The Need for IT in Healthcare
Geisinger health system is the physician medical organization which serves approx. 2.6 million people who resides in the area of north eastern and central Pennsylvania. The leaders of the Geisinger health system believe that the continuous improvement is required for the smooth working of the organization. They implement periodic redesigning and reengineering process for improving the satisfaction of the customers, quality of the services provided them, and increasing the efficiency of the organization. The traditional working of Geisinger health system is facing the problem of information continuity, transition in care coordination, accountability of the system, high value care for peer review and teamwork, continuous innovation, and others. Traditionally, the lower level of investment has been seen in the medial organization. The software system struggles for sharing of information, hinders the growth of infrastructure, and others. In 2009, the organization transforms their working capability by using the technology of IT.
“The implementation of Information technology in the working curriculum of the Geisinger health system is required to overcome the flaws and problem faced in the traditional system such as problem of information continuity” (Tollen, 2015), transition in care coordination, accountability of the system, high value care for peer review and teamwork, continuous innovation, and others. The IT is required for improving the quality of decision because the decision capability of the physicians can be improved by streamlining the experience and study of literature review based on evidences.
The deployment of IT brings the revolution in the working curriculum of the organization. The tools and technologies of information technology works on improving the quality and effectiveness of the health care, increasing the productivity and efficiency of the health care, preventing the medical errors and improving the accuracy in the medical procedures, reducing the cost incurred on health care, decrease the paper work of the organization, helps in maintaining the real time communication with health informatics and professionals. It also helps in early detection of disease which can take place in the near future. “The continuous tracking of the chronic disease is manageable” (Ofili, 2014). The tools and technologies of information system are used for collecting information, knowledge, data, for efficiently storing, retrieving, and sharing of health information. The key areas where the information technology plays a key role in improving the health monitoring and diagnosis system, patient care and medical treatment, research and development in pharmaceutical, and optimization in clinic performance. “The communication and data sharing can be improved by using the IT fundamentals” (Collum, 2016).
Benefits of IT in Geisinger Health System
“The key attributes which should be focused in deploying the IT practices are reliability, integrity, and availability of data” (Quarchli, 2014). The tools which are used in the Geisner health system to renovate the traditional working and providing better facilities and services to the patient such as computer assisted learning, human patient simulators, virtual reality, advanced life support system, electronic medical records, computerised physician order entry, and others. The IT system should be capable of retrieving the reliable, timely, and accurate information for importing data.
The IT system helps in maintaining the real time communication with health informatics and professionals. It is the simple and innovative method of data display. The decision making capability of the professional can be improved by analysing the evidences from the literature review. The increasing physical workload can be easily manageable by streamlining the work and enhancement in the work flow by using the Information technology. The new concept of information technology change the scenario of the traditional working of Geisinger health system such as computer assisted learning, human patient simulators, virtual reality, advanced life support system, electronic medical records, computerised physician order entry, and others. “The errors can be reduced by testing multiple health records of the patient” (Herrick, 2015). The Geisinger health system implements facility of mobile health, telemedicine, portal technology, self-service kiosks, tools used for remote monitoring, use of sensor and wearable technology, wireless communication, real time locating services, and genome sequencing. “The use of these new concepts of IT changes the vision of the organization and brings it in front of the competitors” (Shekelle, 2015).
The increasing demands of IT drive the health organization towards the formation of patient centric services. The software is used for easy accessing of information which helps in increasing the facilities provided to the patient at faster rate. The decision capability of the physicians can be improved by streamlining the experience and study of literature review based on evidences. The quality of services can be improved by IT tools and technologies. “The IT capacity and functionality can be improved by setting the IT standards within the organization” (Fathalla, 2014). The use of IT system in the curriculum of the organization helps in maintaining communication between the patient and high professionals. It brings globalization for sharing of information related to patient health with the supervisor for getting effective treatment by sitting at any corner of the world. It is the cost effective program because no extra cost is incurred on the maintenance of infrastructure, overcome conflicts between the staff, inefficiency of the staff, better decision making capability of the physician,
Risks Associated with IT in Geisinger Health System
The digital revolution of Geisigner health system has increased the dependency on the information. The security issue is the major concern in the deployment of information technology. These are the potential threats which can exploit the asset with the vulnerabilities which can cause serious threats to organization working condition. It can affect the services provided to the patient. The uncertain occurrence of security threats can affect the security policies of the enterprise. The risks associated with the IT can be categorised as failure of hardware and software, attack of malware and viruses, spam, scams, and phishing attacks, and occurrence of human errors. The occurrence of intruder can exploit the IT system of the organization. There are some criminal threats which are associated with the IT environment are hacker attack, occurrence of fraud, theft of password, disclosure of confidential information, denial of service attacks, inclusion of security breaches, and others. “With the advancement in the field of information technology, the threat of risks is also get increased such as Architecture risks, artificial intelligence risks” (Cooley, 2015), risks associated with asset management, audit risks, wrong availability of data, budget risks, change control risks, loss of data, failure of the server system in case of emergency, breakdown of communication, and others. Identification, assessment, and management of risks are the key processes which are involved in the risks management process program.
The IT capacity and functionality can be improved by setting the IT standards within the organization. The maintenance and monitoring of IT implemented in the Geisigner health system can be done in the following ways.
- Asset reporting system: The comprehensive reports should be prepared for monitoring the hardware and software implemented in the system. The accurate information can be accessed for the growth of the business.
- IT security monitoring: The daily monitoring system should be indulge with the IT to predict the presence of security issues and vulnerabilities. The occurrence of intruder can exploit the IT system of the organization.
- IT monitoring automated system: The IT monitoring automated system is used for identifying and correcting problems which can affect the working of the system
- Backup for IT monitoring: The backup should be maintained of the important asset of the organization such as confidential information, financial reporting system, medical health record of patient, and many more.
- Patch management security system: The patch management security system is used for applying patches for the smooth running of the information system.
- Security mechanism for viruses and malware: “Anti-virus and anti-malware software are the prerequisite for managing every information system” (Appari, 2016). The policies should be developed for managing the network.
- Spam protection: The loss of productivity can occurred due to the occurrence of spam.
- Wireless network security: The necessary security plan should be implemented for managing the flow of information in wireless network.
- Authorization policy: The authenticated person should be able to access information of the medical records from the system. It can help to overcome the problem of decryption of information.
- Encryption technique: “The information stored on the network should be in the encrypted form to overcome the problem of disclosure of information” (Kevin, 2015).
- Competent Authority: The competent authority should be responsible for accessing the information from the system.
Conclusion
With the advancement in the field of information technology, the threat of risks is also get increased. The use of these new concepts of IT changes the vision of the organization and brings it in front of the competitors. The tools and technologies of information technology works on improving the quality and effectiveness of the health care, increasing the productivity and efficiency of the health care, preventing the medical errors and improving the accuracy in the medical procedures, and many more. The daily monitoring system should be indulged with the IT to predict the presence of security issues and vulnerabilities because the occurrence of intruder can exploit the IT system of the organization.
References:
Appari, A. (2016). Information security and privacy in health care: Current state of research. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.ists.dartmouth.edu/library/416.pdf [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Collum, T. (2016). Benefit and drawbacks of electronic health record system. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3270933/ [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Cooley, N. (2015). Art and culture in medicine and health. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://artshealthnetwork.ca/ahnc/arts-and-culture-in-medicine-health.pdf [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Fathalla, M. (2014). A practical guide for health researchers. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.who.int/ethics/review-committee/emro_ethics_dsa237.pdf [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Herrick, D. (2015). Health information technology: Benefits and problem. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/st327.pdf [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Kevin, N. (2015). The medical research paper: Structure and function. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://ecourse.uoi.gr/pluginfile.php/93144/mod_resource/content/1/Medical%20research%20paper.pdf [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Ofili, O. (2014). Patient satisfaction in health care Delivery. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/viewFile/4261/4083 [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Quarchli, I. (2014). What are the advantages and disadvantages in restructuring the health care system. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/74704/E82997.pdf [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Shekelle, P. (2013). Cost and benefit of health information system. 1st ed. [ebook] Available https://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/hitsyscosts/hitsys.pdf [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
Tollen, K. (2012). Value, importance, and oversight of health research. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9571/ [Accessed 27 May. 2016].
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