Health IT

Health IT

            Health IT is increasingly becoming an integral aspect of the day-to-day delivery of care. It has advanced rapidly in the last two decades. Currently, medical practitioners can use various IT tools for communication, diagnosis and treatment and tracking and monitoring patients (Mohammadzadeh & Safdari, 2014). The acceleration in health IT advancement will persist with the increasing demand for effective and efficient tools and systems to deal with the rapidly changing healthcare needs. The complex dynamics of health IT demonstrate the need for healthcare providers and organizations to remain updated on the current and emerging informatics trends and issues. This knowledge is crucial to the effective identification and application of the relevant IT tools and systems to optimize the care delivery processes and patient outcomes. One of the popular health IT topics is virtual care. The advancement of computer technology and data management systems has enabled the development of effective virtual care platforms and systems. An analysis of the significance of virtual care and the impact of the telemedicine technology on the nursing practice is crucial to highlighting the changing healthcare delivery methodologies.

Rationale

            For many years, the implementation of any healthcare action depended on the physician and patient being in the same location at the same time. Therefore, patients who needed prompt medical care often developed complications or died because they had to wait for the EMS personnel to arrive. The patients in remote areas have been the worst affected by the physical barriers to healthcare. However, the development of virtual care platforms and systems has provided an efficient and cost-effective way for providers to respond to the healthcare needs of patients needing emergency care and those in remote locations (Smith, Armfield, & Eikelboom, 2012). The elimination of the physical barriers to the delivery of timely and effective care is helping to advance the goals of universal healthcare. Virtual healthcare platforms such as AmWell allow physicians and patients to exchange the relevant medical information in real time using smartphones, tablets or laptops. The physician can assess, diagnose and treat or manage the patient’s condition anytime from anywhere. Some virtual care systems can retrieve the patient’s health data from previous providers and apps such as Apple Healthkit. Virtual care has helped to reduce the wait time for patients and the incidences of complications or mortality due to delayed commencement of care. For example, a patient who uses the AmWell app can locate a physician and receive the needed care in less than 15 minutes (American Well, 2016). On the other hand, the typical clinical visit can take more than 60 minutes considering the time taken to travel a medical facility, complete the relevant paperwork and wait for the doctor. Furthermore, virtual care systems allow collaboration among different medical specialists to help patients with complex clinical issues (FierceHealthcare, 2018). However, virtual care faces various challenges. First, the risk of a breach in the patients’ confidentiality increase considerably with the use of the virtual care platforms. Patients and physicians use web and mobile applications to exchange medical information. Most of these applications, unlike the EHR and EMR systems, are not fully compliant with HIPPA standards (Kelley, 2016). Running the applications on personal devices such as smartphones increases the risks of loss of confidential information. The other limitation of virtual care is that it is ineffective in situations needing comprehensive assessment and interventions. Furthermore, the overreliance on virtual care may cause patients to miss or skip essential screening services provided during in-office medical visits.

            I used my informatics skills and knowledge in several ways when developing my assignment. First, I activated the links provided for the discussion assignment in order to access the recommended websites. Secondly, I used the Boolean operators to search the health IT-related topics on the fiercehealthcare.com website. This step helped me to identify the most relevant and recent articles quickly (Grove, Burns, & Gray, 2012). Furthermore, I used the Boolean operators to identify books and journal articles relating to my selected topic. Thirdly, I applied my knowledge of the risks and challenges involved in searching the Internet when locating the needed information. I only used recommended databases such as Medline, CINAHL and EBSCO. The other informatics skills that I used include opening an article link in a new tab, downloading files and saving them in the relevant directories, using the Microsoft Word functions to write and spell-check my assignment and uploading my file to Turnitin.com for a plagiarism check.

Conclusion

            Virtual care systems and platforms are revolutionizing the way individuals access healthcare services. A patient can access a medical professional anytime from anywhere through a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Virtual care is accelerating the universal access to quality healthcare by eliminating the physical barriers that have limited the success of the traditional care delivery approaches for a long time. The research on virtual care has taught me the limitations involved in restricting healthcare services to physical facilities. Therefore, the development of policies and programs that emphasize the integration of virtual care with the existing care delivery approaches is crucial. This approach will ensure improved outcomes for all patients regardless of their physical location.