Informatics or Technologies Used in Nursing

What Technology Does Your Facility Use?

One’s healthcare facility uses electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine, and blockchain technology (Tranmer, Meys, & Damicis, 2017).  Statistics revealed that as much as 67% of hospitals in the United States have adopted the EHR system (Practice Fusion, Inc., 2018). Moreover, since dominant information is stored online, there is a need to intensify security. As such, blockchain technology is deemed to be needed and is described as revolving “around that idea that any changes to a particular record have to be verified by each party who has access to the data before the change is deemed complete” (Tranmer, Meys, & Damicis, 2017, p. 1).

How Has It Improved Patient Care or Outcomes?

These technologies evidently improve patient care and key performance indicator outcomes. For instance, the use of EHRs facilitated updating and access to patient information from various healthcare professionals and practitioners and thus, expedited provision of intervention that improved the recovery of patients. In the area of security, the blockchain technology enabled intensified protection of privacy and confidentiality of patient information where access are ensured only to healthcare practitioners who have direct governance over the patients’ health condition. Telemedicine enables health services to be reached in remote locations through access of privileged information from health professionals to patients in remote areas (Tranmer, Meys, & Damicis, 2017).

What Can Be Done to Make It More Useful or to Further Improve Patient Care or Outcomes?

To make these technologies more useful or to further improve patient care or outcomes, it is pertinent that health information are secured and safe, as well as immediately accessible through various digital means. In fact, the Internet of Things (IoT) make integration of access to health information significantly enabled (Bocas, 2018). As emphasized, “healthcare will also makes up for 25% of the total IoT market” (Bocas, 2018, p. 1). As such, recognizing how connected things within the healthcare environment would accelerate the provision and delivery of high quality and secured patient care would definitely improve healthcare performance, safety, and productivity in the provision of holistic patient care.