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 legibility difficulties that are attributable to prescription errors and consequent treatment failures.
Health communication technologies have been utilized in various healthcare settings. CPOE and EHR are examples of these technologies. These systems have found considerable significance in ensuring the safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of healthcare delivery processes. These systems thus impact clinical outcomes positively.
References
Baumann, L., Baker, J., & Elshaug, A. (2018). The impact of electronic health record systems on clinical documentation times: A systematic review. Health Policy, 122(8), 827-836. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2018.05.014
Collins, C., & Elsaid, K. (2016). Using an enhanced oral chemotherapy computerized provider order entry system to reduce prescribing errors and improve safety. International Journal For Quality In Health Care, 23(1), 36-43. DOI: 10.1093/intqhc/mzq066
Rahimi, R., Kazemi, A., Moghaddasi, H., Arjmandi Rafsanjani, K., & Bahoush, G. (2018). Specifications of Computerized Provider Order Entry and Clinical Decision Support Systems for Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review. Chemotherapy, 63(3), 162-171. DOI: 10.1159/000489503
Schopf, T., Nedrebø, B., Hufthammer, K., Daphu, I., & Lærum, H. (2019). How well does the electronic health record support the clinical tasks of hospital physicians? A survey of physicians at three Norwegian hospitals. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). DOI: 10.1186/s12913-019-4763-0
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
We’ll write everything from scratch
Question 
Course Competency:
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
Instructions
You have just walked into your first steering committee meeting and quickly see this committee is ready to move forward with leveraging technology specific to communication. As the nursing delegate, you have been tasked with creating a comparative analysis of two communication technologies and how they can be used to improve communication between healthcare teams, as well as how they can influence patient outcomes. Before the next monthly committee meeting, they want you to send them a comparative analysis using a format of your choice (i.e., table) of two communication technologies that you feel best to improve safety and quality healthcare. Write a comparative analysis including the following:
Discuss the two selected communication technologies you have chosen with support from scholarly research.
Describe the function of each technology
Analyze how it is used in the healthcare setting
Examine how the two selected technologies can be used to improve communication among the healthcare team.
Provide a specific practice example from the literature to support how each technology has been shown to improve communication among the healthcare team.
Discuss how each communication technology has been shown to improve patient outcomes.
Identify evidence from the literature to support how each technology has been shown to impact patient outcomes.