Differentiate the impact of various communication technologies on safety and quality improvement. Content: Scenario You are a staff nurse at Healing Spaces Hospital. Through your dedication and passion for healthcare technologies, you have been voted as the nursing delegate to sit on the Emerging Innovations Steering Committee. In preparing for your first committee meeting, you have read through the meeting minutes from last year and determined what the past nursing delegate had achieved and what future goals were set for this specific role. The meeting minutes from last month show that the steering committee is currently looking at emerging communication technologies and how the hospital can leverage cost-effective technological advances. In preparation for the first meeting, you created a list of best practices based on your scholarly research and action plans for leveraging these into practice. Using Technology to Promote Patient Safety and Quality Outcomes Using Technology to Pro
Using Technology to Promote Patient Safety and Quality Outcomes
Efficient and effective delivery of healthcare services is dependent on the flow of health information. In the wake of advancing technologies across the globe, various healthcare-related technological advances have emerged that are aimed at optimizing care within the healthcare system. Communication technologies, for instance, have been integrated into the mainstream healthcare provision systems, with the result being enhanced, safe, and effective care provision. This paper seeks to analyze various communication technologies utilized within the healthcare system and their significance in optimizing care provision.
Electronic health records and computerized provider order entry systems have found significant utility in various healthcare provision centers. Electronic health records (EHR) are systems that record and document a patient’s health data. These are the electronic versions of the patients’ paper charts that make the health data of the patients available to authorized personnel. Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems, on the other hand, are applications that enable electronic entry of medical orders by healthcare providers in various healthcare settings, such as ambulatory and inpatient, among others (Rahimi, Kazemi, Moghaddasi, Arjmandi Rafsanjani & Bahoush, 2018). These systems have found considerable utility in the majority of healthcare settings around the globe.
EHR has been utilized to record health data. This system captures patients’ health information, documents it, and makes it available to authorized personnel. Information such as the patient’s medical and medication history, diagnosis, and any other information relevant to healthcare providers are documented in this system. The system thus gives its users a wider perspective of the patients, thereby enabling them to make accurate and more informed clinical decisions on the patient (Schopf, Nedrebø, Hufthammer, Daphu & Lærum, 2019). CPOE serves as an order entry system that is utilized by health providers in various medical orders, such as laboratory diagnostic orders, medical procedure orders, and referral orders, among others.
The significance of these systems is evident in their ability to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of care delivery processes. EHR considerably decreases the downtime in information flow that would have otherwise been experienced with the conventional paper-pen information passage. Additionally, EHR ensures accurate passage of information by enabling access to patient information to all healthcare providers, thus minimizing distortion of information as it exchanges hands among members of healthcare teams. This also ensures a significant reduction in provider-related medical errors attributable to information variation as would have been experienced by the traditional paper charts (Schopf, Nedrebø, Hufthammer, Daphu & Lærum, 2019). The overall effect is enhanced efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of healthcare provision processes.
CPOE also enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of care provision. Electronic entry of medical orders is significant in minimizing time wastages that would have otherwise been incurred by the traditional order systems. This system also enhances the safety of care provision by ensuring that legible medical orders are received by those for whom the orders are intended. These systems can also be integrated with clinical decision support systems that offer tools that aid in clinical decision-making (Rahimi, Kazemi, Moghaddasi, Arjmandi Rafsanjani & Bahoush, 2018). The significance of this system in ensuring accurate passage of medical orders makes it valuable in reducing medication and provider-related errors as well as in informing clinical decisions that ensure patient safety.
EHR and CPOE systems have been documented as systems that greatly improve healthcare communication. According to (Baumann, Baker & Elshaug, 2018), EHR integration into the mainstream healthcare provision system could potentially reduce workflow inefficiencies, thus enhancing the effectiveness of care provision processes. This is due to their ability to reduce interruption among the healthcare staff as well as allow multitasking of healthcare providers with the resultant enhancement of efficiency and effectiveness. The overall effect is often evident in enhanced clinical outcomes and provider satisfaction. CPOE also ensures better clinical outcomes by ensuring the reduction in provider-related medical errors attributable to legibility and fast delivery of medical orders (Collins & Elsaid, 2016). Additionally, this article reinforces the significance of this system in promoting communication within healthcare teams by ensuring precision in medical communications and elimination of