Reply 1 The general public believes that technological advancements will enhance the efficiency quality safety

Reply 1

The general public believes that technological advancements will enhance the efficiency, quality, safety, and cost of health care. Few people recognize, however, that these same technology may potentially cause errors and undesirable occurrences. While technology has the capacity to improve treatment, it also has the capacity to do harm. Technology has been seen as both a problem and a solution for providing safer health care. Workarounds, or temporary remedies to technological difficulties or malfunctions, may be used by nurses in response to unintended consequences of technology (Alotaibi and Federico, 2017). While workarounds solve an immediate problem, they can be risky since they do not address the fundamental problem in a system, increasing the chances of mistake over time.

The way nursing care is envisioned and provided is changing as patient care technology becomes more complicated. Nurses depended primarily on their senses of sight, touch, smell, and hearing to monitor patient condition and identify changes before widespread use of technology. The general public believes that technology will improve health care efficiency, quality, safety, and cost. However, few people consider that these same technologies may also introduce errors and adverse events. While technology has the potential to improve care, it is not without risks. Technology has been described as both part of the problem and part of the solution for safer health care.

Electronic health record system is the technology that has proved to have effective results in maintaining patients’ health records. Especially with my Capstone Project, where patients have a transition of care from outpatient to inpatient and some to partial program, helps track their mental health history and pattern of care received. With the concern of safety issues in the hospital besides every 15 minutes rounding during the day, for night time we have this wand that we use in every room to record staffs have checked that patient, and they are safe. I would continue to use this technology of monitoring patients during nighttime to ensure patient safety checks have been done.

Reference

Alotaibi, Y. K., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi medical journal, 38(12), 1173–1180. https://doi.org/10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631  Reply 2 

3 postsRe: Topic 5 DQ 2

Technology is a great source in the medical field because it connects patients records from patients from out of town, diagnosis from previous visits to hospitals, and allergies.

In addition to save money in office supplies and reduce space Electronic Health Records (EHR) allow nursing experts to document care provided to patients and retrieve information that can help prioritize care.

Moreover, in case of emergency when a patient is unconscious or unable to provide information patient’s medical record can be accessed by the care team, including doctors and nurses. Facilities protocols records are also included in the EHR’s so, nurses can complete forms and get reminders if information is missing, monitor condition changes, and interventions taken.

Also, medical personnel can quickly look up clinical information on their mobile device right at the patient’s bedside, this measure helps reduce errors and save time (Furukawa, Raghu, & Shao, 2010).

Reference

Reference: Furukawa, M. F., Raghu, T. S., & Shao, B. B. M. (2010, August). Electronic medical records, nurse staffing, and nurse-sensitive patient outcomes: evidence from California hospitals, 1998- 2007. Retrieved April 14, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2910563/