Healthcare informatics has impacted the industry in some big ways.
How has healthcare informatics changed the healthcare industry?
Healthcare informatics includes the use of computer science as well as information science. Does this actually help people, though? Improving the data side of healthcare has huge benefits for patient care. More data means more opportunities for discernment and improvement. Without a doubt, healthcare informatics has changed the industry. Let’s look at how healthcare professionals use the information and tools they have to benefit patients.
Medical teams are sharing more information
Medical professionals share knowledge with each other more than ever before. Also, they’re able to share knowledge back and forth with their patients. This improves healthcare on a practical level.
Because this information can be shared between administrators and medical teams, Nurse informaticists (NIs) can make the patient experience better. The improvement quite often looks like patients getting treated faster. Jana Pownell, DNP, MEd, RN-BC, LHIT, is Concordia University Wisconsin’s MSN in Healthcare Informatics Program Director. Pownell works as a nurse informaticist for the VA. She talks about her work more in this post.
Pownell notes: “Nurse informaticists thoughtfully and purposefully analyze situations by thinking in systems. They manage and improve the collection, use, storage, and sharing of health information.”
Better, more accurate, and more efficient medical forms
Nurses who are trained in this field can use their expertise to implement better documentation. This can mean using digital tools to complete medical forms. But it can also mean better organization of data so that it can be more easily shared. This allows healthcare teams to communicate more fluidly and provide better patient care.
When healthcare teams are able to have accurate patient information that is easily shareable, this can lead to better communication and fewer medical errors. If a patient’s form needs updating, the personnel can do this so much faster. This leads to improved patient outcomes in the long run.
Patient outcomes have improved
Fewer medical errors means that patient outcomes are better than ever. In addition, healthcare informatics has improved how doctors and nurses spend their time. They’re able to focus more on treating their patients. Additionally, due to how accessible medical forms have become, patients can be treated more effectively at a quicker rate. When you figure that this process happens hundreds of times per day, the medical team saves a lot of time when they have updated methods for accessing patient information.
Saving time and money
When healthcare workers can focus on treating their patients, this frees up time and money, but the reach stretches beyond the care center. Not only are hospitals, clinics, and provider offices saving resources, but these savings impact patients, insurance companies, and our governments for the better. HIT Consulting shared: Health care is getting more and more specialized, which means most patients receive care from as many as a dozen different people in one hospital stay.
Data privacy
Nurse informaticists and healthcare informatics specialists advocate for better data privacy. They can do this at the local, state, and federal levels. These professionals also advocate to hold vendors accountable for their intentions when consumers use mobile health apps on their digital devices. Do you know what is done with your health data?
Additionally, we know that new developments in blockchain technology allow information specialists to experiment with new methods of data encryption. This means that patient data will be safer from data breaches. In turn, patients will feel more confident sharing information with their healthcare providers if they know that it’s safe.
Healthcare informatics is all about the patients
Undoubtedly, patient care is still the most important factor in healthcare. With access to more information and new technologies, healthcare informatics is able to help eliminate some of the factors that get in the way of quality patient care. Does healthcare informatics sound interesting to you? Find out more about how you can be a part of the way information shapes healthcare.
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