Healthcare Informatics and Patient Safety
This assignment is designed to help students
Develop an appreciation for informatics, basic skills and knowledge required in practice settings. Students will select a “hot” or popular topic of particular interest to their practice to discuss. The topic will be selected from the website using the link provided
Course Outcomes: Describe health information systems within healthcare setting and the profession of nursing in all practice domains and settings including electronic health records (EHR), their management and patient-care information technology (IT). :Explore trends and issues in NI and their impact on nursing practice in all domains, including cultural humility and person-centered care
Requirements
Student will login to FierceEMR and FierceHealthIT using the link provided and select a “current/popular” topic of the week that may impact their practice. In a professionally developed paper, will discuss the rationale for choosing the topic, how it will impact practice in a positive or negative manner, citing pros and cons. Include a discussion of how informatics skills and knowledge were used in the process relevance to developing the assignment. In the conclusion, provide recommendations for the future.
Preparing the paper
The FierceEMR and FierceHealthIT Current/Popular Topic of the Week assignment must be a professional, scholarly prepared paper. The professional paper will have an introduction, body of paper to explain what you are doing, summary/conclusion, and at least three scholarly references.
Required texts may be used as references, but a minimum of three sources must be from outside of course readings.
All aspects of the paper must be in APA format as expressed in the 6th edition.
The paper (excluding the title page, introduction and reference page) is 4-6 pages in length.
Ideas and information from professional sources must be cited correctly.Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and citations are consistent with formal academic writing.
http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/it (Links to an external site.) (explore healthcare technology news on CPOE, EMRs, E-prescribing, HIE, PHRs, HIT stimulus, and other health IT news)
Note: Please go to the above website ,review and select any nurse informatics related topic for this paper. Pls read the above instructions and requirements carefully. Sources must be less than 5 years. Thank you!
Healthcare Informatics and Patient Safety
The introduction of healthcare informatics has improved provision of services significantly. Nurses and other service providers in the healthcare facilities avail care in better coordination and efficiency. The ultimate beneficiaries in the use of informatics in healthcare are the patients. However, the same patients also face the risk of invasion of their privacy. Just like in all other sectors, the use of technology is prone to data breaches. Patient information in healthcare databases contains crucial information and the handlers of the data need to exercise extra caution to prevent breaches. Due to the sensitivity of the matter, the government has some sets of laws and regulations for healthcare facilities on how to handle patient data. Healthcare informatics is necessary today due to the obvious benefits but the risk of breach requires the nursing professionals to exercise extra caution and adhere to the guidelines set by the regulatory institutions.
According to Heather Landi in the article, 32m Patient Records Breached in 2019. That’s Double all of 2018, Protenus Reports, breaches in healthcare institutions appear to be on the rise in 2019 (Landi, 2019). The alarming statistics indicate 31.6 million data record breaches so far. The figure doubles the level of breaches recorded in the entire year in 2018. Last year, the breach incidents recorded were 14.2 million. The United States Department of Health and Human Services notes 285 breach cases in 2019. From 2016 to data, there have been reports of at least one breach per day in the healthcare facilities.
The article proceeds to state that the main breach this year involved the records of close to 20 million patients (Landi, 2019). The breach occurred in the American Medical Collection Agency platform. The agency is a third-party firm that collects payments on behalf of healthcare facilities. Several healthcare facilities were victims of the breach. The facilities include LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics and Opko Health. The breach was a secret until the discovery of patient records on the dark web.
The main cause of data breaches in hacking. Heather Landi attributes 60% of the breaches in the first half of 2019 to hacking. Through that, the hackers have had access to the patient record of 27.8 million patients (Landi, 2019). Despite the threat posed by hackers, the article notes that insiders in the health care organization also pose a risk to the security and privacy of the patients. In 2019, insiders have been responsible for 20% of the breaches. In effect, 3 million patient records are now in the wrong hands (Landi, 2019). Insiders have a good reason to access the records. Therefore, there use of such records for irregular purposes is not easy to detect.
Medical facilities have to make use of advanced methods to detect irregular access by insiders. According to the article, it takes an average of 214 days to discover a breach (Landi, 2019). By the time of discovery, the information is already in the wrong hands. Some organizations even take as long as five years to discover irregularities by their employees. The emergence of many insider breaches emphasizes the importance of audits and routine training in healthcare facilities. Some of the end-users of the patient information might be ignorant of their responsibility to guard crucial patient information. Regular awareness keeps them focused on what they need to do to maintain the privacy of the patients.
Third-party vendors occasioned 9% of the breaches and it affected 23 million individuals. To third-party vendors, hacking is also a significant challenge (Chang & Choi, 2016). The article emphasizes the need to improve security and privacy in healthcare. Patients should not fear to provide critical information to medical practitioners because it is the only way to receive proper and conclusive treatment. If nurses comply with the law to the latter, breaches can reduce significantly. Healthcare facilities also have a role to play in making their systems inaccessible to the intruders.
Informatics in healthcare is a combination of information technology and nursing. By definition, nursing informatics is the integration of nursing information with information communication technology (Patel & Kannampallil, 2015). The main aim of informatics is to support the provision of health service to individuals. Informatics facilitates the processing of patient information to aid in the formulation of treatment methods and quick transfer of information from one point of care to another.
Informatics is transforming healthcare in many ways. Health is exorbitantly expensive to many individuals. According to estimates, close to having of the expenditure is health goes to repeat procedures (Chang & Choi, 2016). Other expenses go to the traditional methods of sharing information, error in the delivery of care and delays in offering the services. An electronic system in the facility resolves such challenges. Informatics facilitates the quick transmission of lab results to the intended recipients and that reduces the risk of malpractices occasioned by delays. Informatics drives efficiency in a system where incompetence and obstruction existed.
The reference of medicine as a practice stems from the fact that healthcare providers should constantly hone their skills and learn more each day. Healthcare informatics provides options to share patient information easily among professionals. The rapid passing of patient information back and for the between the medical practitioners enhances the delivery of services. Within the chain of care in health facilities, the efficiency of distinctive roles of the practitioners such as administrators and pharmacists depend on the fast transmission of information.
Informatics also enhances the participation of patients in their own care. Patients can access their medical history and the recommendations by the doctors electronically (Chang & Choi, 2016). The empowerment provided to the patients gives them the perspective of taking care of their health more seriously. Informatics provides patients with access to care portals and they can educate themselves on their prognoses and diagnoses. The patients also keep tracks of their symptoms and required medication. The patients also interact with nurses and doctors more easily. Therefore, the likelihood of better outcomes is high. Healthcare informatics makes patients part of the healthcare team.
One of the main criticisms of informatics is that it is making provision of care more impersonal each day. In the conventional form of medicine, doctors have regular day-to-day interactions with the patients. In informatics, the duty of care relies on algorithms and data. The data demonstrates the condition of the patients but the algorithms determine the order of offering treatment to the patients. So far, the effects of the method of treatment have not had a catastrophic turn. However, the practice of healthcare is becoming more and more impersonal each day. The required care depends on the accurate recording of patient information by practitioners with direct contact.
Informatics also enhances specialization in healthcare. Today, patients receive care from close to a dozen people in a single hospital stay (Chang & Choi, 2016). The number of specialists required is on the rise because of the increased demand for better coordination. Numerous conversations such as the type of medication required, the appropriate nutrition, x-ray results and physical therapy session all require the input of a specific specialist. Unless each of the specialists has a single conversation, challenges are likely to arise and the patients might suffer from not receiving the required form of care. Healthcare informatics makes coordination a necessity.
The most imperative input of infographics in healthcare is the enhancement of outcomes. The healthcare records lead to higher quality care because the team has better coordination and the diagnosis provided is accurate. The chances of errors are minimal with the application of informatics. Doctors and nurses enhance their efficiency and that frees up the time that they can spend with patients. The medical practitioners have more free time because the jobs that were manual in conventional medicine are now automatic. The healthcare facilities save on time and money. The governments, insurance companies, and the patients also save on medical costs.
In essence, information technology is a key pillar in the present and future of healthcare. In the last two decades, most of the spending of automation on medicine only applied to administration (Chang & Choi, 2016). Informatics shifts the technological expansion now to clinical processes. Patient care is a primary need in the broadening of concepts in healthcare technology. To protect the benefits of healthcare informatics it is imperative to put certain measures in place to protect crucial patient information. Safety focused initiatives can enhance and improve the performance of the teams. The patient safety mostly involves limiting the likelihood of mistakes that can put patient information at risk.
One of the ways of ensuring protecting patients in health practices is the establishment of a safety management system. Occupation Safety and Health administration guidelines oblige healthcare providers to formulate guidelines to protect patients from any form of risk (Jayaraman, Saleh, & King, 2019). To ensure compliance with the safety protocols, it is important to involve all employees in the process of decision-making. Additionally, administrators should conduct performance reviews. The assessments are an indicator of whether the organization is achieving the intended outcomes. The indicators are good because they lead to some adjustments that might be necessary.
Additionally, health organizations can build rapid response systems. In the case of a breach, the system established outlines the right measures to react to mitigate the level of damage (Chang & Choi, 2016). The procedures also outline ways of recovering the data and commencement of service delivery in the health facilities. Healthcare administrators are also required to report incidents of the breach to the relevant oversight and investigation authorities immediately. The sooner the report the better. Patients also need notification if their private information has leaked. The information to the patients enables them to take safety precautions to protect crucial aspects such as their finances. One of the most targeted elements of information from patient records is credit card information.
Making sure that all members of the organization understand the safety precautions in place is also critical. Apart from training the managers and the members of staff, the organization needs to go step further by providing regular updates because the hackers improve their methods each time. Each of the employees should understand the role that they have to play in maintaining patient safety standards. A clear outline of the safety standards should also have a set of consequences to accompany it. Employees who fall short the standards set in place should be ready for reprimand. However, the employees also need empowering to enable them to spot any elements of risk in the set up recommended by the health facility. The administrators should have an open door policy to discuss such challenges with the staff members.
Healthcare facilities should also develop a safety compliance plan in the medical facilities. The system can help the administrators to monitor how the employees are following the laid down procedures (Chang & Choi, 2016). The healthcare boards can use the results of such assessments to adjust the policies according to the arising needs. The compliance programs improve the organization in many ways. For instance, the facility can build trust as an organization that is responsible and concerned about the interests of the patients. Secondly, the facility can make standards that are suitable for a particular community segment. An effective centralized compliance segment requires the involvement of officers to supervise the operations.
The patients also need to understand the safety precautions in the medical facilities. Informatics has procedures to involve the patients in treatment. A well-educated patient can Help medical practitioners in avoiding certain medical errors. Additionally, it is important for patients to understand that certain health practices are applicable to individual practices. Empowered patients participate in their own recovery process and planning. Therefore, the role of medical providers is consultation and guidance.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a standard set by the government to protect sensitive information by patients. All entities that deal with crucial patient information should have security measures in place that comply with HIPAA (Chang & Choi, 2016). The rules protect the privacy of the health information of the patients and it allows facilities to adopt technologies that can improve the efficiency and quality of care. Nevertheless, the rules are flexible enough to allow health facilities to come up with more regulations that are suitable for individual settings.
Technical and physical safeguards form part of the HIPAA regulations. One of the rules is that the medical facility should be in a physically secure location (Tenenbaum et al., 2016). Secondly, the policy limits the uses of any foreign forms of media such as cameras in medical facilities. The rules also impose restrictions on the transfer and disposing of any forms of media used in the health facilities. Technical safeguards include the use of unique identification procedures by the medical staff while accessing certain parts of the facility.
The need for data security in health facilities has increased significantly over the years with the rise in the use of electronic patient data. Today, high-quality treatment depends on the acceleration of data from one practitioner to another. The introduction of informatics in healthcare has enhanced service provisions significantly. Therefore, going back on the gains made is not an option despite the numerous risks. Health facilities need to comply with government regulations and formulate more rules to protect patient data. Medical practitioners also need to take better care of the information entrusted to them. A practitioner should access the information only on a need basis. The government investigative agencies should also enhance the crackdown on hackers to protect the gain achieved in healthcare.
References
Chang, H., & Choi, M. (2016). Big data and healthcare: building an augmented world. Healthcare informatics research, 22(3), 153-155.
Jayaraman, R., Saleh, K., & King, N. (2019). Improving Opportunities in healthcare supply chain processes via the Internet of Things and Blockchain Technology. International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics (IJHISI), 14(2), 49-65.
Landi, H. (2019). 32M Patient Records Breached in 2019. That’s Double all of 2018, Protenus Reports. FierceHealthcare. Retrieved from https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/32m-patient-records-breach-2019-double-all-2018-protenus-reports.
Patel, V. L., & Kannampallil, T. G. (2015). Cognitive informatics in biomedicine and healthcare. Journal of biomedical informatics, 53, 3-14.
Tenenbaum, J. D., Avillach, P., Benham-Hutchins, M., Breitenstein, M. K., Crowgey, E. L., Hoffman, M. A., … & Ray, B. (2016). An informatics research agenda to support precision medicine: seven key areas. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 23(4), 791-795.
