Electronic Healthcare System Issues - Risks and Opportunities Involved in Sharing Clinical Data - Research Paper Example

? Electronic Healthcare Information [Introduction] Electronic Healthcare System Issues Introduction There areinformation technology systems to assist healthcare organizations in the challenging environment of healthcare provision where a large numbers of patients have to be treated at the same time. Electronic healthcare system is one supportive IT system that assists the healthcare organization for record maintenance and data management. The system is quite adaptive to automate the clinical operations of the healthcare organization. It provides communication assistance and assistance for record maintenance in the healthcare organization. This paper is a report on electronic healthcare system that analyzes and assesses the challenges that are part of the electronic system. It will also explore ways that can be appointed to overcome the challenges will also be addressed in the report. The paper is assisting managers in the healthcare dealing with information and data management operations. It will guide the professionals to manage their healthcare system in an effective way. Body Content Risks and Opportunities involved in sharing Clinical Data In healthcare there are several risks involved in patients’ exchange of information. There are some external and some internal risks involved in client’s data sharing. There are risks of patient’s identity exposure, identity mismatch or conflict, and data stealing which could result through clinical data exchange. Similarly, there are simultaneous risks involved of identity fraud, distortion of patients’ healthcare record, and distortion of patients’ medication record through healthcare data exchange (American Medical Association, 2013). The responsibility and obligation lies on healthcare organizations, that they protect patients’ personal information by making their electronic health system protective and secured. If information systems are highly protective, they can ensure the safety of patients’ personal records and data. For healthcare organization, information is an asset which if gets managed is a value to the organization and if gets lost or detracted is a complete threat to the organization (American Medical Association, 2013). In healthcare information integration is an essential thing required which is achieved by means deliberated data exchange. Exchanging patients’ personal clinical information links all the departments together. The departmental coordination makes patients’ care highly qualitative. This is one major opportunity that lies with clinical information sharing (American Bar Association, 1994). On further, data pooling (sectional data sharing) comes out valuable for research departments of the healthcare organization. This operation is made possible through sectional information sharing. Looping information from one period of patient trial to another is enabled through data exchange. Conducting a clinical research gets easier when pooled information is available on the research desk. Information sharing provides data to researchers which can further be used for scientific argument (American Bar Association, 1994). On further, information sharing keeps departments proactive. When the information required for patient’s treatment is available at the right time, the treatment gets effective as it is done on the real time basis. This is an opportunity which usually most healthcare organizations avail through sectional data sharing. According to Deborah Zarin (the director at the National Library of Medicine), information sharing brings transparency in health care operations (National Academy of Sciences, 2013, p. 4). It brings transparency on how well the patients are provided treatment and care. Information sharing also gives the opportunity of patient’s retrospective analysis as it allows the data exchange of patient’s past record of trials. Opportunities are there on the line with electronic health information sharing but it is on the organization’s management that how well the operation is being utilized (National Academy of Sciences, 2013). Current Management Practices for Patient’s Information Privacy (200 Words) Patients’ trust is a valuable asset for healthcare organizations. In contemporary trend, if an organization is trusted it means it is accredited by its patients and by its people. The responsibility lies on organizations that they maintain the trust of patients by carrying their information safely and protectively (Croskerry & Cosby, 2009). In recent practice it has been seen that healthcare centers keep patients’ information accessible. They keep the information opened to the departmental level to make patient’s care efficient and to the most quality. Actually, it is the requirement of healthcare networks that they have quick and easy access for patient’s private information. This may include patients’ personal record of medication, record of treatment and disease. To make sure that internal operations of healthcare are effective, accessible information is important feature of healthcare electronic system. This is what improves the quality of service in the healthcare and so as the efficiency of the electronic networks which give push to the entire healthcare operation (Croskerry & Cosby, 2009). From modern practices in healthcare it can be assessed that organizations are centered around on the quality care service. For getting higher quality, organizations utilize their electronic healthcare systems which transmit the information purposively and with high protective manner (American Medical Association, 2013). Affects of interoperability on information sharing In health care information is mostly shared by means of paired sub-grouped systems. Such systems are heterogeneous and are of dissimilar nature. To loop such systems to one central objective (information sharing) is a challenge for health care organizations which are dealing with major volume of patients at a single time of operation. Such heterogeneous systems are unlike in their content and information and due to which multiple looping of information is required to pass it on sufficiently. Actually, it is the ability of the electronic healthcare system that how well it incorporates with all heterogeneous sub-systems. Getting aligned to the sub-systems is a major challenge for the main server system as it requires the diversity and flexibility of the system to get adjusted with sub-systems (Tan & Payton, 2012). In order to get improved in healthcare, organizations need to deal with their interoperable environments which are based on association of departments, hospitals and their close electronic networks (Tan & Payton, 2012). The challenge here for organizations is of interaction and communication as each single unit (system) is working independently from the other during the operation. Lets for example in hospitals there are wards of oncology, cardio, orthopedics or surgery where each ward is carrying independent information with respect to the other ward which is carrying totally dissimilar information. Communicating such unlike information is a challenge as it requires the flexibility of the system to get the information transferred. Without communicating information, it is difficult to improve the efficiency of the organization which is dealing in the preventive care or in the healthcare services (Tan & Payton, 2012, p. 148). Workflow redesign and clinical documentation system In healthcare workflow redesign refers to the alteration of the information flow process. The pattern of the information if changed in healthcare means that the process flow has been redesigned or restructured. This changing pattern of information is actually what demonstrates the modification of the workflow infrastructure in healthcare. It is the amendment in the documentation system which results through healthcare workflow redesign. The objective in theredesign is to improve the process of information flow (Chaiken, 2011). If flow of information is non-interrupted, it can increase the overall pace of a healthcare organization. Redesigning means that the direction of flowing information is changed with an objective to make information more purposive and more objective. Definitely, in healthcare departments are interlinked and work in a synchronized manner, which requires the information to flow in the directional way. Synchronization of data is only possible if the layout of the information system is redesigned and restructured (Chaiken, 2011). The example of National Health Authority can be taken in this respect- an organization which transformed the entire IT setup just to make the information processing faster and efficient. Keeping innovation as a motive, the leadership at NHS transformed its documentation system. The organization modified its workflows by converting all the clinical manual operations into automated ones (Triggle, 2013). From transcriptions procedures to patient care record keeping procedures, all got automated in NHS. Being one the largest public healthcare organizations NHS modified its entire modes of operation. The organization got modified with the administration documentation processing and with clinical information patterns, giving a room to the organization’s individuals to perform efficiently. Efficiency became the motive of the organization when its IT system got transformed and modified (Triggle, 2013). It is through workflow redesign NHS is able to bring quality care for patients coming in large volume to the organization. All enrolled regional patients who are carrying health insurances or financial insurances are brought for treatment in NHS. The organization upholds a large set of data, allowing major number of patients to get the treatment adequately and in soothing manner. Administration delays are being avoided and so as delays in the process flow, as NHS has been quite successful in adapting change in its documentation system. The documentation system is aligned to all sub-systems of the organization, which has made the organization faster, collaborative and informative to respond. All of this makes NHS as a leading public healthcare organization in the region. Patient Safety with Healthcare Information Technology In the contemporary healthcare practice, organizations are found more concerned about “patients’ safety”. To achieve this goal, organizations held together on electronic healthcare information system which is a troubleshooter of almost all major problems involved in health care. To accomplish the objective of patient safety, organizations keep two more objectives; building a flexible decision support system and minimizing medical errors (Croskerry & Cosby, 2009). By achieving these two primary objectives by monitoring compliance, by minimizing documentation lags, and by coordinating care among departments, the patient safety objective is quite inevitably achieved. Those are EMR (electronic medical record) systems which actually make these objectives achieve. Such systems are to ensure the staff and patient convenience by providing quick access to the information to the service providers. Departmental delays which are root causes to patients’ accidents and inconvenience are successfully avoided through EMRs. Such systems are highly coordinative to solve the problems and risks of patients (Savage & Ford, 2008). In healthcare, information systems are pillars to organizations. They are to provide assistance to organizations in each step of the patients’ care process. Just like the information systems CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry) in emergency ward rooms which are solely designed to assist physicians on their operations. In emergency ward rooms physicians adapt electronic medical record systems to access recent patient information. With faster access to information, physicians can more focus on patient’s treatment. This is all what leads to safety and quality resulting from the supportive electronic healthcare systems (Croskerry & Cosby, 2009, p. 111). Similarly, the EHR (Electronic Health Record) systems which keep the information of patients’ problems, medications, trial notes, and test results are there to back primary care physicians. When physicians find such hard useful information in a collective format, they get on easily with patients’ treatment. This ensures safety throughout the patient’s treatment process which includes multiple numbers of trials and multiple number of data entries (Savage & Ford, 2008). On further, safety is ensured in OPDs (Out Patient Departments) through electronic record systems which manage and maintain larger set of data of out-patients (Croskerry & Cosby, 2009). Patients which are in periodic treatment and not precisely under the stay of hospital are brought to treatment through EHRs. The electronic health record provides quick access to physicians about patients’ past record, allowing physicians to bring intensive care and safety. This is how through innovative information technologies, safety and quality of treatment come out as the outcomes (Croskerry & Cosby, 2009). Security through Two Strong Passwords In healthcare securing patients’ information is the most important task. If a hospital or a healthcare center is not able to secure its patients’ personal record, the organization can get discredited among the patients (Shoniregun & Dube, 2010). For such reason administrators and managers in healthcare emphasize on securing their healthcare networks. One method of security to networks is by keeping a strong password. Definitely, passwords are to secure the confidential information of the organization and the information which is not in regular use of the organization. Main servers of the healthcare network can be secured through a strong password (Shoniregun & Dube, 2010). Here are two strong passwords recommended for healthcare network security: XKCD password XKCD password is a proposition brought by Randall Munroe (roboticist and programmer at NASA). The password is based on four randomly selected common words. It is a strong password for protecting healthcare servers as it affectively restricts the brute forces. The password is easy to be memorized as it is formulized on the basis of common words and with strong combination to increase the bits of entropy (Shoniregun & Dube, 2010). The higher the number of entropy the more time a brute requires for breaking the password. Four randomly selected words keep at minimum forty four combinations which if get powered up with 2 will make the password highly protected. The XKCD is highly recommended for protecting main servers at healthcare-servers which are not in open use and keep the private confidential information of patients (Shoniregun & Dube, 2010). Diceware Encrypting Diceware encrypting is another strong password based on numeric organization of the password. A dice is used in diceware encrypting. Rolling up the dice 5 times assembles a strong five digit password (Shoniregun & Dube, 2010). The combination does not end here as the digit numbers are checked on the English coded list. The list translates the numbers to letters and produces an effective and highly protective password. The password is recommended for protecting healthcare mainframes. Safeguarding the patients’ personal information can be made possible through encrypted diceware. Network administrators can also apply the encrypted combination, giving a basic protection to their desktop computers (Cheswick, 2003, p. 142). Healthcare administrators should also keep antivirus for protecting the servers for virus intrusion (Shoniregun & Dube, 2010). A regular check should be made on protected computers and servers should be updated with combination of passwords. This enhances the security and protection of healthcare servers and networks (Shoniregun & Dube, 2010). Summary and Conclusion Through the above analysis, it can be said that the electronic healthcare system is one supportive IT system as it assists organizations in various operations such as for data administration, data management, information flow and process flow. In addressing organizational needs, an electronic healthcare system is surrounded by certain risks and challenges. There are risks of patient’s identity exposure, identity mismatch or conflict, which could result in electronic system through data sharing. Similarly, there are simultaneous risks of identity fraud, distortion of patients’ healthcare record, and distortion of patients’ medication record in an electronic data management system. This paper has acknowledged IT managers in healthcare for dealing the challenges of the organization and the challenges involved in an electronic healthcare system. The paper has brought recommendations for healthcare information security and protection. It has brought suggestions on how electronic health system can overcome its risks and challenges. References List American Bar Association. (1994). Information Sharing Among Health Care Providers: An Antitrust Analysis and Practical Guide. Chicago: American Bar Association. American Medical Association. (2013). Patient Confidentiality. Retrieved September 25, 2013, from www.ama-assn.org: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/legal-topics/patient-physician-relationship-topics/patient-confidentiality.page Chaiken, B. P. (2011). Transforming Health Care Through Improved Clinician Workflows. Sacramento: iHealth Beat. Cheswick, W. (2003). Firewalls And Internet Security. India: Pearson Education India. Croskerry, P., & Cosby, K. S. (2009). Patient Safety in Emergency Medicine. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. National Academy of Sciences. (2013). Sharing Clinical Research Data: Workshop Summary. Retrieved September 24, 2013, from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK137823/ Savage, G. T., & Ford, E. W. (2008). Patient Safety and Health Care Management. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing. Shoniregun, C. A., & Dube, K. (2010). Electronic Healthcare Information Security. Dublin: Springer. Tan, J., & Payton, F. C. (2012). Adaptive Health Management Information Systems: Concepts, Cases, & Practical Applications. London: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Triggle, N. (2013, April 1). NHS structure changes come into force. Retrieved September 25, 2013, from www.bbc.co.uk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21964568 Read More