The Quality of Patient Care - Term Paper Example

There has been wide speculation that implementing HIT systems could even hamper patient care (Anderson et al., 2006). For this reason, it is of great importance to assess the impact of HIT on the quality of patient care.

HIT incorporates many new technological systems to manage a patient’s health-related information. Essentially, HIT systems electronically collect, organize and store information about the patient’s health, thus leading to effective coordination of healthcare. The systems used to keep this information are widely known as Electronic Health Records (EHR), although a few people refer to them as Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Depending on their core functions, these systems come in different sizes and shapes. For instance, whereas some EHR systems only collect and store data within a particular institution, others are integrated, thus allowing them not only to collect and store and supply the patient’s data across various medical facilities upon request (Blumenthal & Glaser, 2007). This factor has primarily facilitated the reduction of medical errors since health practitioners can access the patient’s past medical data before examining it.

Equally important, the Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) is an imperative system that can be used to improve patient care. Generally, this system enables health practitioners such as doctors and pharmacists to carry out laboratory tests and order drug prescriptions electronically, reducing medical errors emanating from illegible hand-written prescriptions. In addition, the CPOE systems can flag off any pills or orders that seem pretty extreme, thus eliminating the chances of wrong drugs. To illustrate, a report by Bates et al. points out that the CPOE systems were able to reduce unnecessary medical errors by up to 55 per cent since the system ensures that at least the prescribed orders are legible and complete (2007). This HIT system has therefore played a massive role in improving the general quality of patient care.

The above diagram, adapted from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website, can show how HER systems integrate patients’ data in different departments within a hospital.

Despite the discussed benefits of HIT systems towards the improvement in the quality of patient care, a considerable percentage of patient data and information remains written on paper rather than on electronic systems. Fundamentally, this can be due to several factors, such as the high costs of the systems, the complexity of operating the plans and the speculation that HIT can hamper patient care. Thus, the government and other key stakeholders must ensure that all healthcare facilities acquire these systems. For instance, the government can fund hospitals to develop these systems or urge companies producing them to reduce prices through acts such as tax relief. Furthermore, the nursing curriculum should incorporate an educative framework on how to use the system and inform the nurses on the importance of these systems to improve patient care.

Therefore, although there may be many debates on whether the use of HIT systems will improve the general health and quality of patient care, it is beyond doubt that adopting these systems by hospitals is a significant step towards effective healthcare. In the past, these systems have proved to be necessary, significantly to improve the patient's health. For instance, during tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake, patient records saved electronically using HIT systems were easily accessible. In contrast, those that were held on paper were immensely destroyed. Therefore, all healthcare facilities must adopt HIT systems to improve the overall quality of patient care.