Abstract

A patient’s history is one of the most important things that matters to them and the health facility at large. The subsequent series of diagnoses and treatments are usually influenced by the past experiences, especially if the illness is recurrent. One of the outstanding qualities a health facility goes by is its ability to provide an esteemed patient care unit. That includes being able to accurately store the patient’s details and retrieve the information when they visit next. The immediate history of the patient may not be as useful but a keen study on the patterns of the patient over time is an eye opener to underlying conditions that the health care practitioner might be ignoring or missing out on. With the variety of health care professionals in a health care facility, such as nurses, doctors, physicians, social workers, etc., a specialized health information system comes in handy. It is important to document a patient’s care history for their safety and wellbeing. With authorized access, the right practitioner can retrieve the information and use it in aid of the patient. In such a case, the professionals at the hospital use medical records to improve communication among themselves. A physician or therapist could easily refer their patient to another for further treatment. Inter-hospital transfers also require a patient’s treatment history so that they can continue to treat the patient in the right way.

 

 

 

 

 

HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS

A good HIS eliminates confusion among co-workers. With the recent emerging technologies, these systems are getting better with every update. They are more user-friendly and come with well-detailed manuals that guide the intended users on how to go about the system. In case the hospital would like to claim payment or reimbursement for the services they offered to the patient, it is the HIS that is sought to provide the relevant information and cumulative bill to be paid. Health insurances require evidence from the hospital to deal with the claims.

A HIS is an integrated system that covers a wide range of aspects including aiding in the possibility of incorporation of natural language processing. See once the system has the relevant data loaded onto it, it can process it into meaningful information that may serve useful to the patient and doctor.

The Nursing Information Systems (NIS) belongs to the nurses in the health care facility, and it helps them give their patients better forms of treatment (Rajković, Janković, & Tošić, 2009). As we have mentioned above, the information system can be used to make the monitoring of patients better and easier. The nurses also get to benefit as their schedules are known before avoid any mix-up. A nurse will know when they are supposed to end their shifts and switch. With this kind of system, the workers are aware of when and where to be at particular times. It becomes easier to ask for a leave of absence in case of an emergency to attend to. Nurses can also get to apply their overtime in case there are payments to be made. This way, the required nurses are always present.

Clinical data in one place means better interpretation using the different available tools. Patient record analysis is the final step after all the appropriate information gets keyed into the HIS. Patients who have been admitted need close monitoring. With daily records of their progress, the nurses can tell which medicine to put on hold, which to add, and which to keep using. The pre-recorded information present in the system helps eradicate the possibility of misdiagnosis and treatment thereby preventing a lot of errors. This way, nurses come up with a proper patient care plan.

A good HIS has the following attributes:

• Affordable for the quality package it offers. Every hospital selects a HIS system depending on its needs and requirements.
• It is web based. The availability of the database system online ensures easy access to the information by the authorized users. It is also easy to share the records with another hospital in case of referrals.
• Continued support from the HIS provider is essential to enhance better usage of the system. They should provide training from the start to the hospital staff and be ready to fix the system in case of any glitches.

How The Departmental HIS Contributes To The EHR

Electronic Health Records come about when a patient’s medical visits are monitored and stored over several visits to the hospital. These records may be life-long, right from the time of birth.  Chronic illnesses that require constant medical attention are studied over time to see if there are any forthcoming changes in the patient’s condition. Technology has given the clinical process a boost with the core aim being quality patient care. It is the information the nurses collect from the patients that are entered in the Health information system and over time analysis makes it available in the Electronic health records.

According to the American Nurses Association, the science of nursing has been integrated with technology to bring about management and communication of data and information. The health information systems use information technology to enhance the outcomes of their patients, to manage the health facilities better, educate nurses and enable them further their research (Kamel & Wheeler, 2007). This documentation of a patient’s health records is important for the individualized treatment. Nurses or other physicians interested in the information can retrieve a patient’s records and provide better treatment based on the history. They can also be used to further research on the particular illness. 

The following health information about a patient is present on an electronic health record, according to health experts. Administrative and billing data, patient demographics, progress notes, medical histories, diagnoses, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, lab and test results. All this data is entered into the health information system independently from the different departments and integrated into the electronic health records.

Use of multiple information systems

Health facilities have adopted the use of multiple information systems due to some factors. The different departments in the hospital have their roles accordingly shared, and this is why it is necessary to have multiple information systems so that they can easily enter and retrieve the information relevant to them. A nurse in the ICU can easily enter their patient information right from their department without having to take records to the IT department for entry. This routine saves a lot of time and effort for both the patient and nurse and this way the patient receives improved care and monitoring. Ultimately, the nurses have more time to write their reports and submit them on time.

The hospital network gets optimized for efficient communication across the different departments. Information can be easily accessed from a different department remotely with the use of the multiple information systems upon integration. In such systems, you will find a section for patient care as well as managerial information on how the administration runs. Research has proved that such systems have brought about better return on investment and improved service delivery to the whole hospital fraternity.

The use of multiple information systems leads to a centralized and integrated database that can be exploited by the hospital to make it run more efficiently (Hillestad, et al., 2005). The network system can be linked up with other external parties relating to the hospital such as delivery of medical supplies and meals leading to a smoothly running management. Such compatibilities enhance the hospital’s competitiveness in the best patient care delivery. Strategic benefits get reaped from the system with the integration of medical records, patient billing, third-party payers, laboratory and referring physician’s subsystems and the hospital medical staff work in unison to develop the system.

The health information system workflow in the nursing department has greatly improved since the adoption of the electronic patient records. Nurses are concerned with the needs of the patients with which they can use to provide better individual care. These needs not only involve the physical medical needs but psychological and philosophical too. The nurses are trained to understand their patients so as to treat them better.

The well designed HIS enables easier and faster relay of information, and patients get their documentation processed quickly. Nurses coordinate, monitor and deliver good patient care diligently to ensure an effective flow of procedures. Nurses have gotten more proficient at their patient care and treatment work thanks to the health information systems. This way the shifts are handled more efficiently and reduced workload has been witnessed. It takes up the analogy of Florence Nightingale who used evidence-based practice and decision-making in her quest to improve the state of healthcare.

Despite all these positive results, the HIS still face barriers. Security is a key concern, especially if the patient’s information falls into the wrong hands. The system service provider should ensure reinforced levels of security (AbuKhousa, Mohamed & Al-Jaroodi, 2012). Some nurses who were caught up in the transition also aren’t accustomed to the system and need extra training. Continuity is key and primary care is being linked with the hospital data. At the national level, patient records are important in allocation of the public health policies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Rajković, P., Janković, D., & Tošić, V. (2009, December). A software solution for ambulatory healthcare facilities in the Republic of Serbia. In e-Health Networking, Applications and Services, 2009. Healthcom 2009. 11th International Conference on (pp. 161-168). IEEE.

Kamel Boulos, M. N., & Wheeler, S. (2007). The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and healthcare education1. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 24(1), 2-23.

AbuKhousa, E., Mohamed, N., & Al-Jaroodi, J. (2012). e-Health Cloud: opportunities and challenges. Future Internet, 4(3), 621-645.

Hillestad, R., Bigelow, J., Bower, A., Girosi, F., Meili, R., Scoville, R., & Taylor, R. (2005). Can electronic medical record systems transform health care? Potential health benefits, savings, and costs. Health Affairs, 24(5), 1103-1117.