It is apparent that the increased application of Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) will eradicate medical errors in hospitals. Moreover, healthcare practitioners who have adequate skills in HIT have an added advantage of functioning effectively in organizations (Burns, Bradley & Weiner, 2011). For example, they are able to communicate effectively, keep accurate records and also assimilate information with ease. Health workers are able to reinforce any given organization in decision-making and offer clinical support services to patients. Needless to say, any organization must provide quality services to patients. As such, HIT allows workers to acquire requisite skills and thus become efficient in the provision of such services with minimal medical errors (Burns, Bradley & Weiner, 2011).
Furthermore, this may also be beneficial to health service providers to expand consumers’ knowledge. This implies that workers in an organization need to have information and skills that they use to advise patients on the usage of certain things such as drugs. This is important to the health sector since it assists patients to obtain knowledge on how to meet their health needs (Burns, Bradley & Weiner, 2011).
This program is expensive to implement and manage since a significant amount of finances is required to train workers. It has also been found out that training and implementing such programs is time demanding and requires more effort to accomplish (Burns, Bradley & Weiner, 2011). Definitely, there are other challenges that face the program after it has been implemented leading to its failure. For instance, poor leadership is one of the challenges that hinder the implementation of HIT programs. Leaders also have undernourished initiatives as they implement the program. Another obstacle is a lack of clear objectives, determination, and poor communication within the organization (Burns, Bradley & Weiner, 2011). Trainees in organizations lack skills that may enable them to limit the duration and depth of short-term disruptions. Competition within the healthcare industry makes the operation of HITs quite expensive
In response one, while it may be indisputable to argue that Healthcare Information Technology has its own merits and demerits, I suppose that the entire debate on whether Information Technology should be embraced in healthcare facilities has a myriad of underlying factors that ought to be considered. Indeed, any healthcare facility which is introducing IT in its various departments should be keen since the latter constitutes a major change and shift in the way operations will be carried out. As Burns, Bradley and Weiner (2011) observe, change management in organizations should be taken with great caution. For instance, it would be an exercise in futility to adopt a fully fledge IT system when factors such as shortage of monetary resources and well-trained staff are still evident barriers
In terms of the classmate’s response two, the key argument put forward on the implementation of HIT system in healthcare facilities is to reduce medical errors especially when keeping records. Nonetheless, it is imperative to note that such errors may still be reduced to the minimum within a healthcare system where staff members are well trained and equipped with requisite knowledge and skills (Burns, Bradley & Weiner, 2011).. Moreover, it may not be justified to align HIT to optimum productivity per se bearing in mind that similar to any other form of change, it may also prove to less cost effective. It is also arguably true that the top hospital management ought to exercise transparent and excellent leadership skills. This will motivate hospital workforce especially when they are offered incentives and other fringe benefits.
Reference
Burns, L., Bradley, H. & Weiner, J. (2011).Shortell and Kaluzny’s Healthcare Management: Organization Design and Behavior. New York: Cengage Learning, Inc.