Essay Example: Leveraging Informatics in the Health Sector

The widely accepted definition of nursing informatics is a definition by HIMSS that defines nursing informatics as a specialty that combines nursing science with multiple platforms of analytical sciences in the management of information, which is critical and central for the nursing profession (Kearney-Nunnery, 2015). It gives a platform for nurses to access knowledge that is otherwise new to them but vital for career progression and improvement of patient care. The integration of informatics in nursing has made healthcare cost-effective because informatics helps spur the use of technology in the healthcare sector, especially the management of information (Bates and Bitton, 2010). The use of technologies such as EMR has helped consolidate information for seamless operations between stakeholders in the healthcare sector (Appari and Johnson, 2010). Keeping patient information in the past was hard, and often the records would be lost to thievery or occurrences such as fires.

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Electronic Health Records (EHR) play a crucial role in managing patient data and helps in easy access to the data for the provision of excellent care to patients (Kierkegaard, 2011). Collecting information from patients enables caregivers to deduce the treatment necessary for situational improvement. Informatics enables the assessment of a patient’s outcome through an electronic system accessible from whatever place the patient is located. Paper assessments and questioners are expensive and consume a lot of time, making the use of informatics reliable, secure, and saves time. Informatics has increased patient-centeredness, where improvement of processes has led to the empowerment of patients. The reason being, patients have access to their medical records and have the opportunity to be educated about their diagnosis. Increased coordination is another improvement of healthcare service that informatics has brought in the healthcare sector.

Conclusion

In summary, informatics has helped transform the healthcare sector by integrating information and involving patients in the course of their treatment. There has been an improvement in patient care and the collaboration of medical professionals to improve service delivery and process efficiency.

References

Appari, A., & Johnson, M. E. (2010). Information security and privacy in healthcare: current state of research. International journal of Internet and enterprise management, 6(4), 279-314.

Bates, D. W., & Bitton, A. (2010). The future of health information technology in the patient-centered medical home. Health affairs, 29(4), 614-621.

Kearney-Nunnery, R. (2015). Informatics and documenting outcomes. Advancing Your Career Concepts in Professional Nursing, 258.

Kierkegaard, P. (2011). Electronic health record: Wiring Europe’s healthcare. Computer law & security review, 27(5), 503-515.