health informatics
We have found that health informatics applications play a critical role in healthcare throughout the course. Nevertheless, how can they be useful without an effective implementation in clinical settings? According to Fujioka et al. (2021), poor implementation – which leads to poor communication between patients, providers, and caregivers, is a serious cause of inflated health costs and poor patient care. The integration must be done effectively to the time and context of the clinical settings because the health informatics needs vary between time and clinical settings. This is one issue noted in week 5, where Gallo (2022) claims that communication and its related multilayered efforts are evolving continuously, offering HCPs new informatics needs and communication tools. For instance, this week’s reading Implementing Health IT (2022) explains that a successful implementation of healthcare informatics in a clinical setting must guarantee value in multiple dimensions, within and without the health IT system, such as to cater for the people, processes, and culture of the organization. It relates to Health IT Playbook (n.d.) in week three, which claimed that implementation of health IT is effectively done in a multilevel integration and often results in a change in the workflow – organizational practices or culture.
A clinical facility might need to prepare its staff, often through training (Cresswell, Bates & Sheikh, 2013). That will help clarify what the health IT programs are created for, build a consensus between stakeholders, brainstorm the affordability of various health IT functions, evaluate progress, and maintain the system while keeping costs down (Cresswell, Bates & Sheikh, 2013). In week seven, Boldt (2018) referred to usability, which concerns “The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction” guaranteed to stakeholders. Overall, in the second stage of a health IT lifecycle – selecting a system, clinic settings should select the IT systems that are easy to implement since the most usable IT system has been lined to maximum benefits (Fleming, 2017). It seems organizations need systems as much as they need strategic management.
References
Boldt, K. (2018). EHR Usability: What is it, why is it so important, and how can it be measured? (Infographic). Retrieved 29 March 2022, from https://www.medsphere.com/blog/ehr-usability/
Cresswell, K., Bates, D., & Sheikh, A. (2013). Ten key considerations for the successful implementation and adoption of large-scale health information technology. Journal Of The American Medical Informatics Association, 20(e1), e9-e13. doi: 10.1136/amiajnl-2013-001684
Fleming, J. (2017). Usability is Key to Unlocking Health IT’s Full Potential – Health IT Buzz. Retrieved 29 March 2022, from https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/usability/usability-key-unlocking-health-full-potential
Fujioka, J., Bickford, J., Gritke, J., Stamenova, V., Jamieson, T., Bhatia, R., & Desveaux, L. (2021). Implementation Strategies to Improve Engagement With a Multi-Institutional Patient Portal: Multimethod Study. Journal Of Medical Internet Research, 23(10), e28924. doi: 10.2196/28924
Gallo, M. (2022). Changing communication preferences are a new frontier in HCP engagement. Retrieved 29 March 2022, from https://www.iqvia.com/blogs/2019/09/changing-communication-preferences-are-a-new-frontier-in-hcp-engagement
Health IT Playbook. Health IT Playbook. Retrieved 29 March 2022, from https://www.healthit.gov/playbook/electronic-health-records/
Implementing Health IT. (2022). Implementing Health IT | HealthIT.gov. Retrieved 29 March 2022, from https://www.healthit.gov/topic/safety/implementing-health-it