The complexity of health care is relatively easy to track, as it has to constantly correspond to the fundamentals of human lifestyle and behavioral patterns. For this reason, with the rapid exposure to data and information about health, professionals are to introduce technological solutions to various medical interventions in order to remain relevant. The issue is especially significant to the treating clinicians that encounter new patient cases daily, as they are to operate the existing data fast enough to present the best treatment option in the current healthcare market.
When speaking of the healthcare organization I work in, it would be reasonable to assume that the two most commonly used technological tools on the hospital premises are telehealth communication and electronic health records (EHR). The most obvious yet the most useful option is the latter, as the EHR system accounts for prompt and quality access to the patient data. As a case manager nurse, I encounter many patients with long histories of chronic diseases that affect the human body and catalyze the emergence of accompanying health hazards. The EHRs are extremely useful in terms of tracking the medication intake and other peculiarities that may potentially distort the process of medical intervention (Rathert et al., 2017). Undeniably, the technology has a number of ethically challenging aspects, but the positive patient outcomes mostly outweigh the drawbacks.
As far as telehealth is concerned, this tool has become extremely useful in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. While unable to reach out to many patients with chronic diseases, the ability to use digital platforms to secure patient surveillance has become an asset to the medical practice. The scholarly research indicates that in the context of vulnerable cancer patients, telehealth, while disclosing some disparities in terms of age and racial affiliation, and digital literacy, contributed to continuous patient support and family inclusion (Marshall et al., 2021). Thus, it may be concluded that telehealth and EHR have already become an integral part of quality patient care in the context of public hospitals.
References
Marshall, V. K., Chavez, M. N., Mason, T. M., & Martinez Tyson, D. (2021). The use of telehealth to provide continuity of cancer care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Advantages, disparities, and implications to promote health equity. Hospital Topics, 1-11. Web.
Rathert, C., Porter, T. H., Mittler, J. N., & Fleig-Palmer, M. (2017). Seven years after meaningful use: Physicians’ and nurses’ experiences with electronic health records. Health Care Management Review, 44(1), 30-40.