Benefits of Health Information

Technology for Nurse Practitioners

DECEMBER 5, 2022
 Recent technological advancements have drastically changed how care providers
manage data and deliver services.
 bothentry-level and experienced nurses continually learn
new technologies, while nursing schools develop
innovative curriculums that serve the new caregiving
environment.
 The most notable changes have occurred in the field of
healthcare information technology (HIT), where providers
use powerful software and hardware to manage patient
records.
 By combining HIT with electronic health records
(EHRs) and administrative data, organizations perform
more efficiently. Practitioners of informatics use HIT to
maximize the utility of EHRs to store, analyze and make
critical decisions using real-time patient data.
The following benefits represent the latest operational
improvements realized through health information
technology.
 1. Increased Patient Safety
 Care providers that have implemented HIT and EHR systems
have experienced significant safety improvements due to the
real-time information accessibility afforded to all
stakeholders.
 Additionally,these technologies allow researchers to analyze
information with extraordinary detail and accuracy.
2. Improved Scheduling
 Manyunforeseen and counterproductive circumstances
may arise during a typical care provider workday, which is
compounded when staffing shortages occur.
 Tomitigate this risk, healthcare managers use a
technology called resource-demand management that
analyzes caseload information and staff availability.
A similar technology, workforce-
management solutions, performs largely the
same tasks, while also helping managers
control costs and service quality.
 3. Reduced Test and Procedure Redundancy

 Electronic health records (EHRs) simplify patient information sharing;

eliminating redundant testing and procedures and reducing discomfort,
inconvenience, medical expenses and risks.
 Using this technology, patients can immediately authorize access to timely
and relevant information that is needed by their caregivers.
 4. Efficient Care Coordination

 Easy access to information facilitates collaboration

among multiple care providers. This transparency helps
to eliminate errors and risks, such as conflicting
prescriptions and treatments.
 Care providers use monitoring technology to trigger
alerts when such discrepancies arise in patients’
electronic health records.
 5. Faster Lab Results

Electronic health records allow caregivers to

retrieve patient information faster than
conventional methods, facilitating timely test
scheduling and treatment. Furthermore, caregivers
can access test results as soon as they become
available.
 6. Increased Patient Information Accessibility

 Bylaw, American citizens have the right to access their

own medical information to check for, and correct, errors
and omissions.
 Tothis end, some care providers offer patients online
access to their medical records. This practice increases
information transparency and in many cases enables
patients to more quickly find answers to their questions.
 7. Enhanced Performance Analysis

 While EHRs greatly reduce drug errors, some mistakes

still occur.
 Errors typically happen while administering,
dispensing, prescribing or transcribing medications.
 Electronic information management allows caregivers
to identify areas for improvement and increase patient
safety.
 8. Streamlined Records Administration
 Electronic health records replace the paper charts
historically used during care provider visits.
 As more providers adopt EHR technology, patients will
be asked less frequently to fill out information during
visits, because providers will already have current data
on file.
 BSN 2 B 12-5-22
 Furthermore, EHRs streamline the traditional intake
process, which can sometimes seem excessive for
relatively minor medical needs.
 EHRs also reduce errors by making current patient
information immediately accessible to all network-
connected care providers.
 9. Reduced Hospital Stays
 According to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health
Information Technology, electronic record implementation reduces the time
needed to assess fall victims by 20-percent, reducing patient stay times in
those cases.
 Likewise, the National Center for Policy Analysis reports that facilities using
HIT systems reduce average patient stays from 5.7 days to 5.5 days.
 This effectiveness has led researchers to explore other benefits to using
electronic health records and HIT, such as whether telemonitoring can delay
nursing home admittance among elderly patients.
 10. Reduced Operational Costs

 Cost reduction represents one criterion for satisfying the

Triple Aim objective of the Agency for Health Research
and Quality.
 Healthcare information technology plays a key role in
significantly reducing operational costs. Caregiving
organizations that incorporate health information
technology often see significant cost savings within the
first year of implementation.
 Proponents of healthcare information technology assert
that these innovations offer many benefits to both care
providers and patients.
 However, the benefits have yet to produce results
measuring up to the expectations of many healthcare
advocates. While the technology produces remarkably
better organizational performance, not all innovations
always perform the way their developers anticipated.
 A large reason for HIT underperformance lies in the current
shortage of technology-skilled talent. In the U.S., roughly 15
million job seekers cannot secure employment, despite
actively pursuing work opportunities.
 To fill this need and elevate the healthcare field to its highest
possible performance level, employers and medical
technology schools must work together to train and nurture
new talent.
 Once trained, America’s budding HIT
professionals must then answer the call to fill
what labor analysts are forecasting to be the
largest looming talent gap — or the fastest
growing area of opportunity — in the nation’s
history.
THANK YOU