Interview of a nurse informaticist

Info(RN)matics · Jan 21, 2014

What type of communication technology is available to integrate and coordinate care?

Lots of ideas here:

Health Information Technology to Support Care Coordination and Care Transitions

Info(RN)matics · Mar 5, 2014

1.) Use of patient care technologies to deliver and enhance care

Health Information Technology (HIT)

"While HIT alone does not make care better, it is an essential ingredient to care improvement. HIT supports clinicians in their work, moving us away from the days of illegible notes and prescriptions, reams of paper charts, x-rays that cannot be found, and lost faxed lab results and toward a health system where the relevant information is at the fingertips of clinicians and patients and secure electronic systems support better care. It is enabling the higher quality care, better health, and lower costs that our health system is striving to achieve. By providing tools and incentives for EHR adoption, quality reporting, e-prescribing, and patient engagement in their health care, CMS is encouraging clinicians, hospitals, and beneficiaries to use HIT as a platform for improved health care quality and better health outcomes at lower cost. Our health system can improve and achieve better results. HIT is a foundational building block to enable a 21st century health system that achieves better health outcomes for all Americans."

Source:http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2013/07/t20130717c.html

2.) Communication technologies to integrate and coordinate care

Enabling Care through Technology

3.) Data Management to analyze and improve outcomes of care

Data Management to Improve Outcomes and Cut Costs

Building a Foundation of Electronic Data to Measure and Drive Improvement

4.) Health Information Management for Evidence-based care & health education

The Essentials of Master's Education in Nursing - AACN - see pages 17, 18, 19

Learning Health Care System

5.) Facilitation and use of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) to improve patient care

Using Electronic Health Records and Other Health IT Tools to Measure and Improve Quality of Care

Info(RN)matics · Mar 5, 2014

1.) Use of patient care technologies to deliver and enhance care

Electronic Health Records (EHRs), devices (blood glucose monitors, vital signs monitors, EKG monitors, etc.) that interface with electronic health records, technology that allows minimally invasive, more efficient surgeries - all these are examples of patient care technology, and there are many more - basically, technology that makes it possible for the caregivers on the front-lines to provide high quality, safe, resource-efficient, and time-efficient care.

The portion of the EHR that is utilized for patients in the Surgery and Emergency Departments enhance efficiency by way of tracking patients in various stages or locations of care (tracking boards). Some places track equipment like IV pumps and poles and other monitoring and care devices and equipment as well using a similar concept. This minimizes pilferage, wastage, and overstocking on inventory. The EHR makes it possible for multiple care providers to access the health record simultaneously, and gain access to as well as to input information that is vital for patient safety (like histories, assessments, allergies, progress) as well as to document care provided.

2.) Communication technologies to integrate and coordinate care

Authenticated connectivity enables off-site providers to gain access to hospital EHRs remotely. Within the record, caregivers have access to view each others' documentation. Patients can access their results and such via channels commonly referred to as 'patient portals.' At transition of care from the hospital to the community, the patient's record can be transmitted to their primary physician or other physicians of the patient's choosing in the community. All various examples of communication technology that helps to plug the holes in communication among caregivers as well as between caregivers and patients.

3.) Data Management to analyze and improve outcomes of care

This brings to mind reports formulated, written, and monitored for various core measures sets and other such areas of care, where analyzing the existing state of affairs helps teams formulate evidence-based plans and set goals to improve care outcomes, and gather data to demonstrate the measurable difference between the before and after states. Also useful in meeting regulatory reporting and requirements.

4.) Health Information Management for Evidence-based care & health education

Closely related to the data analysis discussed in point 3 above. The quality and extent of the 'evidence' measured and/gathered can vary from a single institution to a health system to a county or state or region or nation and so on. Once best practices are established based on evidence that is deemed adequate, they can be pivotal in helping to drive improvements in patient care as well as serve as the foundation upon which health care education should be based.

5.) Facilitation and use of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) to improve patient care

Like I mentioned earlier, the value of the EHR lies in its ability to provide better, safer, high-quality care using the least time and resources (money, equipment, supplies, personnel) in a manner that would have been impossible with the paper and pen processes. The vision for the future is a highly interoperable (where data can be seamlessly transferred between different systems) health information exchange or network with the goal of enhancing timely access to potentially life-saving health information as well as curbing the highly rampant wastage of resources resulting from fraud as well as duplication of care and services.