Patients at Risk: Inadequate Data Storage in Hospitals - Essay Sample

Introduction

Managing patients' information in the hospital has been a challenge thus resulting in poor quality services. Most of the patient information is stored manually, a situation that makes it difficult to retrieve the records and use them when handling a patient. There is limited use of informatics technology in the hospital; hence, the patients' records remain at risk of being stolen or diaper.

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Because of the use of manual methods to collect and store patients' data, patients are at risk of receiving a wrong diagnose or even wrong prescription from the doctor.(Ravi, et al., 2016) Patients may also receive false information concerning their health state. In several instances, patients complain of poor services, which is because of how their records are handled. If the information about patients is gathered and recorded correctly, there will be no instances of confusion, and the patients will receive quality health services.

Technology is advancing significantly; therefore, it is essential for hospitals and healthcare homes to renovate their system and adopt the new technology of managing information. Currently, informatics technology is accepted in many health facilities since it enables the information to be stored in an electronic form. When data is stored electronically, its retrieval becomes easy, thus increasing the efficiency of doctors and other health officers. Electronic healthcare record (HER) system, for example, enable information to be stored in an orderly manner where they can be retrieved easily (Coiera, 2015). The system also allows for the coordination of the information within the organization, thus saving more time.

As one of the hospitals that value the services provided to patients, it is essential to adopt the use of health informatics to ensure that we deliver quality to the clients. Health records documented on paper open room for unnecessary errors that could be avoided (Crawford & Shabbir, 2016). Use of paper in handling health records also places the patients' life at risk since they can end up receiving the wrong treatment due to the use of malicious files.

Generally, information technology is shaping most hospitals and healthcare settings. The administration should ensure that the hospital uses a new technique of managing health records. Doctors and nurses should also be trained on how to uses the digital information system to gather and store patients data. Healthcare is a sensitive field that deals with human life; therefore, it administrative should consider it as a matter of agency to address the issues of string health information.

References

Coiera, E. (2015). Guide to health informatics. CRC press. Retrieved from: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/

Crawford, V., & Shabbir, S. A. (2016). Health Information Technologies for Geriatrics: The Big Picture. In Nursing Informatics (pp. 721-723). Retrieved from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/

Ravi, D., Wong, C., Deligianni, F., Berthelot, M., Andreu-Perez, J., Lo, B., & Yang, G. Z. (2016). Deep learning for health informatics. IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics, 21(1), 4-21. Retrieved from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/