Essay Sample on Patient Safety Concerns and Health IT

Introduction

Today, patient safety remains to be a substantial issue of concern and a backbone of health care, particularly with the introduction of health IT in health care organizations. It is critical to note that creating a culture of patient safety requires the engagement of all the shareholders in the implementation of health IT. Some of the patient safety concerns include medical errors, patient discharge errors, diagnostic errors, among other healthcare-related issues. However, this paper will provide a discussion on rising patient safety concerns and the involvement of health care organizations and health IT vendors in patient safety. Also, it will explain the roles of health IT vendors and health care organizations.

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Patient Safety Concerns from Health IT Designed to Improve Patient Quality

In a safe health IT aimed to improve patient care quality, the information system should provide efficient entry and retrieval of data by promoting interoperability and usability (Berry et al., 2016). However, patient safety concerns can arise from the designed health IT meant to improve patient care quality in distinctive ways. For instance, complex data interfaces, poor workflow, and poorly designed user-interfaces impose significant threats to the safety of patients (Institute of Medicine (US), 2012). With the existence of a complex data interface in the designed health IT, it could raise patient safety concerns in that, health care practitioners could mishandle the IT system and impose dangers to the patient's safety. Similarly, poorly designed user-interfaces could raise patient safety concerns as the patient is fragile to manipulation and other threats imposed by week health care system intended, such as access to private and confidential patient health records (Win et al., 2001). In different cases, the lack of interoperability in the health care IT system raises issues of reliable clinical decisions, which limits patient safety (Torres & Guo, 2004).

Implementation of a Health Care Information System

Often, a health care information system is implemented to improve health care quality by considering the degree to which the system is patient-centered, together with the improvement of safety of health services (Rahimi, Vimarlund, & Timpka, 2009). However, patient safety involves the partnership between the health care organization and health IT vendor in different extents. The implementation of a health care information system should be based on three major categories of knowledge (Blum & Orthner, 1989). First, the implementor of the health care information system should be aware of the purpose of the information system. In this, the vender is obligated to provide the necessary information to the health care organization to ensure that the IT system meets the needs of the health care organization. Also, there should be an understanding of the underlying issues that could impact the health care information system. Through the partnership between the health care organization and health IT vendor, awareness can be created to ensure that both parties understand the issues such as ethical standards, legal guidelines, among others (Ngafeeson, 2015). Such developments warrant patient safety.

Additionally, it is critical for the implementations of the health care information systems to become familiar with the processes of information technology and how to avoid malfunction. With the collaboration between health IT vendors and the health care organization, it means that there would be a proper flow of information concerning the processes of the IT system. Also, this would maintain the flexibility and credibility of the IT system critical in guaranteeing patient safety. In cases where either the health IT vendor or the health care organization fails to accord the required aid, this would impose a significant impact on the achievement of the health care IT implementation (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2017). Hence, I agree that patient safety requires the partnership between the health IT vendor and the health care organization in implementing a health care IT system.

Roles of the Health Care Organization and the Health IT Vendor

Mostly, the health care organization is defined as a health system whereby it accommodates the organization of institutions, resources, and people delivering health care to fulfill health requirements. In the present evolving world, the roles of health care organizations include all the activities purposed to promote health. According to Donev, Kovacic, and Laaser (2013), it is the role of health care organization to provide appropriate well-being services at affordable prices. In all the aspects of the health care system, it is meant to ensure that patients do not only receive health care but receive quality health care.

Correspondingly, the health IT vendor is responsible for various aspects involved with the use of health IT and its implementation. For instance, the health IT vendor is mandated to take the primary responsibility for the creation, design, and development of technology in the health care system. It means the health IT vendors should acquire feedback from health IT users and make the necessary modifications to the systems. According to Koppel and Kreda (2009), health IT vendors are known to evade the responsibility of any harm caused by their policies; however, it is their role to partner with the users to develop, implement, and optimize the health IT system. Further, the health IT vendor is responsible for overseeing the achievement of the safest application of health IT. The health IT vendors manage the technical aspects of handling patient health as they build, implement, and support the IT systems such as software. In the interaction of both the health care organization and the health IT vendor, it is critical to consider the primary objective, which is based on ensuring quality health care and at affordable prices.

References

Berry, A. B., Butler, K. A., Harrington, C., Braxton, M. O., Walker, A. J., Pete, N., ... & Haselkorn, M. (2016). Using conceptual work products of health care to design health IT. Journal of biomedical informatics, 59, 15-30. Doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2015.10.014

Blum, B. I., & Orthner, H. F. (1989). Implementing health care information systems. In Implementing Health Care Information Systems (pp. 3-21). Springer, New York, NY. Doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-3488-3_1

Donev, D., Kovacic, L., & Laaser, U. (2013). The role and organization of the health care system. Health system and their evidence-based development. Lage: Hans Jacobs Publishing Company, 19-46.

Institute of Medicine (US). Committee on Patient Safety and Health Information Technology. (2012). Health IT and patient safety: Building safer systems for better care. National Academies Press.

Koppel, R., & Kreda, D. (2009). Health care information technology vendors' "hold harmless" clause: implications for patients and clinicians. JAMA, 301(12), 1276-1278. Doi:10.1001/jama.2009.398

Ngafeeson, M. N. (2015). Healthcare information systems opportunities, and challenges. In Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition (pp. 3387-3395). IGI Global. Doi: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5888-2.ch332

Rahimi, B., Vimarlund, V., & Timpka, T. (2009). Health information system implementation: a qualitative meta-analysis. Journal of medical systems, 33(5), 359. Doi: 10.1007/s10916-008-9198-9

Torres, E. J., & Guo, K. L. (2004). Quality improvement techniques to improve patient satisfaction. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 17(6), 334-338.

Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health care information systems: a practical approach for health care management. John Wiley & Sons.

Win, K. T., Cooper, J., Croll, P., & Alcock, C. (2001). Issues of privacy, confidentiality, and access to electronic health records. JL & Inf. Sci., 12, 24.