Online Undergraduate Course
NURS 450 - RN to BSN Transition: Implications for Practice, Policy and the Profession
Module 12: Informatics
Health information technology
Health information technology (HIT) involves the processing, storage, and exchange of health information in an electronic environment. Several factors have pushed HIT within the health care industry will improve the quality of health care, prevent medical errors, reduce health care costs, increase administrative efficiencies, decrease paperwork, and expand access to affordable health care. It is imperative that the privacy and security of electronic health information be ensured as this information is maintained and transmitted electronically (Department of Health and Human Services, 2019).
The integration of health information technology (HIT) into health care includes a variety of electronic methods that are used to manage information about people's health and health care, for both individual patients and groups of patients. The use of HIT can improve the quality of care, even as it makes health care more cost effective. Several examples of HIT to improve care delivery, care coordination, patient engagement, and patient safety are:
- Clinical decision support (https://www.healthit.gov/topic/safety/clinical-decision-support)
- Computerized disease registries (https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-diseaseimmunization-registry)
- Computerized provider order entry (https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-computerized-provider-order-entry)
- Electronic health records (EHRs) (https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/E-Health/EHealthRecords)
- Personal health records (PHRs) (https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-personal-health-record)
- Patient portal (https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-patient-portal)
- Telehealth (https://telehealth.hhs.gov/)
(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2019)
We can also think of how HIT can improve access to care, for example in those patients living in rural settings. Review the tools on the Rural Health Information Hub to see what which ones may be employed to improve the quality, safety, effectiveness, and delivery of healthcare services in rural communities on https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/health-information-technology many of the items in the list above are used by the Rural Health Information Hub example. Right?
Stop for a minute to consider what you think are examples of HIT that improve care delivery, care coordination, and patient safety. What HIT examples, do you think, might impede your ability to deliver safe and high quality patient care? Why might that be the case?
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