Nursing Informatics

The most significant barrier to interoperability between healthcare systems, providers, information, and technologies is the lack of consistency in patient identification. Currently, the healthcare spectrum lacks a consistent approach to identifying patients across care networks or large healthcare systems. Patients are identified by name, social security number, date of birth, or national identification number. The challenge is that there is no standard format for storing such information, implying that patient identification errors are potential. Besides, errors are common right from when the patient fills their form to the point of care. One solution proposed by researchers to this problem is the development of a national unique patient identifier. The identifier function as a Social Security number and is used throughout an individual lifetime at every point of care (De Rosis & Nuti, 2018). The advantage of this is that it would code, categorize, and identify individuals regardless of provider or system used and eliminate errors related to patient identification in healthcare information interoperability.

Section 2

Question 1.

A workflow in the clinical setting refers to the procedure applied to finish a job. Such include making appointments and seeing patients, billing insurance firms, ordering medical tests, and reviewing the results. Redesigning workflow is critical for healthcare systems to achieve value from the present implementation of electronic health records (HER). The biggest obstacle to workflow redesign is the organizational factor. Organizational routines can delay workflow redesign if there is a significant deviation from the care provider’s practices. At the organizational level, lack of coordination across the healthcare chains has also been cited as an obstacle to implementing the care workflow redesign. A solution to such problems requires matching the workflow redesign with organizational policy to motivate its implementation (Hung et al., 2017). Cooperation between departments, disciplines, and organizations also positively impacts the implementation of workflow redesign.

References

De Rosis, S., & Nuti, S. (2018). Public strategies for improving eHealth integration and long‐term sustainability in public health care systems: Findings from an Italian case study. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 33(1), e131-e152.

Hung, D., Gray, C., Martinez, M., Schmittdiel, J., & Harrison, M. I. (2017). Acceptance of lean redesigns in primary care: a contextual analysis. Health Care Management Review, 42(3), 203-212.