The healthcare system and technology - Essay Example

?ESSAY How are basic medical procedures such as dispensing medication affected by technology? When discussing medical procedures like dispensing medication, issues will arise such as not providing the correct medication or giving one patient's medication to another by mistake, otherwise known as Medical Negligence or malpractice. According to http://www.clearanswers.co.uk in their article, “Dispensing incorrect medication“, “Since dispensing of medication can take place within hospitals, at GP practices, and of course, in Care Homes, errors can occur at any of these locations when medical staff issue the prescription. “ (n.p.) It also states multiple points of error from the time the medication is prescribed, to the actual dispensing of the medication. A lot of points of failure in these instances will occur due to human error, such as improper labeling, or simply handing a different medication to a patient in a time of confusion. We as humans can and will make mistakes due to a variety of reasons. The best way to lessen these instances is to involve technology into the process. According to http://www.techforltc.org in their article Automated Medication Dispensing Cabinets , “Automated Medication Dispensing Cabinets provide computer controlled storage, dispensation, tracking, and documentation of medication distribution on the resident care unit “(n.p). This is a great way to prevent errors at the end point of medication dispensing. ESSAY 2: How are computers used to support disease-management programs? Disease management as defined by http://patients.about.com in their “disease management” article, is” an approach to healthcare that teaches patients how to manage a chronic disease. Patients learn to take responsibility for understanding how to take care of themselves to avoid potential problems or exacerbation, or worsening, of their health problem.”. (n.p). As this type or healthcare intervention involves teaching the patient how to handle his illness, this would give the patient a certain amount of independence. A downside ato this type or technique is that healthcare professionals are not always around to monitor and support their patients, especially if they are home-based. bigthink.com tells us in their article “185 - The Patients Per Doctor Map of the World” that the patient to doctor ratio in the States is 390 patients on average per doctor, and www.nursingworld.org, in their article “Mandatory Hospital Nurse to Patient Staffing Ratios: Time to Take a Different Approach” have given us nurse to patient ratios of up to 1:5. This means that not all of the patients are attended to as much as needed. Another thing to consider is that the healthcare industry has been slow in adapting to technology. Based on an article by www.nursezone.com called DEVICES & TECHNOLOGY, “A recent report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that less than one-third of the nation’s hospital emergency and outpatient departments use electronic medical records, and even fewer doctors’ offices do. “ (N.P.) The solution that computers can provide in this scenario is the tendency of the patients to require less supervision and intervention from a medical professional. With the computers providing everything from examples of symptoms, to self intervention methods listed for them in the computer’s database and the list of benefits goes on. ESSAY 3: What are some ways healthcare institutions can avoid qualitative and political-based technology investment decisions Healthcare and medical institutions must keep an open mind when looking for technology to invest in. Although it is safer to stick with what you’re used to, often times researching and gathering feedback from other institutions would provide you better insight. As with any other investment by any other kind of institution, its best to investigate your options and look at their pros and cons. One thing to consider with new technology is how easy it will be to implement in your institution. It needs to be smooth enough not to affect current operations. Factors such as ratio of Price to effectiveness must be considered as well. However, factors that should not be put into consideration are things such as popularity of the brand or recommendations without basis. www.investopedia.com in their article “A Checklist For Successful Medical Technology Investment” has provided us a 6 step check list for medical technology investments with such information as “When considering a potential medical technology investment, it's generally better to look for a company dedicated to new technologies and innovation ESSAY 4: What are 6 ways of implementing a capital budget and what data is needed by businesses to make them happen? A capital budget is important to a business as it sets a road map of the company’s spending ability for a set amount of time, and gives the company a clear picture of what they are able to spend, for what upgrades and replacements, and at what specific time of the year. This prevents impulse buying and loss of funding before the end of the fiscal year. www.ehow.com in their article “How to Prepare a Capital Budget” also mentioned 6 ways of preparing and implementing a capital budget, along with the needed data. These would be summarized as Pointing out the business’s financial and technology improvement goals, along with their ideal timeframe within a fiscal year Gaining support for funding needs. A great way to do this is to speak to financial institutions Create estimated budget and cost or specific goals, taking into consideration company income, previous average expenditure from previous fiscal years and other financial statements Analyze the expenses first if it is financially doable, and consider the turn around timeframe of return on investments Create a dry proposal of budget allocation based on the progress or result of previous similar projects, and based on foreseen results of planned projects Have the managing staff be hands on with the projects throughout its duration in order to keep track of it real-time The most challenging of the 6 steps is the last, which is being hands on all the time for the projects, as the first 5 can easily be based from previous experience or research. The last step takes vision for the project and the drive to make it happen real-time. Essay 5: How is technology involved in the four cornerstones to supply chain management?             Supply chain management as defined by www.wikipedia.org, in their article, “Supply chain management” is defined as “the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers”. Taking from this functional definition, we can then say that technology is integrated into this business process in multiple ways. Technology can be used in multiple ways, from contact management to data, item or personnel tracking. www.slideshare.net mentions in one if its slide presentations, called “Principles of logistics management” the 4 P’s of the marketing mix, which also happen to be the 4 cornerstones of supply chain management based on understanding. These are: Products- also considered services that a customer receives after a purchase Price- the pay amount for a product or service Promotion- how a product is advertised and the included discounts or Place- this is of course the location of the transaction The most important one to focus on for me is promotion. In order to get you product out to market, you must be able to promote it effectively and you must have a target market in mind. Once that happens, then your product or serivce will spread like wildfire. In the end, technology plays an integral role in supply chain management and in all 4 of the mentioned corner stones, as communications, inventory, scheduling and timekeeping can and are done thru computers. They are a key component in this business process. References Dispensing incorrect medication. Year-on-year increases in medication errors, (2011). Clear answers. Aug 18, 2011, from http://www.clearanswers.co.uk/ Jacobs, F. (Oct. 16 2007), 185 - The patients per doctor map of the world. Big Think, 18, Aug 2011, http://bigthink.com Keefe, A (2011). How to prepare a capital budget. August 20, 2011. http://www.ehow.com Orlovsky, C (2005). Health care industry slow to adopt information technology. Nursezone.com. Aug 18, 2011, from http://www.nursezone.com Principles of logistics management (2010) Slideshare.net Aug 18, 2011 http://www.slideshare.net Simpson, S. (2008, October 08). A checklist for successful medical technology investment. Investopedia August 20, 2011. from http://www.investopedia.com Supply chain management. (2011), Wikipedia, August 20, 2011, www.wikipedia.org Technology for long term care. atomated medication dispensing cabinets (2011) techforltc.org Aug 18,2011, http://www.techforltc.org Torrey, T. (2008, August 04). Disease management. August 20, 2011. About.com from http://Patients.about.com Welton, J. (2007, September). Mandatory hospital nurse to patient staffing ratios: Time to take a different approach. Nursingworld.org. 2011, August 20, 2011. from www.nursingworld.org. Read More