Healthcare Information Technology
Introduction
The utilization of healthcare information technology has a significant impact on improving the safety, efficacy, and efficiency of nursing care. The emerging and developing information technology promotes the quality of patient care and healthcare centered on the patients. Some of the ways that healthcare information technology can improve nursing care are stated below.
- Efficient Tracking and Quick Response to Adverse Events
Healthcare information technology can be used to keep electronic medical records and it allows for rapid identification, intervention at an early age, and efficient tracking of adverse events. It improves the current practice of nursing care by improving the safety of the patients. The clinical databases can be combined to detect any adverse drug event in the patients, like using an antidote. Also, healthcare information systems may be used to detect nosocomial infections in patients.
- Assistance in Calculations
Another way the use of healthcare information technology improves nursing care is by making the calculations easy. The electronically stored data ensures the nurses make the adequate choice in regard to the administration of the doses of a potentially risky medication. For instance, a dose would be ordered not quite frequently if it is ten times as large. Moreover, the technology can be used for identifying patients using barcode bracelets containing all the medical information on them. Hence, it would prevent any accidents, like mistakenly administering a procedure or medication intended for another one.
- Monitoring of Patients
Monitoring the patients is a cumbersome process and may involve the occurrence of human errors. However, with the incorporation of healthcare information technology, various computerized applications perform this procedure. They identify and highlight the trends and therefore the nurses can intervene before the occurrence of an adverse event. For instance, the incorporation of smart monitors can identify the signals suggesting a patient decompensates. Such signals are otherwise undetectable by humans.
