Health caregivers strive to provide quality services to patients. The health care industry has implemented various factors to ensure that the patient receives top-notch medical attention. Quality health care service is associated with patient satisfaction. These factors ensure that a patient experiences quality, safe, and patient-centered care.
Technological changes in the healthcare industry have contributed to the quality of patient care. The digitalization of healthcare records has improved medical services. Electronic health records have been efficient by replacing paper records as a patient's entire medical record can be accessed in one click. This has contributed to lesser medical mistakes as conditions and allergies on the records can be recognized earlier. Electronic medical records have helped in the tracking of outbreaks enabling the medical practitioners to implement preventive measures. Digitalized records have contributed to lowering the cost of healthcare and reduced outpatient costs by three percent.
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Laws, regulations and policies particularly ensure evidence based healthcare. At the same time, they enhance adherence to safety protocols. Medical practitioners are mandated to ensure a high quality of services, failure to which they could attract liabilities related to negligence and other common mistakes. Most importantly, there are laws and policies that ensure patient safety. The FDA, for example, is an entity whose policies protect the general public against healthcare related products or procedures that are harmful.
Mobile health is defined by the practice of medicine supported by portable devices ( Bhavnani et al., 2016). Mobile equipment is used to access the patient's medical history, initiate follow-ups, and send medical prescriptions to patients. Patients can download mobile health apps, tools that improve health awareness and communication between the patient and healthcare givers; they are cost-effective. These apps assist in health areas such as mental health, medical references, fitness and weight loss, and chronic care management. Telemedicine is the transmission of health care data; this technology helps monitor a patient's vital health signs and symptoms from a healthcare facility. Device evolution has permitted monitoring multiple psychotic parameters such as blood pressure, weight, and heart rate (Bhavnani et al., 2016). This has benefited the patient by ensuring shorter waiting times for patients, healthcare access and improvement in the rural areas, and cost-effectiveness due to efficiency.
Communication is an essential aspect of healthcare provision. Healthcare facilities with the right communication strategies ensure the safety of their patients. Improving communication for healthcare safety is imperative (Bueno et al., 2016). Effective communication reduces the chances of medical errors. Interhospital communication is essential when transferring a patent to another facility as it enables the healthcare practitioners in the receiving end to access medical records and vital medical equipment required to attend to the patient. Intrahospital communication between practitioners in the same facility is equally important as it contributes to the coordination of surgeries, appointments, and tests.
Collaboration in the healthcare industry is vital for both the patient and the medical facility (Karlsson et al., 2020). It has improved the quality of healthcare provision. It ensures the participation of all healthcare disciplines and patient engagement. Collaboration improves patient-care and outcomes as the patient is handled by a team of different healthcare givers who attend to the patient according to their specialties. For instance, a patient might require the attendance of a surgeon, a dietician, a therapist, and a social worker to recover.
Collaboration has helped reduce medical errors and misdiagnoses by ensuring that all departments in a facility have adequate information to treat patients effectively. This has contributed to the patient's safety resulting in low mortality rates. Collaboration has also helped the patient start their treatment early before their condition worsens. The right information is delivered to the right team at the right time. Collaboration has reduced inefficiencies and healthcare costs. This has been achieved by reducing medical errors and ensuring healthcare workers' efficiency for better outcomes, thus reducing the overall healthcare costs.
Shared decision making has improved patient-centered care. This has been enabled through healthcare givers and patients discussing and agreeing on significant treatment decisions. Shared decision making requires both parties to; participate in decision making, understand the benefits and risks of presented options, and consider each other's values and preferences. Shared decision-making has helped patients make informed and effective choices that have contributed to their recovery and satisfaction. It has also strengthened and improved communication channels between the patient and the healthcare givers.
Communication and collaboration between healthcare team members have improved healthcare quality and assured patients' safety by reducing medical errors. Ineffective communication among healthcare providers can be harmful to patients as it is a leading cause of medical errors (Bueno et al., 2016). Healthcare providers have ensured effective methods of sharing information in the health facilities. The team members often exchange information and integrate medical records to familiarize themselves with their patient's condition, therefore providing full medical attention resulting in a positive outcome.
Communication and collaboration between the patient and the medical staff have contributed to enhancing the patient's service and safety. The patients are encouraged to communicate their medical history to the healthcare practitioners to receive immediate medical attention and for assistance in making informed decisions. The teamwork between doctor and patient has helped reduce healthcare costs as the patient informs the doctor of existing medical conditions reducing the testing costs. This has also reduced medical errors and improved the patient's safety resulting in low mortality rates. Communication and collaboration between healthcare providers and patients have helped to create awareness of illnesses and dispatch information on preventive or curative measures.
High-driven specialization has involved healthcare services in multiple organizations providing opportunity and efficiency (Karlsson et al., 2020). Communication and collaboration involving insurance companies have benefited the patient by allowing faster and more improved services, including renewals and claims. It has also strengthened the relationship between the policyholder and the insurer. Health care facilities have developed suitable reimbursement procedures through communication and collaboration with the healthcare industry.
References
Bhavnani, S. P., Narula, J., & Sengupta, P. P. (2016). Mobile technology and the digitization of healthcare. European heart journal , 37 (18), 1428-1438.
Bueno, C. C., Almeida, P. R., Clark, L. G., & Clark, O. A. (2016). IMPROVING PATIENT SAFETY THROUGH COMMUNICATION: A BRAZILIAN PERSPECTIVE. Value in Health , 19 (3), A286.
Karlsson, M., Garvare, R., Zingmark, K., & Nordström, B. (2020). Organizing for sustainable inter-organizational collaboration in health care processes. Journal of Interprofessional Care , 34 (2), 241-250.
