Connectivity in Health Care - Research Paper Example

Running Head: work Connectivity in Health care of the of the of the Connectivity inHealthcare Ans. 1 As per the previous statistics, there seems to be a lukewarm response from physicians in adopting certified EHR. However, penalties imposed by the government will make them adopt this practice more aggressively. It is a general phenomenon that punishment helps develop the desired behavior than incentives do. This is what applies in this case. Because of the loss of Medicare fees and annual cuts, physicians would be pressurized to embrace the new automated system of keeping health records. Ans. 2 Generally, intense and big activities are tried to be automated in healthcare like administration and finance.

Nursing activities are one such kind which is still devoid of a place in electronic record keeping. From bedside handovers to recording patient recovery status, it is considered too trivial to be automated when there are so many other activities to turn electronic. As such, it is likely that this specific activity area will still remain on paper records for some time (Brown 2011). In order to automate it through the use of IT, initial check-up details should be stored by nurses on systems and distributed to all the nurses who are taking care of patients.

Further, whenever patient recovery status is recorded or any test is conducted, complete and proper information should be feed into the system with the use of handheld gadgets. This way, paper costs and costs incurred in delayed claims can be avoided and quality of care can be enhanced dramatically. Ans. 3 The integrated healthcare system at Kaiser Permanente demonstrates high level of technical integration and subsequent expertise of employees, nurses and physicians in handling electronic operations.

With a US community hospital having less than 300 beds, it would be difficult to derive the same benefits as with Kaiser. This is because being a community hospital; they are not much worried or serious about individual managed care. Secondly, being an independent hospital, their operations are not affected by either the incentives or the penalties imposed by the government. As such, there is no evidence of any stimulation which could help develop the desired behavior in the management of the hospital to turn digital. Ans. 4 The concept of use of data mining technique in healthcare (Herzlinger & Martin 2010, p.4) seem to be very interesting and relevant to the modern scenario where other major sectors like insurance, banking and others are relying on it heavily to detect customer trends, patterns and establish relationship marketing by means of cross selling.

It could revolutionize the healthcare industry as data analytics will help predict the occurrence of allergies, diseases and thus be a valuable tool in healthcare research and development. The adoption rates of electronic modes of recording highlight serious flaws of US healthcare laws implementation policy in small physician clinics. Paper records are still considered safer because of the issues of accountability, reliability and privacy which are not explicitly visible in case of electronic records (Herzlinger & Martin 2010, p.10). On the contrary, it is easier to implement a new idea on a small scale and then derive greater synergies on large scale.

It also shows lack of proper training, awareness about recent shifts in healthcare dynamics, changing customer preferences and most importantly, driver to change which is actually proving as a hindrance in EHR adoption by physicians. “Meaningful use” and the HITECH Act The meaning of ‘meaningful use’ extends to the privacy and security of healthcare patients information and confidential data. It is disappointing to know that medical theft cases are rising at an alarming rate in US which call for serious action steps to be taken by the government (US Department of Health and Human Services 2009).

On one hand, US government is trying to turn digital by 2015 and cases of medical theft can completely ruin the idea of electronic health records because of the privacy and security concerns faced by the consumers. As such, three-phased medical theft problem assessment is commendable and should be pursued aggressively to punish the culprits. This will also develop confidence of people in US government’s proposition of shifting from paper records to electronic ones. References Brown, C.V. (2011).

The US healthcare system stakeholders, the healthcare IT industry and the HITECH Act. Herzlinger, R.E & Martin, A. (2010). Connectivity in healthcare. Harvard Business Review. US Department of Health and Human Services. (2009). ONC commissioned medical identity theft assessment. Retrieved 14 February, 2011 from http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt/community/healthit_hhs_gov__medical_identity_theft/1177