Introduction
Over the years, the recognition of health IT as an essential requirement for improved delivery of health care services has continued to grow quite hysterically. Also referred to as health information systems, health IT has so much to offer as far as patient health care provision is considered (IOM, 2012).
It is thus imperative to completely do away with the traditional approach to medical problems so as to realize a radical transformation in the medical sector. Embracing the use of technology will boost the performance of the health sector in terms of research, production of medicine, diagnosis, treatment, and follow up.
This paper considers various aspects of health IT as well as patient safety concerns in relation to the use of information technology.
Health IT and Patient Health Issues
Patient safety is a subset of medical study that looks at the use of safe techniques by health care providers in the course of delivering health care services to patients (Reason, 2000). The goal of patient safety in heath care delivery is usually to win the confidence of patients regarding the use of health IT.
An assumption by many health care providers is that health IT improves the effectiveness of medical diagnosis as well as treatment and consequently the safety of patients (Savage & Ford, 2008).
IOM (2012) also argued that health IT creates a great opportunity for health care providers to offer services with better safety considerations when compared to the use of paper based systems. For improved health care to be realized therefore, the use of technology should be embraced at all levels in the medical sector albeit with caution (Amalberti, Auroy & Berwick, 2005).
According to Vincent (2011), patient health IT issues may result from treatment complications, poor quality of health information systems, patients being made to undergo unnecessary treatment, wrong diagnosis, and failed systems.
Dealing with Patient Safety Issues
In order to effectively deal with safety issues affecting patients, there is need to continually keep track of the acquisition, implementation, and maintenance of the health information systems (Schoenbaum & Bovbjerg, 2004).
From inception, it is critical for the designers of health IT systems to go about the whole design process bearing in mind that the safety of patients always comes first. In addition, the design process must be guided by strict guidelines so as to reduce or altogether eliminate possibilities of errors in the systems.
The systems must be thoroughly tested before being rolled out for use by health care providers. Disparities detected during the testing phase between what the system does and what it is meant to do must be dealt with at this juncture to avoid transferring any harm to patients during full implementation.
IOM (2012) also noted that the safety of health information systems depends largely on factors such as the design, implementation and usage of the system. It is thus essential to dedicated time to train health care providers meant to use the system. Generally, research indicates that lack of training or poor training of users before system use may result in poor use or system breakdown (Cooper, Gaba & Liang, 2000).
To keep an eye on the health and safety of patients, a number of suggestions have been made by stakeholders both in the private and public sectors. Some people have cited the need for the government to device an elaborate plan that may be used to engage all players in the private as well as public sector.
In collaboration with stakeholders, the government should determine the extent to which the use of health IT can negatively affect patients and consequently, come up with strategies that will help to eliminate risks associated with the implementation of health information systems.
Although there is a consensus that the private sector should be fully involved in ensuring the safety of health information systems, support from the public sector is critical if success has to be realized.
Other suggestions that have been fronted in ensuring the safety of health information systems include high reliability design and a through understanding of safety issues. According to Vincent (2011), patient safety begins with the design of the health information system. A notable benefit of systems that are designed with a high level of reliability is resilience.
Such systems will certainly help to build trust concerning the use of health IT. On the other hand, poorly designed systems will cause harm, lead to inferior results, and discourage patients and health care providers from using them.
Creating an open forum for health care providers to learn from each other will facilitate exchange of knowledge which in turn will lead to further improvement of the application of health information system (Rose, 2001). It is necessary for health care providers to understand the science behind the safety of health information systems to draw maximum from them.
Australian Literature and Health IT Problems
It is evident from research studies that so much has been investigated regarding health IT problems in Australia. Areas that have been studied include the safety of health care surroundings and various risks that are associated with heart diseases (Smith, 2004). The studies highlight vital concerns that must be examined in order to improve health IT safety.
Largely, the evidence presented in literature as concerns the impact of health IT on the safety of patients indicates that the various challenges encountered while addressing the safety of health care information systems and their usage involves not only the people and clinical implementation of such systems but also the technology applied (Tingle & Bark, 2011).
The literature also provides a description of significant improvements that have been made in various aspects of care in a number of health care institutions.
Clearly, research has presented enough information to understand health IT issues in Australia and beyond. The onus is thus on government authorities to take advantage of the available information to figure out how best to embrace the use of health information systems without putting the lives of citizens at risk.
Good use of this information will see the development of health information systems that are well designed to meet the safety requirements of patients (Cowling, 2004). Putting in place elaborate measures that will guarantee better design and safety of health IT systems will serve to encourage patients and health care providers to use health information systems more.
Conclusion
In many parts of the world today, health IT has already been recognized as a necessary ingredient for improving the delivery of health care to patients and ensuring their safety.
Despite the fact that available evidence on health IT appears to cover a number of other areas outside medical safety, various past studies have greatly contributed to the improvement of patient safety. This is a clear indication that health IT has a great potential to drastically change the safety of patients not only in the medical sector but also in other areas of care.
The use of new technology, however, presents unfamiliar threats that must be explored in order to enhance their performance and protect patients from any form of harm. Despite the risks that accompany the use of the technology in the health sector, several benefits may also be realized.
A deep knowledge of the effect of health information systems on the safety of patients is thus an important ingredient to the design of robust systems that can be relied upon to deliver great services with very minimal or no harm at all.
As pointed out earlier, it is imperative for government authorities to leverage on the available pool of information regarding health IT issues for controlling the design of health information systems. Certainly, better designs of such systems will continue to propel the development of health IT and increased use of technology in the medical field.
On the contrary, poorly designed systems will lead to great resentment toward the use of health IT and consequently, more harm resulting from practitioners going back to employ traditional ways of dealing with health problems.
Governments should do all that is within their powers to make citizens embrace the use of technology in order to advance the delivery of health care services. Both private and public entities must be engaged at every level to ensure that effective health information systems that are safe for use by health care providers are designed.
References
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Cooper, J. B., Gaba, D. M. & Liang, B. (2000). The National Patient Safety Foundation Agenda for Research and Development in Patient Safety. Medscape General Medicine, 2: 38.
Cowling, V. (2004). The Same as they Treat Everybody Else. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Institute of Medicine (IOM). (2012). Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Reason, J. (2000). Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Rose, G. (2001). Sick Individuals and Sick Populations. International Journal of Epidemiology, 30: 427 – 432.
Savage, G. T. & Ford, E. W. (2008). Patient Safety and Health Care Management. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
Schoenbaum, S. C. & Bovbjerg, R. R. (2004). Malpractice Reform must include Steps to Prevent Medical Injury. Annals of Internal Medicine, 140: 51 – 53.
Smith, B. (2004). Primary Health Care Settings. Melbourne: National Public Health Partnership.
Tingle, J. & Bark, P. (2011). Patient Safety, Law Policy and Practice. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Vincent, C. (2011). Patient Safety. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.