The Benefits of Information Technology in Healthcare Sector
The healthcare industry is revolutionized with the heightened advancements in enabler technologies that are disrupting the traditional business processes. Healthcare Information Technology allows the maintenance as well as management of health-related data in electronic media thus enabling the doctors or healthcare professionals to quickly access patients’ medical information. Advancement in technology has also pushed the health informatics sector that combines healthcare business and Information Technology.
How does Healthcare Information Technology work?
- Healthcare informatics ensures accurate and efficient care while saving time. An important advantage is the ease of access to vital information for professionals present in remote locations.
- Electronic health records (EHRs) can ensure more reliable prescriptions while ensuring accurate and complete documented records of patients’ medical history.
- Connected healthcare Information Technology systems provide decision support and also make it easy to track warnings of unforeseen drug interactions.
Interventions of Healthcare Informatics
There are several use cases as well as ancillary disciplines of healthcare informatics such as public health informatics, medical and pharmacy informatics, clinical informatics, bioinformatics, nursing informatics, and health-related Information Technology and management.
Benefits of Healthcare Informatics to Healthcare Professionals
- Financial Gains: Nearly 50% of healthcare finances are lost owing to inefficient processes. The financial benefits of implementing healthcare IT for EMRs in large hospitals in the US can exceed $35M in the first 5 years.
- Malpractice Claims Reduction: The number of malpractice claims reduce to negligible with the use of Electronic Health Records. Traceability is the biggest advantage.
- Efficiency Enhancer: Healthcare IT systems facilitate the auditing of patient records in one-third the time required by the most efficient manual process.
- Time Saviour: The electronic prescriptions certainly save time and reduce efforts.
- Faster Lab Results: A majority of laboratory clinicians feel that EHRs allowed them to receive lab results faster.
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