The recent advancement in technology, in general, and information management tools, in particular, has opened a plethora of chances for improving healthcare services. Digital technology has created the setting in which data is transferred within the shortest amount of time possible, thus making it possible for nurses and healthcare organizations to reach out to patients.
Although all alterations that the healthcare environment has experienced can be regarded as unprecedented and incredibly varied, there are three key changes that deserve to be listed as the key changes. Because of the opportunities for building awareness, improving patient education, and extending interdisciplinary cooperation, Electronic Health Records, handoff communication tools, and monitoring devices should be seen as the three key technologies that have made communication easier and allowed reducing medical errors.
The significance of EHR as one of the primary alterations in the healthcare system can hardly be underrated. With the help of the specified technology, patient data management and the process of diagnosing have become much more efficient, with each piece of information being transferred from one healthcare expert to another seamlessly. Consequently, the probability of data loss or mismanagement has been reduced significantly, which has led to a rapid rise in inpatient recovery rates (Adler‐Milstein, Everson, & Lee, 2015). Furthermore, the specified innovation has allowed minimizing retention and readmission levels significantly.
The communication between nurses within a single setting, however, also requires precision and efficacy due to the pressure of time and other factors defining patient outcomes. Therefore, handoff communication tools have provided nurses with extensive opportunities for transferring essential information without the hindrances that they traditionally have to meet. For example, the loss of important data pieces due to the time lapse between the transfer of information from one nurse to another has become barely possible. As a result, the chances for patients to recover faster have risen significantly.
The identified change has become especially important in the settings that involve multidisciplinary communication and imply rather strenuous relationships between the participants (Beck & Doscher, 2018). Thus, the proposed change has become critical to the successful arrangement and transfer of data and the education of nurses in multidisciplinary settings.
Finally, one has to give credit to monitoring devices used in the clinical setting in order to assess the dynamics in a patient’s state. The specified tools have improved significantly over the past ten years, making the analysis of changes much more accurate. Thus, nurses can evaluate a patient’s condition precisely and determine the strategies with the help of which the required treatment will be administered successfully.
The application of monitoring tools has gained especially high importance during the transfer of the patient from one setting to another, such as the transportation from the ICU environment to a hospital ward or from the ward to the home setting (Pérez, Dafonte, & Gómez, 2018). The devices for monitoring changes in a patient’s health status have made it possible to locate a problem at a very early stage and remove it instantly.
Due to the vast chances for reducing medical errors, maintaining patient-nurse communication, and encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration, EHR, handoff communication tools, and monitoring devices should be seen as the key technological innovations that have been introduced to healthcare over the past decade. The described tools contribute to more accurate management of data and an enhanced communication process within the healthcare setting.
Consequently, the relationships between patients and nurses are improved, and interdisciplinary collaboration is encouraged. The specified factors contribute to faster management of patients’ needs and the management of risk factors. Furthermore, patient education occurs at a faster pace due to the specified innovations. Thus, the past decade has become a crucial point in the enhancement of care.
References
Adler‐Milstein, J., Everson, J., & Lee, S. Y. D. (2015). EHR adoption and hospital performance: time‐related effects. Health Services Research, 50(6), 1751-1771. Web.
Beck, M. S., & Doscher, M. (2018). Effects of patient care unit design and technology on nurse and patient care technician communication. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 44(4), 17-22. Web.
Pérez, M. M., Dafonte, C., & Gómez, Á. (2018). Traceability in patient healthcare through the Integration of RFID technology in an ICU in a hospital. Sensors, 18(5), 1627-1644. Web.