Human Factors In Healthcare

The influx of information technology has been widespread and the possibilities of advancement are limitless. With the complex structure of the healthcare industry, it is necessary that the technology will be leveraged to support quality standards, management processes and performance improvement efforts. 

The last discussion for the course on health information technology was a supplement from the previous course in Healthcare Information Management. Dr. Miller has emphasized how health informatics is an integrative discipline that arises from computational, informational, cognitive, organizational and other sciences and how it is utilized as a crucial tool to manage healthcare systems especially towards patient safety and quality of care.

To date, there are various clinical decision support systems available in the market for healthcare industries. The biggest impact that it has provided in the industry is that it fostered improvement in healthcare quality, safety and efficiency and reducing health disparities. In the same manner, it has increased engagement on the part of patients and their families towards their healthcare.

Through the technology, it integrated the flow of health information across consumers and providers. With that, it has improved care coordination because of a more collaborative network. Moreover, the HIT adoption has introduced novel innovations in the healthcare industry such as electronic health record (EHR), computerized physician order entry (CPOE), e-prescription, prescription refill reminders and control and other quality measures reporting that would reduce costs, enhance efficiency and cut down the incidence of error, unintended consequences at the same time as delivering better consumer care and service (Holmgren & Adler-milstein, 2017).

However, even though technology has cut down barriers it does not necessarily indicate that access and adoption of the platform is readily available to the marginalized demographics. There are still several critical-access hospitals in the rural areas across the nation that are experiencing challenges on the use of EHR mainly due to the limited access to capital, inadequate broadband and Internet infrastructure, health IT workforce shortages, organizational and cultural challenges, including work-flow issues and security concerns (Gabriel, Jones, Samy & King, 2014).

It is exciting to know what the future of healthcare has in store for consumers, especially on improving population health, enriching health care experience and eventually driving down the per capita cost through improvement but there still should be a human factor that goes along with every process because technology is created to just be of assistance to the user and not the other way around.

I came across a presentation given by Dr. Nana Khunlertkit, a Senior Human Factors Lead from Johns Hopkins Armstrong institute, the take away from the video was to not leave the reliance to technology instead integrate human factors concepts to improve quality and safety of patient care. I believe that there should be more awareness to human factors and ergonomics and this should be highlighted in support to the adoption of HIT in healthcare systems. Yes, human makes errors, but there is still varied non-technological approaches to identify and mitigate system problems that cause human errors and patient safety hazards in health care. Technology is in place not to redesign humans instead it should be integrated so that humans are able to navigate the systems in a more efficient and safe manner. I am looking forward to the shifts that this discipline will bring about on how healthcare is provided and delivered few years down the

road.

Holmgren, A.

J., & Adler-milstein, J. (2017). Health Information Exchange in Us Hospitals: The Current Landscape and a Path to Improved Information Sharing. Journal of hospital medicine, 12(3), 193-198.

Gabriel, M. H., Jones, E. B., Samy, L., & King, J. (2014). Progress and challenges: Implementation and use of health information technology among critical-access hospitals. Health Affairs, 33(7), 1262-70. Retrieved from http://resource.adu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.resource.adu.edu/docview/1545346457?accountid=35793

Khunlertkit, N. (n.d.). Nana Khunlertkit: Human Factors Gateway to HITs Safe Use. Retrieved April 21, 2017, from

http://professionals.barnesjewish.org/videos/a-human-factors-gateway-to-hits-safe-use