Course: Management of Information and Communication System in Schools
Management of Information
Reliable information forms the critical foundation of any functional and sound health system. This is because health management systems are key in facilitating governance, policy development, regulation, service delivery, health research, financing, and implementation processes in all health facilities. This paper evaluates the BESTCare health information management system, its uses, and impact on both patients and healthcare administrators.
The BESTCare information management harmonizes operations across the inpatient, outpatient, operating and emergency rooms, and the intensive care unit in a health facility. BESTCare is a sing-sign-on application that utilizes NET applications and Internet Explorer (Kim, 2015). BESTCare comprises three domains of application, including the channel domain, information infrastructure, and the core application. The core application domain of this system is comprised of applications related to both clinical and administrative activities. The system's information infrastructure domain (SIID) has applications that support retrieval and analysis of data, back-up, and other devices like disaster recovery (DR). The channel domain is made up of applications that enable communication with patients and other healthcare workers.
Use of the Management Information System
The BESTCare system supports the recording and provision of basic clinical and demographic health information, which includes clinical attendance and patient identification (Laudon, 2015). The system collects and displays patient medication, allergies, test results, and other clinical data like weight, vital signs, and height. Secondly, the system provides the basis for clinical decision-making as it highlights test results that are unusual and alerts the provider on vital signs. Thirdly, the system supports the patient entry of orders and prescriptions. These enable healthcare workers to electronically enter the required order details such as required doses and referral details. The system improves reporting and utilization of health information by generating clinical data reports to support the improvement of quality processes. Another function of the system is to enhance the confidentiality of health data to ensure high levels of privacy are maintained. This is because the system has access control levels and limits that only guarantees access to authorized individuals depending on their roles.
Impact of the System on Patients
Information technological advancement has an impact on the healthcare industry, leading and minimized the challenges of preventable errors. To begin with, the BESTCARE system has led to the improvement of quality and patient satisfaction. Researchers had noted that patients provided positive feedback compared to the duration when the system was not in use. This is attributed to the reduced number of repetitive questions asked by healthcare providers at every visit because the system stores previous records, thus reducing patients' frustrations.
Impact of the system on administrators
For the hospital administrators, the BESTCare system increases productivity and efficiency due to reduced turnaround time in managing patients. Efficiency is attained through improved access to both new and old records. The ease of accessing patient information is another benefit of the system to health administrators, given the reduced time of searching for files and charts as compared paper-based records (Kim, Lee, Hwang & Yoo, 2015). This also minimizes cases of misplaced patient files and information. The system enhances better collaboration and communication among health administrators due to the ability to support email, SMS, and real-time chatting. This has enabled administrators to improve their patients' management as they can consult through teamwork. The system has improved the accuracy of data that is produced as it generates a standardized approach of documentation without depending on an individual's handwriting. This has reduced legibility errors (Dubovitskaya et al., 2017). Health providers are also able to minimize physical storage spaces since most of the data is stored in the system using electronic means. Administrators' roles have also been streamlined because the functionalities of health providers are systems-based. BESTCare has different categories for pharmacists, nurses, and physicians.
In conclusion, BESTCare system has strengthened transparency and accountability measures in handling hospital funds and supplies. This is attributed to electronic forms of payment and prescription of drugs by health facility administrators. Improved information flow is another benefit of the system as it enhances interconnectivity among healthcare providers to access patient details and make clinical decisions based on history and demographic data.
References
Kim, S., Lee, K. H., Hwang, H., & Yoo, S. (2015). Analysis of the factors influencing healthcare
professionals’ adoption of mobile electronic medical record (EMR) using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) in a tertiary hospital. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 16(1), 1-12.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2015). Management information systems (p. 143). Upper Saddle
River: Pearson.
Dubovitskaya, A., Xu, Z., Ryu, S., Schumacher, M., & Wang, F. (2017). Secure and trustable
electronic medical records sharing using blockchain. In AMIA annual symposium proceedings (Vol. 2017, p. 650). American Medical Informatics Association.
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