The Critical Role That Technology Plays in Healthcare
The healthcare industry has come a long way in a very short time. In about 15 years, hospitals have gone from recording patient information on paper to using electronic health record systems. Charts that could only be shared via courier or fax can now be sent through email or may not need to be sent at all if a doctor has access to the healthcare management system a hospital is using. All of these changes have been enabled by technology. There is no denying that technology is playing a critical role in the way healthcare is handled below. This is why we are going to look at the role technology plays as well as the impact it has had on healthcare.
Digitization of Patient Records and Information
The use of paper records in hospitals is dead and that is because hospitals have turned to electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs have led to massive changes in the healthcare industry. All medical professionals can now have access to patient information and record no matter where they are in the world.
Doctors can offer advice as well as a second opinion in a matter of seconds if they are available. Nurses and technicians have one source of patient information which saves them time compared to using paper records, and medical billers are finding it easier to submit insurance claims. All this patient information is tagged with the right diagnostic codes so they do not need to find out what the code for a specific test is. Patients can also access their medical information and history when they need to.
Medication Reconciliation
Electronic health records provide healthcare facilities with a way of knowing what medications each patient is on. The medications patients are taking can be reconciled in one record and be updated as the patient comes in for more visits. For these systems to be more effective, however, they need to include information from outside hospitals or the network.
Medication reconciliation is very important in emergencies. This is because a patient might be allergic to certain medications or be on medications that can interact with others given during an emergency. By knowing what the patient is allergic to as well as what medications they are on, physicians can take measures to prevent adverse effects.
Remote Patient Monitoring
The ability to monitor your health from home offers patients very many benefits. Some of them include saving time by eliminating unnecessary doctor visits as well as helping doctors see how their patients are doing without the patients having to come in. Devices such as pacemakers can send data automatically and alert a doctor or other medical professional if there is a problem.
This ensures better patient outcomes when patients come in because doctors already know what is wrong with them. Additionally, doctors can call their patients to come in for a visit if they see something wrong with their records.
Patient remote monitoring has been made easier by wearable technology. Although they work like older devices by collecting and sending data to a central point, their major advantage over older devices is the amount of data they collect.
Wearable devices are fitted with different sensors so they collect a vast array of data, including heart rates, temperature, oxygen levels, and a lot more. They can also alert doctors or primary caregivers in case something is wrong, such as the wearer falling if they are older or have conditions that would make them more susceptible to falling.
It Is Helping Hospitals Reduce Waste
The healthcare industry faces a lot of challenges including long wait times, erroneous medical bills, medical errors, and a lot more. All of these challenges lead to waste in different ways. For example, long wait times and erroneous medical bills waste a lot of time, while the inability to manage inventory correctly leads to a wastage of both money and space. Dealing with this waste often calls for the application of lean principles.
Lean principles are meant to eliminate different types of waste (time, inventory, waiting, defects, etc.) while ensuring the customer (the patient in this case) receives the best service possible. Technology is being used in healthcare to help with the implementation of lean principles.
For example, the implementation of a robust inventory management solution can help healthcare institutions manage both supply and demand of what they need. This helps eliminate waste by reducing storage costs and ensuring drugs are used before they expire.
Using an integrated health records system helps nurses reduce the time they take to retrieve, review and file records, thereby helping them save time so they can take care of more patients which results in both better care and reduced wait times. Lean principles are also being used in other ways to eliminate waste and increase productivity in healthcare. You can visit this website to see how lean principles are being used as well as the role technology is playing.
Telemedicine
Another area where technology plays a critical role in healthcare, telemedicine has been growing steadily as the technology that enables it keeps improving. Telemedicine allows patients to get in touch with their doctors regardless of where any of them are located.
The use of telemedicine has removed a critical barrier in the provision of medical services – physical distance – and has facilitated the provision of critical services in emergencies. It has saved lives and allowed people who would otherwise not get the best care to have access to it.
Telemedicine has also made it possible for patients to receive care and support from the comfort of their homes. Through various applications, doctors can get in touch with their patients after surgery and discharge. By allowing patients to answer questions during healing, doctors can find out if they are at risk of infection or readmission.
Healthcare professionals are also using telemedicine applications to monitor their patients remotely. This has been very helpful for those who have chronic illnesses. Real-time patient monitoring and doctor alerts can help save the lives of people who need to be monitored constantly.
Emerging Technologies
Emerging technologies are also increasingly being used in healthcare. Radio-frequency identification (RFID), for example, is being used to provide information about a patient’s vitals and temperature as well as real-time tracking and identification. 3D modeling and printing are now being used to develop and create prosthetics, hearing aids, and even customized dental devices.
Healthcare is not limited to just physical wellbeing because it also involves mental health. This is why virtual reality is being used in the treatment and easing of symptoms of depression and anxiety in older patients. Virtual reality is also being used to help people recover from traumatic surgeries. Augmented reality is being used to help surgeons and their teams perform complex surgeries that used to be too dangerous to do in the past.
With the availability of more fringe technology applications such as gene therapy and robotic limb replacements, it is easy to see that technology will continue to play a bigger role in healthcare as it is adopted and evolves.
Big Data, The Cloud and Data Analytics
The term “Big Data” is everywhere these days, but it is no longer a buzzword; it is an important part of many industries, including healthcare. All industries collect large volumes of data and that is no different in the healthcare industry. The generation and collection of data in healthcare happen at many points throughout a patient’s journey. In many cases, big data is often intertwined with the electronic health record system because that is where most of the patients’ information is stored.
Cloud storage helps improve efficiency by providing healthcare professionals with only one source of data. Cloud storage also improves the availability of data while reducing the wastage that comes with paper records. This data is then analyzed to not only improve the outcomes of a single patient but to also find patterns that help predict widespread disease prevalence or save countless lives. Smart healthcare analytics solutions can also help in the research and development of new treatments and medications.
The cloud services used by hospitals have also proved to be a valuable source of information for medical research while facilitating the exchange of information and insights gleaned from this data. Cloud storage provides hospitals with a cost-effective, secure storage solution that has backup and recovery capabilities that minimize the chances of data loss.
Mobile Health
Mobile health is healthcare that is supported by mobile technology. It often materializes in the use of smartphones for various tasks such as setting appointments, getting reminders to take medications or go for a doctor’s visit, accessing patient records, and sending patient prescriptions directly to a pharmacy.
The use of mobile equipment also makes it easier for healthcare facilities to send messages about payment schedules and pending bills.
While it is true that technological advancements in healthcare are adopted faster in some countries, there is no doubt that technology is playing a critical part in healthcare in many parts of the world. Countries and institutions that can harness the power of technology provide better services, see better patient outcomes, and have been able to lower their operating and healthcare costs.
