The Advantages of Health IT

It’s no secret that healthcare doesn’t only come down to direct patient care. Tracking and reporting data, inspecting facilities and communicating with other medical staff are just a few other factors of healthcare. Medical providers can become overwhelmed with the many tasks at hand, which can take away from treatment, evaluations and procedures. This is where health IT comes into play.

Patient Access

Many patients have a multitude of questions about their condition and what the best course of action is. Patient information services can be hard to reach when there is a high volume of calls, and doctors can easily become tied up with cases. Health IT can enable patients to access lab results, discharge instructions and other records without going through a receptionist or doctor. While medical records do not always answer every concern, increased knowledge can boost a patient’s confidence and comfort. When the patient sees the doctor again, he or she will have a better idea of what to ask. More can get accomplished when doctors and patients are on the same page.

Planning

Scheduling and pharmacy pick-ups also become easier with health IT. A doctor can get a better understanding of his or her availability in the near future by checking for open slots. A patient can request follow-ups from home and be notified as to whether or not the appointment can be done. Automated reminders through text or e-mail can also keep patients in the loop about upcoming visits. Pharmaceuticals can be ordered online with an approximate pick-up time, and the status of the order can be accessed with ease.

Organization

Even at small clinics, medical paperwork can become superfluous and charts can easily get mixed up. There is only so much that a folder can handle, and when more charts are added, there is more to keep track of. Electronic health records are becoming increasingly popular with doctors because of convenience, efficacy and government incentives. With a solid health IT infrastructure, data can be collected and organized automatically so that staff knows where to find pertinent data. When information needs to be communicated remotely, a good system can enable quick exchanges with alerts.

Things To Look Out For

While health IT has been generally helpful for doctors, nurses, dentists and other specialists, it does not come without risk. When a medical facility depends heavily on computerized mechanisms, a power outage or malfunction can seriously derail care and put patients in danger. Workflow can be thrown off when there is a high volume of medical orders, alert fatigue can set it when there are too many notifications and so on. This is why it’s important to use the most effective, secure and up-to-date IT system possible. Entrepreneurs such as Ralph Thurman, a board member for Allscripts, have been working to improve health IT for the betterment of everyone.

There are many ways that health IT improves healthcare and makes life easier for patients and medical staff alike. There’s no telling what benefits lie ahead as automated systems continue to evolve.

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