Nursing Informatics, Research Paper Example

Introduction

This assignment is an evaluation of implementation of two new computerized management systems which should be implemented in a community hospital with 100 bed capacity. Computerization of operations will make operations of the hospital to be automated hence being more reliable, efficient, fast and secure. The computerized systems has different interfaces one is web based and has the capability of being operated via a website while the other one has a desktop based interface both applications are for the operations of the hospital.

Increase on Quality of Care

Implementation of the computerized system will improve on quality to the services being offered by the hospital. The community hospital offers services to both outpatients and in patients whose records need to be managed effectively. Computerizing operations will make record management to be easy hence saving on time of retrieval and their update therefore patients will be served within a shorter duration than they have been offered there before. The operations will be much faster therefore it will eliminate long queues of patients waiting to be serviced. Elimination of queues will make the clients being serviced within a shorter period hence being able to serve more patients than they were serving there before.

The employees of the hospital will also experience the benefit of use of an accurate system which is fast and reliable especially when they will be billing the patients, utilization of resources and allocation of duties. According to Holly, (2001) the employees will be able to use the system to manage materials and resources equitably depending on their demand by different departmental needs. Financial records had been a challenge, time consuming and with many errors, computerization will integrate all the accounting needs of the hospital and utilize standardized accounting principals which will generate reliable financial records beneficial to the administration of the hospital to make decisions.

Importance of Active Nursing Involvement in the Planning, Choice, and Implementation of the Systems

The nurses are the one who will be using the system to be implemented in their daily operations. Therefore, it is important to involve the nurses in planning, choice and implementation of the system. The nurses fully understand the needs of the hospital therefore if they are involved they will participate in identification of operational features which they need incorporated in the system to meet their needs. The involvement should be done at the inception of computerization from identification of the needs of the hospital, analysis, design, testing, training and implementation.

During requirements identification and analysis the nurses will provide the different needs which they want to be met to improve operations of the hospital and during its analysis stage and design they contribute on how they want the needs to be met hence guiding the designers or testing on their operations to ensure they are able to meet their needs. In testing they are assured that the system which they will embark on will be able to deliver the services and operations which they need. Training is also done to the nurses to ensure they have all the skills required to optimize operations of the system for the hospital to realize the benefit of computerization. According to Davis, (2003) the main reason why nurses should be actively involved is to make them own the system hence reduce on resistance and make sure that the system meet the actual requirements of the system.

Integration of Hand Held Devices

Most of the input devices being used by the nurses are hand held and there I need to integrate them into the management systems to improve on data capture accuracy and reliability for better quality services. The hand held devices are mainly used in patient’s registration, admission and record management. The nurses are ready to embrace technology to enhance care processes in the hospital. The devices will be used at the point of care when the nurses will be assessing the condition of the patients. It is advisable to integrate use the hand held devices for routine processes of care for consistency when the nurses will be caring for patients at the bed sides (Heddle Et al. 2006).

Apart from the medical devices it will also be beneficial to provide the nurses with personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) at the point of care. These devices will then be integrated to the main system of the hospital, the devices will enable the employees to access the database of the hospital retrieve the information they need and update it in real-time as they attend the patients. Ease access to information by the employees will make service provision much easy hence saving on time spent on retrieval. It also ensures that the records are updated on real-time hence being always up to date therefore improving on decision making as decisions are based on the real situation of the hospital operations at any given time.

Security Standards of Data and Confidentiality of Patients

Computerization of the hospital operations will mostly contribute on good record management for both the patent and administration purposes. The data will be securely stored as the system will require the users to be authenticated before they have access to the details in the database these ensures that the records are accessed only by authorized users hence improving on confidentiality of the patients and hospital administration information.

Although the data being stored is secure it also vulnerable to loss hence it is important to formulate policies on how the data should be backed up which will specify how the backups will be stored and how often it should be taken to ensure that it is secure and easily available for restoration once the existing database get corrupted. The use of the system or the system which will be implemented should adhere to the standards of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure that its operations of hospital and its deliverables are to the medical and health standards and record keeping and reporting.

New System Effect on Healthcare Cost

Implementation of the new system is costly but its daily operations are effective and less costly. Operations of the hospital will need few employees especially in its administration and record management hence saving in cost incurred in operations of the hospital transactions. Time spent on most of the activities will be less hence saving on cost incurred to meet operational costs. This cost saving measures will eventually be passed over to the cost of services being offered therefore the services will be less costly. Reduction of the cost of services and improvement of services rendered will eventfully attract more patients hence making the hospital to be more profitable and cater for more patients.

Recommendations and Conclusion

The new system will benefit the patients and administrators of the hospital by improving quality of services being offered by saving on time spent and improved high levels of accuracy and reliability of the system. The hospital should purchase the system which has web-based interactivity as the users will be able to access the system using any system which has internet connectivity (Russo, 2000).

It is not a must that the users need to use the computers in the hospital to access the information they need or update it. Therefore, the nurses and other employees will be able to use devices such as PDAs to access the data and information of the hospital and use it or update it on real-time. Such high level of user interface makes it more convenient to use the system.

References

Davis, F. (2003). Perceived Usefulness & User Acceptance of Information Technology. Management of Information Systems Quarterly. 13(3), 319-40

Heddle, M., Arnold, E., Walker, I & Lane, J. (2006).A Review of Randomized Controlled Trials Comparing the Effectiveness of Hand Held Computers with Paper Methods for Data Collection. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 6(23), 57-86.

Holly, R. (2001). Window of Opportunity for Home Care Nurses: Telehealth Technologies. Retrieved on January 02, 2010 from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume62001/No3Sept01/TelehealthTechnologies.aspx

Russo, H. (2000). The Internet: Building Knowledge and Offering Integrated Solutions in Health Care. Caring 19(7), 18-31