Benefits and limitation - Essay Example

BENEFITS AND LIMITATION Hand hygiene compliance in an acute setting is critical in attaining decreased cases of hospital acquired infections. In line with the increased campaign for health information system, implementation of the proposed re-education program constitutes various approaches. Evaluation of a few healthcare facilities shows that there are indications that physicians in an acute setting will always voluntarily choose to enter data directly into an electronic health record (EHR). This means a shift from the analogous approach in which paper charts are used to electronic data entry.

It is worth to note that health information system adoption constitutes benefits and limitations towards planning and implementation of hand hygiene compliance re-education program (Peter, 2010). Some of the benefits include health information system’s ability to enables access to comprehensive, legible, and organized patient data and reference literature at the point of healthcare service. This boosts compliance of the nurse as far as hand cleaning compliance is concerned. Health information system constitutes networked computers that are located in each exam room and physician’s office; a provider can also access data over the Internet which is effective in promoting re-education program.

The main limitation concerns set-up and training. The time to set up and learn to use a system is often a challenge. However, users share common lists, data entry templates and text macros to decrease start-up time for users. This means that much time should be allocated at the beginning of the re-education program so that the nurses can master how to use the health information system. The planning must also constitute extensive outlay of the training shifts and adjustable time frame that allow for smooth transition from the paper charts to health information system (Carroll, 2009).

The overall goal of adopting health information system is to improve on the compliance on hand hygiene which is the main cause of hospital acquired infections.Time is the central resource that will be taken into consideration when implementing the adoption of health information system (Peter, 2010). In the acute setting, the patient requires immediate attention and this puts significant pressure on the nurse. In this regard, it is appropriate to allocate much time in training the healthcare providers on how to apply health information system in hand hygiene compliance so that once they assigned a patient in ambulatory condition, it would be easy to work.

Availability of equipment like computers, tablets and hand cleaning detergents will facilitate proposed changes. If the healthcare facility has the required equipment, it would be easy to organize training and adopt health information system towards hand hygiene compliance through re-education. A blend of sophisticated equipment and properly fitted sources of cleaning detergents in the acute settings will provide more evidence based practice (Peter, 2010). This will significantly boost understanding of the trainee and optimize the set goals.

The other critical resource is the skilled hospital management team. With a good human resource team, training and follow up of the nurses on how to use health information system will be attainable. This will enhance efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the best results from hand hygiene compliance re-education program.ReferencesCarroll, R. (2009). Risk management handbook for health care organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Peter, C. S. (2010). Performance Measurement for Health System Improvement.

Cambridge University Press.