Technology is changing how we look at patient care, hospital management, discovering and innovating better drugs and overall enhancing patients’ safety. Some of these new technologies include telemedicine, sweat meters, and oximeters.
A work-centered approach to new technology begins by understanding what people – RNs, direct care workers, etc. – are really good at and how they can best utilize technology to help.
The Impact of Technology on Healthcare Delivery: Empower Your Staff
From the lab to the waiting room, technology is deeply enmeshed in healthcare, serving as an essential part of patient care at all stages.
From improving accuracy with diagnostic tools to increasing accessibility through telehealth and home monitoring solutions, new technologies offer patients a more personalized healthcare experience.
Advancements in IT have made it easier for physicians to work at a high level of performance and focus more on treating patients. Empower your staff to improve the quality of patient care through utilizing technology. Help them stay in touch with new trends in providing technology-assisted healthcare.
Several technologies are now available that help doctors streamline current systems, allowing them to reduce their workload and focus on providing excellent customer service.
For example, faxed and emailed census data have been replaced by automatic systems that send information about patient admissions, discharges, and transfers to physicians in real time. These systems can also alert medical staff to potentially critical trends, such as an increase in heart attack admissions.
These types of automated systems are increasingly being used to support physician decision-making, especially as healthcare leaders look to optimize patient outcomes and reduce costs.
However, leveraging this technology will require careful experimentation to ensure that it does not jeopardize patient safety.
How Technology is Transforming the Patient Experience
Doctors use CT scans and MRIs to see inside the body, which aids in accurate diagnoses and treatment plans. Pharmaceuticals are produced more efficiently, and patients can track their health data with online tools.
Medical assistants and medical records and health information technicians use digitized systems to schedule appointments, input diagnostic codes, and submit insurance claims. And, thanks to telemedicine, physicians can conduct virtual visits with their patients.
This has been especially valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic, when a significant number of patients were hospitalized and could not meet with their physician for a face-to-face visit.
However, the broader utilization of telehealth will require policymakers to accelerate the shift toward value-based care and encourage experimentation with novel uses of technology for the benefit of both patients and frontline workers. It will also require tweaking reimbursement rules to make it possible for a wider range of providers to deliver virtual care.
Leveraging Digital Solutions to Provide Improved Care
Many patients are now looking for providers with digital solutions that offer them the convenience of online scheduling and payment options, portal and engagement capabilities and results reporting tools. Research has shown that a high percentage of patients won’t stay with practices that don’t provide them with an overall satisfactory digital experience.
Digital tools can also help improve clinical decision-making and operational efficiency. With the evolution of big data analytics and cloud computing, it is now possible to store large amounts of healthcare information and analyze it using advanced algorithms.
This enables healthcare professionals to identify trends and patterns that may not have been apparent with traditional methods.
Predictive analysis can identify recurring patients who often frequent emergency rooms, which allows staff to anticipate admission rates and better allocate resources.
This helps to minimize patient wait times and provides improved care outcomes. It can also help to reduce medication errors by highlighting any inconsistencies between prescriptions or identifying any potential drug interactions.
Proactive Use of Data and Analytics
For many businesses, collecting and analyzing data can produce valuable insights that help them improve their operations and offer better services.
In healthcare, technology has helped to streamline current systems and ease physician’s work load. This allows them to focus on offering patients excellent care and reducing human error.
The use of electronic medical records, e-prescribing, computerized physician order entry (CPOE), clinical decision support (CDS), electronic sign-out and hand-off tools, retained surgical items detectors and bar code medication administration can all help to reduce medical errors. However, these systems have to be well-designed to avoid alert fatigue.
A “work-centered approach” to new technologies focuses on what people, RNs and direct care workers in particular, are really good at and how new technology can best exploit those strengths.
This approach also respects the fact that labor will remain central to health care and cannot be completely supplanted by technology.
Balancing Privacy with Accessibility
There is no question that medical technology has brought some changes to healthcare. But, in spite of these changes, it is important to remember that the patients are at the center of it all.
From assisting surgeons in operations to providing them with an easy way to stay in touch with their doctors, technological advancements are aimed at enhancing patient care and increasing overall health.
For instance, telemedicine is now a popular way for patients to consult with their physicians without traveling long distances. It is also used to monitor patients remotely.
This enables the doctor to better understand the symptoms and conditions over time, and provides more accurate treatment.
Other technologies like 3-D printing have made it easier for doctors to create realistic-looking models of bones and organs for surgeries, thereby decreasing the risk of surgical mistakes.
However, the main problem with these technologies is that they may invade privacy. They may lead to higher medical bills for the patient as well as increase the likelihood of data breaches and cyberattacks.
Utilizing Telemedicine for Remote Patient Care
With telemedicine, healthcare professionals can help patients with various medical issues from a remote location. Physicians can provide second opinions, monitor patient health remotely, and help people manage chronic diseases from the comfort of their homes. This type of technology also improves efficiency and reduces costs.
Many seniors who are aging in place benefit from video consultations, and individuals who contract contagious diseases do not have to visit crowded clinics.
This helps to keep the spread of infection from spreading within communities. Healthcare providers and hospital systems can save money as they do not have to pay for transportation or childcare.
While telemedicine has been around for a while, it is becoming more popular than ever before. In fact, 29 states have telemedicine parity laws that require private payers to reimburse virtual visits at the same level as in-person care.
New telemedicine technologies like mobile scopes can turn a smartphone into a diagnostic tool for point-of-care tests. This is especially helpful for patients with chronic illnesses who need to monitor their vital signs.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence and Automation
Artificial intelligence and automation can help reduce manual data processing time for healthcare employees.
This will free them to work smarter and more efficiently in their roles and will enable them to focus on tasks that require a human touch, such as negotiating contracts with payers, communicating with patients and tackling high-level strategic initiatives.
These solutions will also be able to improve operations, clinical outcomes and healthcare research and pharmacovigilance by optimizing the collection of patient and operational data.
AI systems can allocate resources based on patients’ needs or identify areas where hospitals could improve staffing.
However, it’s important to ensure that these tools are leveraging accurate and representative information or else they may exacerbate existing inequalities or biases in healthcare settings.
Healthcare organizations must be open to identifying the right solutions that support rather than antagonize physicians and truly augment their ability to deliver quality care. They must address regulation, policymaking and liability issues to create the right environment for appropriate, safe and effective AI solutions to be adopted while minimizing risk to practitioners.
Implementing Robotic Solutions to Increase Efficiency
Robotic technology has become a part of the healthcare industry, with robots performing a variety of tasks that can be very time-consuming and labor-intensive for humans.
From assisting with surgery to streamlining hospital logistics and cleaning and disinfecting, medical robots can allow providers to focus on patients while taking care of less-critical chores.
With a rapidly aging population and dwindling workforce, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more important for healthcare organizations to use technology to their advantage.
Implementing robotic solutions in the office can free up healthcare professionals to spend more time interacting with patients and pursuing research projects that will benefit society as a whole rather than simply their own organization.
A few studies have been conducted to ascertain the perspectives of healthcare workers on the utilization of robotic technologies in their workplaces.
While these technologies may still not be a standard fixture in all healthcare settings, it is likely that they will eventually become more widespread as the industry continues to evolve.
This is especially true for robotic solutions that can perform administrative activities, such as ensuring that prior authorizations are initiated and completed in accordance with established laws and regulations.
Final Considerations
Technological advancements have revolutionized healthcare and transformed patient care. From telemedicine to wearable devices, technology has made it easier for patients to access care and for healthcare providers to deliver more personalized and effective treatments.
With the use of electronic medical records and artificial intelligence, healthcare providers can now make more accurate diagnoses and provide more precise treatments.
While there are still challenges to overcome, such as privacy concerns and access to care for underserved populations, the potential benefits of technology in healthcare are immense.
As we continue to embrace and develop new technologies, we can look forward to a future of more efficient, effective, and compassionate patient care.
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