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Technology in the Perinatal Care Setting
Health information system (HIT) plays an important role in the healthcare delivery system. Be as it may, leaders working in the healthcare system strongly support that information technology is the best strategy to promote patient safety. In the perinatal care, nurses apply the use of information technology in keeping health records, decision support systems, as well as medication safety devices that help in guiding service provisions.
The healthcare system is often complex and fragmented. There exist quite a large number of healthcare provides, a lot of models used to document and store information as well as different players involved in the system. As a result, it may lead to errors in patient care, miscommunication, increased cost as well as duplicative test. Therefore, the use of technology can help to tackle these problems effectively and efficiently (In Vlad & In Ciupa, 2014). For instance, electronic health records (EHR) can help in keeping information about patients in the perinatal care.
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Technology helps to facilitate interoperability in the perinatal care setting. Interoperability refers to the ability of a system to function as well as interact with another system within a specific background without any access or implementation barriers (IGI Global & IRMA, 2015). This is very important in the perinatal care settings, especially in the obstetric environment. The reason is that patient often changes venues for the care she progresses right from conception, pregnancy period, intrapartum, and postpartum.
Therefore, by use of health information systems enable interoperability between admission, discharge, transfer, pharmacy, critical care, laboratory, and the emergency room. Greater efficiency in accessibility of patient data: Use of technology allows faster transfer of medical history in a medical emergency when the patient changes the venue, healthcare center or even the doctor.
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Use of technology such as health information system increases work efficiency: With the ease of access to information about patients and the use of technology in the provision of perinatal care, nurses can focus on providing patient care. Nurses are also able to serve patients faster and thus improve work efficiency.
Use of health information technology also enables healthcare practitioners to have an all inclusive and up-to-date medical history. Health information technology (HIT) keeps three sets of records. These records can be grouped into, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), Personal Health Records (PHRs), and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) which are essential for the overall health care of a patient.
Electronic Health Records are essential and can be shared with a different medical institution so as to give accurate, complete historical medical information of the client (Thomas-Brogan, 2009).
However, use of technology in the perinatal care setting has its disadvantages. First of all, it is quite expensive to acquire sophisticated health technology. This is challenging in the healthcare and organization should consider if the cost of high technology is economically viable.
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Secondly, technology in the healthcare settings requires time to adapt. This is because technology is a dynamic concept and keeps on evolving. Therefore, many at times there will be the invention of new hardware’s, software’s, upgrades and the way of doing things in the healthcare setting. Thus, the best strategy is that the hospital staff should keep abreast with such changes in technology.
Similarly, overdependence on technology may be a problem. This is because computer systems may face technical error. Such an error is crucial in an emergency setting and may result in loss of life. Therefore, Healthcare providers should keep a backup of all the information kept in the Health Information System for Emergency retrieval of data.
Finally, use of technology raises ethical and legal issues. Be as it may, patient health information should always be kept confidential. However, use of computer systems may result in unethical behaviors. For instance, people may hack health care system networks and retrieve important information concerning patient’s health information and medical health history. Therefore, it is essential to develop security measures to safeguard such information from being accessed by authorized users. This can be achieved by using different user level passwords.
References
In Vlad, S., & In Ciupa, R. V. (2014). International Conference on Advancements of Medicine and Health Care through Technology: 5th-7th June 2014, Cluj-Napoca, Romania : MEDITECH 2014.
IGI Global,, & In Information Resources Management Association, IRMA,. (2015). Healthcare administration: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications.
Thomas-Brogan, T. (2009). Health information technology basics: A concise guide to principles and practice. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett.
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