The increase in patient mortality and morbidity in hospitals had reached intolerable levels due to adverse events as evidenced by the 2009 Institute of Medicine report titled “To Err is Human.” This state led to low-quality health care, deterioration of patients, hospitals, and the general public, in turn, causing the healthcare system high costs(Young, 1994). The technology was considered one of the strategies to improve the situation and deliver quality health care, sound organizational management and efficient use of human and material resources. This paper examines the how technology has impacted the healthcare trend in care delivery, employee performance, organizational structure and management planning in the University of Washington Medical Center.
Scope of the Senior Project
The project will cover four main aspects; first, professional group perspectives that includes workflow planning and analysis, user perspectives, staffing, and resource allocation secondly, organizational perspective in terms of the culture, leadership and external partnerships. Next, the healthcare delivery perspective that includes the quality of care, patient outcome and satisfaction. Lastly, technical perspective that narrows down to hardware and software issues and usage.
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Discussion
In efforts to redeem the health care service delivery, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 were brought into action. ACA introduced the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program in attempts to improve the quality of care by rewarding acute-care health centers (Blavin et al., 2013). ARRA, on the other hand, introduced the Health information technology to foster healthcare improvement and reform. As a result of the two legislations, healthcare administrators are now capacitated to appraise evidence and design proper management of human and material resources. Through health information technology, interdisciplinary communication and practitioner performance has been greatly improved.
These Acts have challenged hospital administrators as they appraise the evidence and formulate how to direct valuable human and material resources in efforts to meet the provisions of both the ARRA and the ACA The use of health IT is one promising system-level initiative that may improve provider performance and interdisciplinary communication, reduce adverse patient events, and ultimately improve patient satisfaction with care. Enhanced communication facilitates informed decision-making thus improving practitioner performance which in return yields positive patient outcomes leading to client satisfaction. Also, in work environment where communication is effective, there are better transitions of care and data management becomes easy. A case in consideration is the use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) which facilitates effective communication through various provider sessions thus beneficial to both providers and patients. This electronic communication is important in the nursing documentation, an aspect that facilitates a safe transition of care. Furthermore, incorporation of technology leads to improved management of organizational finances through informed staff and resource allocation, tracking and management (Blavin et al., 2013). The integration of technology in financial management systems has led to the processing of quality metrics thus lowering operating expenses, increased productivity, efficiency in resource use, and value for money.
The integration and proper use of communication technology such as EHRs, emailing, use of pagers and computerized order entry have helped to eliminate physician-nurse communication failures that led to adverse events. Proper usage of EHRs has led to a reduction of patient readmissions and prolonged length of stay in hospitals. The EHRs have also had an impact on the quality of nursing care and increased patient satisfaction (Blavin et al., 2013).
The application of new technologies in care provision has helped improve clinical outcomes in patients such as those suffering from heart disease, diabetes, asthma and the fragile aging patients. On nursing staff, technology has aided in freeing up staff capacity, fostered job satisfaction through collaboration and team working thus giving all staff equal opportunities to participate in new job tasks. The impact leads to multidisciplinary problem solving, team building, and socialization among medical staff.
Summary
The incorporation of new communication, technical and information technologies into healthcare has seen significant impacts in healthcare delivery, patient outcome and satisfaction, human resource utilization, innovation in practice, healthcare research, resource use and cost efficiency However, the use of technology implies staff training and development on the use of technology in accordance to practice guidelines in order to achieve optimum results.
References
Blavin, F., Ramos, C., Shah, A., & Devers, K. (2013). Final report: Lessons from the literature on electronic health record implementation . Washington D.C.: The Urban Institute. https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/hit_lessons_learned_lit_review_final_08-01-2013.pdf
Young, D. (1994). The role of technology in the cost of health care "Is there a conflict between improved health delivery and lowering costs?". Health Care Technology Policy I: The Role of Technology in the Cost of Health Care . doi:10.1109/hctp.1994.721285
