There are numerous stand alone clinical as well as administrative and management systems in healthcare organizations. The usefulness of these systems can only be enhanced through an electronic integration solution. Healthcare information systems are vital in improving the coordination of the patient care as well as improving the productivity of the healthcare providers. These systems have been very useful in facilitating knowledge management in the healthcare market. According to the U. S.
Department of Health & Human Services, health information technology has promoted quality health care by minimizing medical errors, reducing costs of healthcare, decreasing paperwork and making healthcare accessible and affordable. In addition, it has improved individual patient care and also contributed to increased public health advantages like detection of diseases and infections in time. In many cases, tracking and management of chronic ailments has been easy because of development of healthcare information technology.
Moreover, it has become easy to evaluate health care since health information technology can provide quality information and easy techniques for comparison of information and data that was kept. 2. 0 Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare information technology can be defined as a comprehensive program that manages medical or healthcare information systems as well as securing its exchange between the health care users and the health care providers.
It is aimed at addressing issues such as improving the quality of the health care provided, reducing the costs of the health care and preventing or reducing medical errors. Quality healthcare information technology is intended at reducing the paper work in health institutions as well increasing administrative efficiencies. In general the technology should expand access to an affordable healthcare (HHS. gov, n. d). Healthcare information technology will assist in clinical diagnostic and keeping of personal health records.
It also aspires to tackle targeted medical modifications in patients as well as human genomics. The healthcare industry is working tirelessly to fully develop powerful Information technology tools and resources for preventing and ensuring that health care delivery approach is effectively personalized. Stakeholders have held several meetings which aim at analyzing the effects of consumer driven health care, leveraging technology resources and the strategies.
This provides them an opportunity to find out the true strengths of technological innovations in the health care market. According Karsh (2004), there is evidence that technologies such as computerized provider order entry reduce patient harm. This is an indicator that healthcare technology greatly reduces errors. However, there are claims that it is hard to design these programs because of the numerous problems encountered while designing and also the workflow impact.
This has resulted to general dissatisfaction by the health professionals. Therefore designing them has been abandoned because of their complication in nature. To effectively use health care information technology, usable technologies should be designed. This is achievable if designing is carefully done. Effective training on Healthcare Information Technology should focus on improving job performance, efficiency and quality but not on handling the complexities and inadequacies of the technology.