Health Information Technology: HHS Should Assess the Effectiveness of Its Efforts to Enhance Patient Access to and Use of Electronic Health Information” by the United States Government Accountability Office (2017) because it explains different aspects of electronic health information.
“Health Information Technology: HHS Should Evaluate the Effectiveness of Its Efforts to Enhance Patient Access to and Use of Electronic Health Information,” published by the United States Government Accountability Office (2017), was my choice for this assignment because it explains various aspects of electronic health information. The Department of Health and Human Services’ goal, according to the report, is for all Americans to be able to access their health information electronically. The Medicare HER Program and other initiatives that encourage healthcare professionals to ensure that patient health information is available and that patients may easily analyze that information are examples of initiatives that have been put in place to attain these aims.
The article devotes a significant amount of space to detailing the scope and types of electronic access to healthcare information that are already available to patients, as well as the perspectives of patients on such access. It also covers how patients have been electronically assessing their information, as well as what healthcare practitioners are doing to facilitate this type of access to information. Furthermore, the Department of Health and Human Services’ initiatives to improve patients’ capacity to access their health information electronically are discussed in the article.
Contents of the Report
Patients’ access to and use of electronic health information can be improved, which can have a positive impact on patient treatment. Allowing patients to access their medical information through patient portals and other online methods has a number of obvious advantages. The goal is for them to be better informed as a result of this. The information contained in their health records is intended to encourage people to consider playing a more active part in their own care by providing them with additional information. It is possible that the function will require you to remember to evaluate test results or to refill medicines. When patients are given greater access to their health information, they are given the opportunity to make more informed decisions and to participate more fully in the decision-making process when it comes to selecting their treatment plans.
To make it possible for people to obtain health information, advances in healthcare technologies are required. It is possible for health care professionals and organizations to limit or eliminate mistakes by maintaining electronic records and updating them, as well as granting patients the authority to access their information. A further consideration is that when patients review their documentation, it should be designed in such a way that it is easier for them to identify errors with regard to their own personal information, prescriptions, and other components of their treatment plans. Accordingly, healthcare practitioners should consider utilizing devices or techniques that might Help them in accurately and securely storing information on patients and patients’ medical records. Furthermore, healthcare professionals must make use of electronic sign-out and hand-off systems that can prevent the omission of critical patient information from their records (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017).
Conclusion
In the field of patient care, health information technology plays an important role. The fact that healthcare facilities are devising new methods of electronically storing patient information and providing patients with access to that information has elevated them to the status of comprehensive collaborators in the development of treatment regimens. Improving their health outcomes can only be accomplished by raising their level of participation. Because I aim to become a future health administrator, I believe that obtaining correct patient information and granting patients the authority to access their health information will help us, the patients, and myself make more educated decisions about our treatment plans. It will also provide an excellent opportunity for the patient to express their thoughts on the treatment, as they rely on the advise of their healthcare professionals.

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