Workshop Four - 4.3 Healthcare Information Navigate to the Healthcare Informatio

Question

Workshop Four - 4.3 Healthcare Information

Navigate to the Healthcare Information threaded discussion below and respond to the following question.

A) Why has implementation of information technology in health care and public health been so slow in comparison to other industries? Discuss the relative importance of factors such as nancial incentives or disincentives, organizational culture, complex clinical workows, information technology capabilities and change, and information exchange complexity.

Explanation / Answer

Implementation and application of information technology in industries- manufacturing and service sectors -have shown vast strides in recent years compared to the health care sector.Application of information technology may range from adopting the internet facilities like mailing,use of websites for searching informations, enquiries before placing orders,comparison of quotations for purchases,online selling and updation of bank account details and many more facilities that technology has to offer.

But as far as health care field is concerned,this application rate and usage is comparatively slow.This may be may be due to many factors such as:

resistance to change from the people of the medical field,

work-related pressure leaving no time for research and innovation of a new type,

policy decisions of the management team - no consensus having been reached among them for implementation

Costs involved

Opinionated individuals having different opinions about benefits that may accrue .

Like many other areas health care also requires to collect and store data for future reference,retieval and analysis of patient information and all other support functions including staff and their salaries, medical equipments and their purchase data , maintenance and insurance details and even landscaping around medical centres.

On the finance side , the venture has to measure its efficiency of operations by following the return they reap on the moneys invested and to keep track of wastage of resources. To this end, Information technology (IT) helps to keep track of costs involved so that the resultant benefits can be measured for their proportionality.

The different value system adopted by the age-old management team also acts as an impediment for the progress of the IT system-to the wanton or required level. Satisfying each and every one in the management heirarchy is really very tedious,especially when they belong to some old school and carry those values.

The very nature of the work involved in complex and circuitous clinical procedures may not be supportive of automation.As this is totally a service industry- with each individual patient's expectations being widely variable,there are numerous situations where, formula type services cannot and should not be offerred. Hence total systematisation of procedures are still elusive.

With the advent of cashless hospitals patients numerous insurance scheme providers make the already complex procedures,even more non-uniform -which is a big challenge to the information system and its application. In short, the complextities posed by the subject matter of the health-care industry-the patients- contribute to a large extent for the slow progress in the implementation of new systems of information technology.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse W
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.