The Use of Clinical Systems To Improve Outcomes and Efficiencies

Introduction

Due to ever-emerging pandemics like covid-19 that cause sudden morbidity and the growing population, Telehealth has become a common practice across the universe. According to Skiba (2017), clinical systems involve an organization’s information systems to collect, store or propagate information. The patient has enjoyed the flexibility of teleconferencing as nurses can meet them in a central location without moving from room to room (Skiba, 2017). The use of clinical systems, in general, has been a topic of discussion across the universe. Various professionals have used concepts and theories to examine clinical systems’ use to improve outcomes and efficiencies. Moreover, the generation of productive conversation led to information sharing concerning qualitative changes in the healthcare setting (Skiba, 2017). At the same time, other specialist bodies have steered numerous categories of studies on the repercussions of clinical systems. This paper proposes to review scholarly articles to understand the use of clinical practices to improve outcomes and efficiency.

“Nurses’ Perceptions of the Impact of electronic health records on Work and patient outcomes” is a scholarly article on the official website of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The commentary explains the use of electronic health records and clinical support systems in critical nursing practices for patient care. The author argues that poor decision-making resulted in ninety-eight thousand deaths in every hospital annually (Kossman & Scheidenhelm, 2020). The fact is that critical care nurses operate in challenging environments, and response is required to the patient who is under unstable health conditions and with a broad number of diseases. Therefore, the article gives a clear insight into incorporating clinical decision support tools based on patient’s record’s, improving outcomes and efficiency in nurses’ decision-making. For this reason, the article dramatically benefits healthcare by explaining the necessity of electronic health records in decision-making (Kossman & Scheidenhelm, 2020). Electronic Health Records collect and store data to support decision-making and care planning (Patient Access Information for Providers, 2019). Moreover, other technologies like algorithm alerts and warning systems have the potential to trigger an early warning alert automatically. At the same time, the article explains further the impact of the Clinical decisions making System. The clinical decision support system is a technological tool that facilitates decision-making by linking patients’ status with evidence. As discussed in the articles, various decision-making support tools like order sets, patient monitors, and parameters for patient care provide information necessary for treatment. The central learning from this article is that using a decision support system is essential in nurses’ decision-making (Kossman & Scheidenhelm, 2020). For example, the systems integrate information like drug-to-drug interaction to give the right combination and fall risk warning.

“Social Media and health care, part I” examines the use of social media platforms in association with health records to boost healthcare efficiency. The article is a descriptive review of the published literature from the medicine database in the previous five years. The author aimed to evaluate mobile health applications or social media to provide health professionals with software systems pertinent to their client’s population (Farsi, 2021). Due to a connecting care environment, most people engage in health care through social media. Healthcare administrators, caregivers, and other informatics specialists will use digital tools to facilitate professional delivery. Online Health Information Evaluation Tools is the first digital software discussed in the article. The web allows health professionals and students to pass and access healthcare information. Such websites, like the Medical Library Association, enable consumers to access information and direction concerning their health status. The author also recommends the Social Media Evaluation Tools as of great benefits in improving outcomes and efficiency in healthcare. For example, much health information is now available on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and blogs that can be adapted and used. However, the author argues that such websites should be critically evaluated before being adapted to determine the ease of use, privacy policy, and checks on quality content. The article helps improve outcomes and efficiency in clinical systems by ensuring accuracy and consistency and developing a theoretical outline for content examination (Farsi, 2021). The significant learning from this article is that critical evaluation is necessary before employing any social media in healthcare to ensure patient privacy, ease of use, and quality of available content.

Complexity and high cost are among the primary features in the current healthcare organizations. Applications of clinical systems, however, reduce these complexities and improve patient outcomes. Tanwar, Parekh, & Evans (2020) researched to investigate how block-chain-based electronic healthcare records systems improve patient outcomes and enhance healthcare efficiency. The article argues that electronic health records improve efficiency by facilitating fast transactions of various key aspects like insurance billing and access to the privacy and security issues. Additionally, the authors claim that electronic records provide access to patient’s critical information, which in turn helps providers to make sound decisions regarding patient’s conditions. This demonstrates that electronic health records are increasingly competitive when it comes to handling substantial healthcare data while ensuring better outcomes and increased efficiency. Essentially, the article teaches that leveraging interactive patient care technology will ensure that patients and their families are fully involved in taking an active role in a plan treatment plan (Tanwar, Parekh, & Evans 2020). Moreover, patients and families can evaluate treatment outcomes. In other words, dynamic partnership and communication with all parties make the healthcare culture more complex in families’ hospital experience.

“Med-Chain: Efficient Healthcare Data Sharing via Blockchain” is another article that talks about the role of electronic health records in boosting outcomes and efficiency. Information exchange in healthcare is key as it guarantees patient safety by minimizing medication errors. The authors argue that the utilization of electronic records intends to ensure a flexible pattern in data sharing (Shen, Guo, & Yang, 2019). Findings in this study show that application of electronic records leads to higher efficiency and improved patient outcome. Lessons learned from this article is that gradual incorporation of electronic records gives patients better control over their health information hence quality care and improved outcomes.

To conclude, the clinical decision support system is a technological tool that facilitates decision-making by linking patients’ status with evidence. Moreover, Jones and Bartlett’s editorial gives nurses the implementation and understanding essential to prosper in the information age. Skibas, in his 2017 article, argues that there should be a critical evaluation of such websites before being adapted to determine the ease of use, privacy policy, and checks on quality content. Lastly, Kruger et al. teach that leveraging an interactive patient care technology will ensure that patients and their families are fully involved in taking an active role in the primary treatment plan.

Reference

Farsi, D. (2021). Social media and health care, part I: a literature review of social media use by health care providers. Journal of medical Internet research, 23(4), e23205.

Kossman, S. P., & Scheidenhelm, S. L. (2020). Nurses’ perceptions of the impact of electronic health records on work and patient outcomes. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 26(2), 69-77

Shen, B., Guo, J., & Yang, Y. (2019). MedChain: Efficient healthcare data sharing via blockchain. Applied sciences, 9(6), 1207.on social media: a critical review. NPJ digital medicine, 3(1), 43.

Tanwar, S., Parekh, K., & Evans, R. (2020). Blockchain-based electronic healthcare record system for healthcare 4.0 applications. Journal of Information Security and Applications, 50, 102407.