiser Permanente's reputation as federally qualified Health Maintenance Organization must have suffered a heavy blow. As a subscriber it is certainly discouraging for him to continue with this organization. It is but natural for him or her to feel reluctant to access the Kaiser Web site, to fill prescriptions and seek any kind of medical advice. This incident will lurk in their mind leading to their apathy towards the services offered by Kaiser Permanente. According to AMA's (American Medical Association), "the information disclosed during the course of the patient-physician relationship is confidential to the utmost degree". It also states that "the purpose of a physician's ethical duty to maintain patient confidentiality is to allow the patient to feel free to make a full and frank disclosure of information..." since they know that the confidential information will not be disclosed. (AMA, 2007) The need of the hour for Kaiser Permanente is to find out ways to convince these subscribers about complete confidentiality of their valuable records in the future. The medical records of the members are to be kept in an entirely a separate domain. Each patient will be given new PIN codes that will not be known by the data operators. Before the operators can get access to the subscriber's personal details they have to call the patients and request them to enter their secret PIN, only after which the operators can process it and revert back. Kaiser Permanente can opt for giving sole right to their patients to check their personal medical records. In this process, the patient's queries will not be sent via e-mail but updated in their individual databases. Kaiser should assert rights on their members to determine the nature of the personal data that is being stored in the database and the purpose of these databases. (Chapman, p 43) Concluding statement: After this incident the Kaiser Permanente officials must again go back to the elementary level and revise Health informatics law that states some well-evolved legal principles applicable to those using information technologies in health-related fields. Even the employees dealing in this section should know the ethical and operational issues concerning the use of electronic tools to deliver health care. Reference Chapman Audrey R, Human Care and Information Ethics: Protecting Fundamental Human Rights, Rowman & Littlefield, 1997 Sara N. Di Lima, Aspen, LisaT. Johns, Joan Gratto Liebler, A Practical Introduction to Health Information Management, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 1998 Patient confidentiality. AMA. 2007. retrieved from: www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/4610.html Conrick Moya, Health Informatics: Transforming Healthcare with Technology, Thomson Learning Nelson, 2006 Read More