In healthcare organizations, successful process organization involves an optimal exchange of multiple types of information. In settings for psychiatric inpatients, the information of relevance may include patients’ health data, medical histories, new staff’s qualifications, and protocol implementation errors. This discussion is aimed at reviewing key information needs in my current organization and reflecting on the implemented HIT solutions’ potential in addressing them and promoting EBP.
Differentiation of Information Needs
In the inpatient mental health setting for adult and geriatric patient populations where I currently work, each professional role exerts an influence on information needs. Psychiatrists’ and licensed addiction specialists’ prerequisites to work include access to their patients’ medical and social history, information on currently taken medications and allergies, high-quality decision support resources, and guides to psychopharmacological treatment to fulfill their responsibilities in diagnosing disorders and providing comprehensive medication plans (Ruiz Lopez, 2020). For addiction psychiatrists, timely data exchange with medical laboratory technicians is imperative to use the outcomes of drug screen tests in diagnostic interventions, whereas the latter also need access to patient digital profiles to upload relevant test results. The needs of psychotherapists involved in the provision of group-based CBT are less defined and generally involve knowing group members’ names, diagnoses, prognostic information, and special concerns, such as danger potentials or suicidal/aggressive behaviors.
For psychiatric nurses, information needs vary depending on the profession’s particularities. When it comes to those directly involved in care provision, access to notes from behavioral observations and previous nursing diagnoses is pivotal to guarantee specialists’ safety, whereas medical/diagnostic information is accessed for medication administration purposes and error prevention (Pekurinen et al., 2017). Nurse educators’ and administrators’ success in their assigned roles depends on access to nursing staff schedules, staff members’ personal information, day-off requests, and related information.
Diverse Needs’ Impact on HIT Implementation
The variety of information-related needs have led to the selection of EMR and staff scheduling software in my professional setting. Firstly, Epic EMR software developed by Epic Systems Corporation is implemented to ensure patient-centeredness by collecting client data from admission to discharge in one file. The system has the e-prescribing option, which is advantageous in terms of mistake prevention and reducing misinformation resulting from distraction and multi-tasking (Chiu et al., 2018). Following HIPAA rules, psychiatry/addiction professionals and lab technicians have the authority to collect and enter information into patient profiles and access it, which allows preventing information losses when patients switch to new psychiatrists for various reasons. Care specialists make use of personal EMR profiles but also exchange information concerning behavioral characteristics in direct intraprofessional communication. For administrative and educational purposes, the setting utilizes OnShift software and simple employee statistics calculated in Excel. The organization also has an e-mail address for private staff complaints and process improvement proposals.
Information Flow in HIT Systems and Its Effects on EBP
In general, my current workplace’s situation with HIT implementation supports EBP in clinical practice by promoting the informed use of patient communication and violence prevention strategies by care professionals. The successful integration of takeaways from current psychiatric research requires nurses’ timely access to verified patient information (Patelarou et al., 2017). In the organization’s HIT system, duplicate removal and data review procedures are conducted before patient information becomes accessible for other eligible users and gets utilized in nursing care plans. Also, protections against authorized editing, such as frequent password changes, are in use. These peculiarities of information flow guarantee the delivery of thoroughly checked and error-free confidential patient information to their assigned care specialists, thus promoting the identification of appropriate evidence-based nursing care interventions, including distraction techniques, limit-setting, and pro re nata anti-aggression medications.
Conclusion
Finally, in my setting, professionals’ information-related needs depend on whether they participate in diagnostic/treatment planning, treatment administration, or process management/staff education activities. Epic EMR, OnShift workforce management tool, and Microsoft Excel are utilized to consider these needs in everyday practice. These tools can support nurses’ potential in EBP implementation by improving their decision-making with the help of frequently updated mistake-free data on social history and risk factors.
References
Chiu, A. S., Raymond, A. J., Hoag, J. R., Freedman-Weiss, M., Healy, J. M., & Pei, K.Y. (2018). Association of lowering default pill counts in electronic medical record systems with postoperative opioid prescribing. JAMA Surgery, 153(11), 1012-1019.
Patelarou, A. E., Katsouli, K., Stamou, A., Vivilaki, V., Koukia, E., Sifaki-Pistolla, D., & Patelarou, E. (2017). Attitudes, knowledge and perceptions of psychiatric nurses about evidence-based practice. Archives of Hellenic Medicine, 34(5), 636-642. Web.
Pekurinen, V., Willman, L., Virtanen, M., Kivimäki, M., Vahtera, J., & Välimäki, M. (2017). Patient aggression and the wellbeing of nurses: A cross-sectional survey study in psychiatric and non-psychiatric settings. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(10), 1-14. Web.
Ruiz Lopez, G. (2020). Information seeking patterns of psychiatrists during clinical practice. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 37(1), 78-82. Web.