Category: Healthcare

Healthcare has experienced exemplary changes in the last few years, and 2020 is no exception. Major programs stemming from the Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection are underway. However, many quality issues are flowing into the healthcare domain, making healthcare quality remain in the spotlight for providers. One of these quality issues in major healthcare facilities is misdiagnosis. According to a Houston Veterans Affairs and Baylor College of Medicine report, about 5% of outpatients would receive an inaccurate diagnosis (Mannion & Davies, 2018, P. 363). These diagnoses would need quality improvement methods because the research indicated that they might result in severe patient harm, such as missed cancer treatment opportunities at an earlier stage.

The two most effective quality improvement methods include PDSA and RCC. The former refers to a four-stage problem-solving model used to improve a process and carry out a change (Zerwekh & Garneau, 2017). The latter refers to a quality improvement technique that identifies measures and implements changes to improve a process (Brandrud et al., 2017). PDSA has been chosen as a quality improvement method because it encourages continuous improvement among clinicians. Also, it creates a culture of cohesive learning and change. Likewise, RCC also provides clinicians with a structure for continuous improvement. For example, these quality improvement methods will help the organization overcome resistance to the quality diagnosis of adverse disorders by making it a daily part of their work (Kaisey et al., 2019). Despite this, the organization has not implemented one of these quality improvement methods.

The current method used in the organization is quality assurance, which does not provide an effective quality improvement structure for misdiagnoses. Since misdiagnoses have become one of the quality issues in the organization, it is recommended that the organization implement PDSA and RCC. Despite the organization currently using quality assurance, the two methods are effective because they will help the organization overcome resistance to the quality diagnosis of adverse disorders.

References

Brandrud, A. S., Nyen, B., Hjortdahl, P., Sandvik, L., Haldorsen, G. S. H., Bergli, M.,& & Bretthauer, M. (2017). Domains associated with successful quality improvement in healthcareA nationwide case study. BMC Health Services Research, 17(1), 1-9.

Kaisey, M., Solomon, A. J., Luu, M., Giesser, B. S., & Sicotte, N. L. (2019). Incidence of multiple sclerosis misdiagnosis in referrals to two academic centers. Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, 30, 51-56.

Mannion, R., & Davies, H. (2018). Understanding organizational culture for healthcare quality improvement. BMJ, 363.

Zerwekh, J., & Garneau, A. (2017). Nursing Today-E-Book: Transition and Trends. Elsevier Health Sciences. 1-704. Web.

Accreditation in healthcare is an evaluating process of healthcare organizations that encourages them to stay at the specific level of standards and maintain progress. According to the research by Carrasco-Peralta, Herrera-Usagre, Reyes-Alcazar, and Torres-Olivera (2019), health professionals perceive the accreditation process positively as it furthers the organizational change, improves patient-centered care and safety culture, and the quality of clinical records. In addition, accreditation minimizes risks of misdiagnosis, advances the level of health aid to the patient, comforts the work conditions for employees, and evaluates leading statistical records according to the standards.

Accreditation implements up-to-date devices that can simplify healthcare professionals work, make the interconnections between the personnel better, and prevent misdiagnosis and wrong document filling in. The specific of work in health acquire parallel thinking and making precise decisions. The systems uniting work of the hospital or a chain of hospitals can remind the doctor about essential details in patients treatment, show reference numbers and analysis of the samples, unite the communication of physicians from different fields while treating a patient. According to Bogh et al. (2018), most of the employees in healthcare in Denmark felt positive about accreditation rules and noted that it was creating a new structure and a shared language.

Accrediting bodies can put health organizations on probation due to incomplete following of the criteria. For instance, Joint Commission has put UNC Hospital found several problems during the survey (Kommers, 2019). According to the article, the lack of furniture and ligature equipment was found, along with incomplete or inadequate filling in the documentation of doctor orders. To prevent that probation in the future, health care organizations should educate personnel to work according to the criteria and hire extra employees responsible for documentation checking. These minor details can cause inconvenience in the working area and influence statistical records.

In conclusion, accreditation acquires healthcare bodies to follow the standards that improve the quality of aid provided to the patient. It also inserts well-working systems and standards for the documentation that evaluate the hospitals better. Following the same criteria, the work in healthcare can become better systematized, interconnections between colleagues may be simplified, and the number of misdiagnoses can be significantly reduced.

References

Bogh, S. B., Blom, A., Raben, D. C., Braithwaite, J., Thrude, B., Hollnagel, E., & von Plessen, C. (2018). Hospital accreditation: Staff experiences and perceptions. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 31(5), 420-427. Web.

Carrasco-Peralta, J. A., Herrera-Usagre, M., Reyes-Alcazar, V., & Torres-Olivera, A. (2019). Healthcare accreditation as trigger of organizational change: The view of professionals. Journal of Healthcare Quality Research, 34(2), 59-65. Web.

Kommers, A-M. (2019). UNC hospitals put on probation by Joint Commission. Beckers Healthcare. Web.

The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) mission is to promote its members professionally and enhance healthcare leadership excellence through competent education and healthcare management research. It is an international professional organization of more than 48,000 healthcare executives who manage hospitals, healthcare systems, and other healthcare facilities (American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), n.d.). This organization ensures that its members are nationally connected as well as offers local and regional support. Once one becomes a member of the organization, they are entitled to enroll in one of the over 80 regional chapters of the organization (ACHE, n.d.). The regional chapters are responsible for providing members with local education programs, career advancement resources, and volunteer opportunities to get more involved as healthcare leaders in the local community to deliver to society professionally. Generally, organizational behavior models refer to the people and leaderships reflection in a system (Land, 2021). They help solve problems related to human nature in an organization or a place of work. The organizational behavioral models in ACHE that positively impact the people and managers are the custodial, supportive, collegial, and system models.

The custodial model is majorly for the provision of financial support or economic security to the employees. The organization provides healthcare fund scholarships for its members to gain skills and training needed to navigate the ever-changing healthcare management field successfully. Through such support, several interested individuals have acquired the best leadership and management from the esteemed personnel that offers excellent knowledge in health care to enhance productivity in the sectors outcome. This program enables individuals who are willing but unable to finance their further studies on healthcare leadership to acquire education, which is needed to effectively lead through todays challenges and into the future management world. This model is crucial as it ensures that the people get enough leadership training even if they cannot afford to sponsor themselves. In return, many people could quickly join and get educated to manage healthcare organizations to promote proper service delivery effectively.

The supportive model focuses on leadership development as it tends to create the feeling of being there for one another. The essence of belonging always makes individuals feel entitled to all that is taking place in their surroundings, within the system or area of work, which improves the performance and participation of the members (Rosen et al., 2018). Once a leader treats the people with dignity and respect, a supportive atmosphere is created. Everyone feels valued and cared for; therefore, they will rally behind the organization for trusting in them. This style is essential in the sector because when it comes to patient relations, they will need someone who shows empathy and concern about their wellbeing.

The collegial model promotes togetherness and cooperation amongst the staff members in a system. Teamwork makes it easier for the organization to run efficiently and achieves its goals since the employees will be dividing work based on their specialization areas (Borkowski & Meese, 2020). Workers through collaboration can easily influence the output and performance through more comprehensive decision-making, as this will bring the staff and management to terms and make work easier.

The system model is portrayed through the overall structure of the ACHE organization. Within the system, there are different goals and individuals with different potentials and talents to achieve them. Therefore, the system model seeks to balance an organizations goals with the ability of the employees. This model is like a partnership of managers and employees with a common goal, and where everybody feels that they have a stake in the organization. This cohesiveness is best achieved through inspiring one another in an organization.

How Attitude and Perceptions of Leadership Affect Workplace Communication

In most organizations today, leadership ability is majorly defined by the peoples current attitudes and perceptions in the system. These perceptions affect the working relationship in the organization. Attitude is the psychological construct, a mental and emotional entity that essentially characterizes a person. An attitude of a person can either be positive, negative, or neutral. On the other hand, perception refers to the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information to represent and understand the presented information. It involves signals that go through peoples nervous system, which in return generate some physical response.

In an organization, leaders are tasked with huge roles as they are the central coordinators of all operations performed within an organization. The relationship between the management team and the workers is significant, and it majorly depends on the organizational behavioral setup. When it is favorable, leaders will not be faced with resistance from the juniors as they will have a positive perception of all that is done within the organization. There will be a proper communication channel between the parties, limiting misunderstandings that can result in poor or bad thoughts.

Challenges Facing the ACHE

ACHE faces several and varied challenges as it supports health professionals around the country. Inadequate financial support is a challenge following the increasing number of members joining the organization and expanding its services to reach various districts (Land, 2021). Such expansion requires a lot of capital to be achieved plus money to maintain its operations effectively. It also needs to sponsor those who cannot afford to pay for their training and education. An insufficient workforce is another challenge as the organization cannot extend its operations to every corner of the country with a limited number of employees. Addiction issues among healthcare professionals also raise a challenge following the organization experts research, which showed increased addiction rates.

References

American College of Healthcare Executives. (n.d.). At a glance. ACHE.

Borkowski, N., & Meese, K. A. (2020). Organizational behavior in health care. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Land, T. (2021). Frontiers of health services management. Ovid.

Rosen, M. A., DiazGranados, D., Dietz, A. S., Benishek, L. E., Thompson, D., Pronovost, P. J., & Weaver, S. J. (2018). Teamwork in healthcare: Key discoveries enabling safer, high-quality care. American Psychologist, 73(4), 433. Web.

The structure and the leadership of a health organization influence the motivation, work environment and the general feeling of the patients and health care workers. Therefore, the following paper is an analysis of organizational structure and performance in relation to improving the effectiveness of healthcare delivery.

Curry et al. (2015) carried an intervention study that entailed mixed method design to investigate the effectiveness of methodology Leadership Saves Lives (LSL). The study was based on open system theory. According to Nembhard, Cherian, and Bradley (2014), the open system theory stipulates organizations survive within the larger environment by importing information from external sources, converting that information to improve their internal practices, and exporting knowledge to the larger environment (p. 452). In such a scenario, organizational performance is influenced by leadership that promotes creativity, enhancement of work environment and positive organizational shifts that enhance learning, evidence-based practices that spread to professional networks. The study established that the type of leadership that takes into consideration various concerns of the health professionals can result in improved organization performance and organizational culture change.

Evidence has shown that good management plays a critical role in the improvement of system performance. According to Lega, Prenestini and Spurgeon (2013), effective management entails setting structures to ensure that there is favorable work environment for health workers. Bonenberger, Aikins, Akweongo and Wyss (2016) conducted a study to investigate factors that influence efficiency in the context of limited resources. Bonenberger et al. (2016) established that some of the factors that enhance organization performance include communication, a wide decision-making space, and management of time and proper channels of financial management. Therefore, organizational structure that allows communication, space for decision making leads to efficient care delivery and stronger health system performance.

The organizational performance and structure are also influenced by the characteristics and the composition of the boards. Adawi and Rwegasira (2010) noted that boards can add value and hence enhance efficiency and effectiveness in care delivery. Chambers, Harvey, Mannion, Bond and Marshall (2013) conducted a systematic review of literature from Social Science Research Network, EMBASE, and MEDLINE in order to further understanding on how National Institute for Health Research(NHS) boards influence organizational performance. The study established that various models of board composition have a different impact on organizational performance and structure. Thus, effectiveness can be achieved by modifying boards in relation to various contexts and desired outcomes.

References

Adawi, M., & Rwegasira, K. (2010). Toward developing an effective board: evidence From UAE-listed companies. Journal of Transnational Management, 15(1), 151- 75.

Bonenberger, M., Aikins, M., Akweongo, P., & Wyss, K. (2016). Factors influencing the work efficiency of district health managers in low-resource settings: a qualitative study in Ghana. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1), 1-14.

Chambers, N., Harvey, G., Mannion, R., Bond, J., & Marshall, J. (2013). Towards a framework for enhancing the performance of NHS boards: a synthesis of the evidence about board governance, board effectiveness and board development. Journal of Health Services and Delivery Research, 1(6), 7-158.

Curry, L. A., Linnander, E. L., Brewster, A. L., Ting, H., Krumholz, H. M., & Bradley, E. H. (2015). Organizational culture change in US hospitals: a mixed methods longitudinal intervention study. Implementation Science, 10(1), 29-42.

Lega, F., Prenestini, A., & Spurgeon, P. (2013). Is management essential to improving the performance and sustainability of health care systems and organizations? A systematic review and a roadmap for future studies. Value in Health, 16(1), 46- 51.

Nembhard, I. M., Cherian, P., & Bradley, E. H. (2014). Deliberate learning in health care: The effect of importing best practices and creative problem solving on hospital performance improvement. Medical Care Research and Review, 71(5), 450-471.

Description of the Organization

United Healthcare (UH) is an incorporated public firm in the US known for offering healthcare products and insurance services. The organization is based in Minnesota and was the second in terms of revenue and net premiums in 2019. UH had a revenue of close to $260 billion and consists of more than 80% of the groups total revenue (Bartosiewicz & Ró|aDski, 2019). UH is divided into four sections namely; United Healthcare Employer and Individual, which is responsible for providing benefits for the major national employers.

The other UH division is United Healthcare Medicare and Retirement, which is accountable for providing health services to individuals aged 65 and above. United Healthcare Community and State is another division also focusing on serving the economically disadvantaged and individuals without benefits in the US (Boucher & Jordan, 2019). The last UH division is United Healthcare Global, which is popular because it serves almost seven million individuals with medical insurance, specifically from Peru, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, among other countries.

United Health Readiness to Provide Health Services

UH has significantly imposed some measures and policies to make the organization ready and relevant in providing healthcare. For example, the medical services openings are open to making sure emergency issues can be attended to effectively (Osakwe et al., 2019). The organization has imposed a working formula based on shifts where doctors and nurses have schedules for their working hours depending on the business level that UH has. Another measure to show UH readiness is seen from the employment of a sufficient number of experienced and qualified medical personnel (Boucher & Jordan, 2019). The organization does not refer patients to other providers since they have all the experts within the healthcare facilities who deal with varying numbers of specialized medical services (Osakwe et al., 2019). Additionally, UH has expanded in more than 130 countries globally by forming collaborative bases with other key health service providers such as national government hospitals for the host country (Boucher & Jordan, 2019). The associations made in different make it easier to cover many health problems in many countries.

UH Strategic Plan in Dealing with Various Issues

Table 1. UHs strategic plan about various healthcare issues

Current Issues That UH Faces Process of Delivery Quality Healthcare

The first issue is cybercrime that threatens the confidentiality and privacy of medical records in UH institutions. When unwanted persons access sensitive information, they can use the data against UH for their benefit, making the organization get a poor image from the society and potential prospects (Jain, 2019). The second issue is the cultural diversity evident among the workforce due to differences in training and other key backgrounds (Osakwe et al., 2019). Diversity is a barrier to effective, ethical behavior in hospitals, and therefore, it can lead to negligence in duty hence causing harm to patients. The last issue that UH has experienced is the dynamics in healthcare costs, such as the price for drugs (Jain, 2019). All people may not welcome the change in prices as some will have objective ideas.

Suggested Theory that UH Can Apply in Its Strategic Planning

Michael Porters Five Forces theory is a practical model that UH can apply in its strategic planning. The theory is one of useful tools because it analyzes the rivalry between competing healthcare providers, the bargaining power of patients, the bargaining power of health product suppliers, the threat of new drugs in the market, and the threat of new healthcare institutions entering the medical field (Osakwe et al., 2019). For example, most people prefer taking insurance covers for their health instead of paying for health services from individual pockets. Therefore, UH can ascertain the buyers power, in this case, patients who have weak power in the medical cost issues (Jain, 2019). UH can effectively analyze the potential shift in drug buying behavior through the analysis, hence improving the operational framework for obtaining profits.

References

Bartosiewicz, A., & Ró|aDski, A. (2019). Nurse prescribing-readiness of polish nurses to take on new competenciesA cross-sectional study. Healthcare, 7(4), 151.

Boucher, D., & Jordan, D. (2019). US healthcare international comparisons: what are we comparing. International Journal of Healthcare Policy, 1(1), 89.

Jain, S. (2019). Invisibility and modern medicine. Healthcare, 7(3), 100368.

Osakwe, Z., Larson, E., Andrews, H., & Shang, J. (2019). Activities of daily living of home healthcare patients. Home Healthcare Now, 37(3), 165-173.

Introduction

To understand the differences between leadership and management, an individual should consider his own experience with the terms.

• The concept of leadership always includes one individuals influence on a person or a group of people.
• The influence could occur as a sequence of multiple aspects that include trust, care, and inspiration.
• The leader does not necessarily use his power to command his followers, he becomes a leader for earning the followers trust, showing how much he cares for the followers, or simply inspiring the group.

On the other hand, management is a collection of skills used to organize activities within an organization or company in an effective way. There are several differences between leadership and management: in terms of coexisting, management could function without leadership, while leading could not exist without managing (Portolese et al., 2018). In terms of scale, leadership paints the future picture and determines long-term plans; management controls daily tasks and short-term targets. A leader leads people, meaning that leadership is more people-oriented, while a manager manages objects and tasks and orients people on task completion. In the same way, managers pursue a goal of attaining effectiveness from the employees, while leaders focus more on building effective teams. Managers follow fast tier-based relationships to set objectives and goals for employees, while leaders use leader-follower connections to ensure long-term cooperation.

Leadership Qualities

To describe specific leadership qualities that are essential for the field of healthcare, one should address the widely accepted model of the big Five Personality Traits introduced by Goldberg (Bauer et al., 2016). The model rates an individual according to five traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Each of the traits could be adapted to paint a portrait of a perfect leader for Winter Valley Hospital:

• Openness stands for an individuals willingness to have new experiences. The leader should be open to decisions like improving the current system of job roles and duties and their distribution while also being objective to address the employees complaints about favoritism towards certain employees.
• Conscientiousness implies an individuals ability to take the initiative and be capable of organizing the working process. The leader of the Winter Valley Hospital needs to lead by example and follow the actions they recommend the employees to follow, improving the issue with different timing of employees notice on organizational changes, identified by the employees complaints.
• Extraversion is related to leadership as extraverts are most likely to make meaningful connections. The leader should value the employees work, show respect to colleagues, and understand where they are coming from as individuals. The extravasation aspect also implies fixing the issue with lack of feedback, identified by employees complaints.
• Agreeableness speaks to the leaders ability to avoid conflicts while also protecting his point of view. As one of the employees complained that the employees do not have precise duty boundaries, the leader should solve the problem with the power of authority and not give the issue a chance to result in an embroilment.
• Lastly, the neuroticism aspect implements the leaders ability to control his emotions and not show his temperament. Some employees complained that they do not feel motivated and feel that they are doing significantly more than their colleagues. It is the leaders duty, in this case, to keep the employees motivated by stating the organizational mission.

Ethical Leadership

Ethics and ethical leadership play a significant role in organizational process and organizational efficiency. The concept of organizational ethics includes the leadership and the trust aspects. The management and leaders build trust based on ethics that is connected to the employees motivation (Bauer et al., 2016). Ethics are shown in the decision-making process, precisely in assessing the situation, considering all points of view within an organization, taking an insight into possible consequences, and monitoring the outcomes.

Ethical leadership implements trust between managers and employees and is proved to be connected to the employees motivation. With good ethical leadership, the problem of low levels of morale and work engagement identified by the employees complaints would be solved. Moreover, as one of the core principles of ethical leadership is considering all points of view within the organization, the issue of favoritism toward specific employees, reported in one of the complaints could be solved. When the issue of favoritism would be gone, more popular tasks would be distributed across all employees, which was one of the employees concerns. The trust aspect of ethical leadership would also reduce the extra leniency provided to separate employees and replace it with a trust-based approach.

Soft Skills

As a significant part of healthcare workers face workplace incivility, it is important to use certain skills to provide effective communication with patients and employees. The soft skills include the skill of conflict management essential for the healthcare field, as the field provides services in cases of emergencies and involves professional ethics (Hahn & Popan, 2020). The soft skills address the leaders emotional intelligence, ability to manage stress, good listening ability, and overall empathy (Portolese et al., 2018). In the case of Winter Valley Hospital, soft skills could be used to mentor the employees and increase motivation.

First, the employees complaints showed a lack of feedback on employees performance and identified the need to show the employees ways to improve their performance. As soft skills could be used to communicate with employees effectively, soft skills would help give feedback to employees and provide them with advice on how to improve their productivity. Moreover, as one of the complaints from the employees addressed the issue that the leadership lacks respect for the employees and does not care about the employees as individuals, soft skills could solve the issue. In this case, soft skills would help the managers to approach the employee as an individual and express interest in their personality and lifestyle through small talks.

Leadership Styles

There are several different leadership styles/models, but not every leadership style is appropriate for the healthcare field. Some of the key styles widely used to engage and motivate employees are:

• Autocratic Leadership Model, where the leader makes all decisions and supervises the process closely through coercive motivation, implying that there is no input from the employees.
• Charismatic Leadership Model, where the leader is perceived as a figure of inspiration. The motivation used in this model is described as inspirational and relates to transformational leadership rather than transactional leadership.
• Democratic/Participative Leadership style, in which the leader encourages the employees to participate in making the decisions. This leadership style implies the election of representatives from units that could participate in the decision-making process on par with management. This leadership model is more suitable for Winter Valley Hospital as employees tend to show a high level of motivation and contribution to the organizational goals.
• Inspirational Leadership style, where the leader develops enthusiasm among employees by connecting their own personal goals to the organizational mission.
• To address the employees complaints, managers at Winter Valley Hospital need to choose one Leadership style that would suit the majority of criteria.
• Autocratic leadership is not applicable for the case as the employees already experience pressure from management with the absence of respect and clear favoritism.
• Charismatic leadership could be used to inspire employees and increase work engagement. Despite fixing the employees low morale and the absence of leadership that leads by example, It would not solve the issue of employees being notified about organizational changes at different times. Moreover, the application of charismatic leadership would not solve the problem in the absence of a clear definition of job roles and duties.
• The same critiques apply to the inspirational leadership style; although it could fix some of the motivation and engagement problems, there still would be organizational issues that would need more work.
• The most suitable leadership style in the case of Winter Valley Hospital is the Democratic/Participative Leadership Style. The implication of this leadership style would address all of the employees concerns. As every employee would be able to participate in organizational changes directly or through the representatives, the organizational issues identified in complaints with different notifications about upcoming events would be fixed. Favoritism was reported in one of the employees complaints, and lack of respect from the managers, identified in another complaint, would be eliminated with the application of a democratic leadership style.
• As participation in organizational changes is connected to employees satisfaction with the job, the employees concerns with low morale, engagement, and productivity identified in employees complaints would be solved through the application of democratic leadership.

Leadership Models

• Lewins Change model is a three-stage model of planned change. According to the model, organizational change has its own beginning, middle, and end. The use of the model implies employees preparation for the change, implementation of the change, and ending stage, where the new behavioral patterns become permanent (Bauer et al., 2016). Lewins model acknowledged that the major significance of the changes depended on the preparation of employees for the changes and required the change to reflect five valid points. The points included notification of employees of upcoming changes, developing a sense of urgency, and building a coalition with the opinion leaders. The other points include providing the employees with support from management and allowing employees to participate in the change as the studies showed that participation in changes develops a more positive attitude towards changes (Bauer et al., 2016).
• Unlike Lewins three-stage model of planned change, the positive model counts five stages. The main concept of the model is to not concentrate on the disadvantages of the organization but on the positives or what the organization is doing right and how it could be improved to lead the organization to new heights. The model uses the principle of appreciative inquiry that implies positive value orientation into analysis and organizational changes. The five stages of the positive model include initiating the inquiry at first, inquiring into best practices through the form of interviews, and using the interviews to discover themes for stories of innovation. Then, the management forms a vision of the preferred future.

With a combination of the Democratic Leadership style and Lewins change model, the management of the Winter Valley Hospital would be able to solve the issues with notification of employees about upcoming changes identified through employees complaints. Moreover, the implication of the change model would address the employees complaints about the absence of respect, support, and feedback from the management. As two of the employees complaints showed concerns about the low levels of morale and engagement among employees, allowing the employees to participate in the changes would help to lift the level of morale and engagement.

References

Bauer, T., Erdogan, B., Short, J., & Carpenter, M. A. (2016). Principles of management Version 3.0. FlatWorld.

Hahn, A., & Popan, E. (2020). Professional ethics. Salem Press Encyclopedia.

Portolese, L., Upperman, P., & Trumpy, B. (2018). The art of leadership and supervision Version 1.1. FlatWorld.

A risk management plan refers to a comprehensive document detailing the process of risk management in an organization (Burt, 2016). The risk management process involves identifying the risks, analyzing them, identifying risk tolerance and developing risk mitigation measures to manage various risks (Lam, Figueroa, Reimold, Orav, & Jha, 2018). This is mainly done to ensure the clinical and patients safety, prevent legal exposure, and avoid financial liability, environmental and infrastructurebased hazards as well as protect the human capital.

New Employee Risk Management Plan

The rationale of choosing a new employee risk management plan is that healthcare personnel provide quality and safe healthcare to patients thus ensuring smooth operation of the organization. They interact with patients and are vital in identifying, analyzing, quantifying risks, and developing the mitigating measures to these risks (Burt, 2016).

The new employee risk management skill that will be adopted will first involve screening of the newly employed. It ensures they have good health and then induced into the organizations system so as to understand its operations (Lam, Figueroa, Reimold, Orav, & Jha, 2018). Induction involves educating the new health care personnel about the clinical procedures in dealing with patients, how records of patients are maintained, the communication procedures, and how rotational health personnel handle their shifts. Thus, there will be a flow of information among the health personnel ensuring the clinical and safety of patients.

Standard Administrative Steps and Procedures

Risk management generally involves the process of risk identification, risk analysis and evaluation, and risk mitigation measures. New employee risk management plan identifies risks that may affect clinical and patients safety to include poor patient record management, lack of communication, and poor coordination among the health personnel (Burt, 2016).

The new employee risk management plan analyzed poor patients record management was the highest in ensuring patients safety. This is because it can lead to misdiagnosis and untimely implementations of medical interventions. The mitigation measure adopted will be the development of a healthcare data management system. All the health personnel would be trained on how to manage patients data in the healthcare system. The system ensures a flow of medical information of the patient as well as maintains the privacy of the patients data (Burt, 2016). Therefore, other personnel reviewing the patients records can understand the health data. Coordination and communication can be improved by ensuring rotational health personnel provides an analysis of various patients into the organizational system. Therefore, all health personnel will be able to monitor the progress and health status of the patients.

Key Agencies Regulating the Administration of Safe Health Care and their Roles in Risk Management

Various agencies are regulating safe health care in the United States such as The Joint Commission (TJC) which ensures continuous healthcare improvement through collaborations with stakeholders and evaluation of healthcare organizations (Balestra, 2017). National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) advocates for transparency, accountability and measurement in improvement of the quality of healthcare.

According to Balestra (2017), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) ensures improved quality, safety and efficiency of the healthcare system through knowledge, tools, and data development needed to improve the performance of the health system and aid patients and health personnel in making informed decisions. Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) ensures patients protection, protection of health care personnel and promotes safety, quality, and value in health care delivery systems.

Evaluation of Risk Management Plan in compliance with the set standard by AHRQ

The new employee risk management plan conforms to the set standards and guidelines of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The risk management plans adopt strategies of ensuring efficient communication among the health personnel. By maintaining patients records in a system there will be a proper and timely diagnosis of patients. The organizational database will also provide a wide range of knowledge while administering healthcare to patients (Brenner, et al., 2016). Maintaining a proper patients record management system, there will be an increased performance of the healthcare organization system and it will thus aid in making the health personnel make informed decisions (Balestra, 2017).

Proposed Recommendation to improve the Risk Management Plan

The newly hired personnel should have a supervisor who understands the operation of the healthcare data system. The supervisor will aid in the easy induction of the new employee into the operation of the health organization and solving the discrepancies while at work.

Patients safety can also be improved through the involvement of the patients. This is done through consultations with the patients as well as discussing the patients health status with them. Thus, all the care provided will be patient-centered and responsive to the patients needs ensuring the provision of quality health care.

Therefore, a new employee risk management plan will aid in ensuring the provision of quality and safe healthcare. Also, it will reduce clinical risks to patients through implementation of a healthcare data system. The system will mitigate miscommunication or lack of proper records risks.

References

Balestra, M. L. (2017). Electronic health records: patient care and ethical and legal implications for nurse practitioners. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 13(2), 105-111.

Brenner, S. K., Kaushal, R., Grinspan, Z., Joyce, C., Kim, I., Allard, R. J., & Abramson, E. L. (2016). Effects of health information technology on patient outcomes a systematic review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 23(5), 1016-1036.

Burt, C.D.B. (2015). New employee safety: Risk factors and management strategies.

Lam, M. B., Figueroa, J. F., Feyman, Y., Reimold, K. E., Orav, E. J., & Jha, A. K. (2018). Association between patient outcomes and accreditation in US hospitals: an observational study. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 363, k4011.

Introduction

Tuberculosis is a respiratory killer disease and it poses a health risk to the lives of many people in different parts of the world. Cases of tuberculosis are higher in the South East Asian countries. This assertion implies that Brunei, being one of southeast Asian countries, tuberculosis is a great health problem to her population and has been listed as one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. However, Brunei does not have advanced medical facilities and schools and hence refers to the healthcare systems of both Malaysia and China and seeks to improve its systems to reach such advanced standards.¹

The largest human population in Brunei has been suffering from the infections of tuberculosis for a long time. The history of TB cases in Brunei date back to 1958 when the government introduced the TB services in the old hospital, and since then the notifications and relevant TB statistics are frequently sent to the World Health Organisation (WHO).^2. The country remained with a single health unit for TB cases where for referral, admission, and treatment of all TB infection cases, until 1984 when the government, through the help of WHO, introduced the same services in Ripas hospital. However, the services have currently extended to all major health facilities such as SSBH, KB, and Tutong hospital. In addition, voluntary community health service is being offered at homes and combined with volunteers who fight against malaria in the rural though greater population lives in the urban areas.

Current Measures for Containing TB in Brunei

All cases of pulmonary TB found to be smear-positive or culture-positive and less infectious are considered highly infectious ^3. However, infected patients are isolated for an unspecified period until when found not infectious and hence discharged. There are special wards in every district chest-clinic health facility preserved for the isolation of TB infected patients. For instance, Tutong hospital has been having a TB isolation unit since July 2009 where infectious cases such as SARS, Influenza, and TB cases are referred until they aretreated^4.

However, going by the history of tuberculosis infections and health policies, it is evident that tuberculosis is not only a killer disease but also an economically hazardous disease that has been a matter of concern for the government and other international health organizations. In October 1995, an awareness campaign on TB stagnation and the increasing trend of new infections was launched in Tutong hospital. The public campaign aimed at the creation of public awareness in the increasing health risks resulting from TB infections and educating the public on how to prevent themselves from being infected. Another historical event on matters of TB infections took place from 1^st to 20^th July 1999 with the visitation of the WHO consultants to Brunei and recommended the formation of the National Tuberculosis program that was launched later on 29^th March 2000.⁵

The formation of the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) was driven by the ideology that the integration of various disciplines would greatly help in containing TB infections with regard to prevention and control of TB in the country. NTP guidelines were prepared based on the WHO guidelines in an effort to ensure that health personnel practice uniform and standardized measures of data control for the TB at all levels of healthcare across the world^6. This aspect implies that NTP operates under the guidelines of the WHO, which standardise all sorts of measures taken for the TB prevention and control across the world. However, not all world countries apply the WHO guidelines in the prevention and control of TB as developed countries have adopted their own unique way of dealing with the problem due to their advanced modern technology and knowledge in the healthcare.

According to the NTP, the available chest clinics in different hospitals are responsible for diagnosing and in some cases giving initial chemotherapy for about two months and in extreme cases that demand maintenance of at least four months, decentralisation of patients has to be done at specific health centres and MCH clinics^7. In addition, the chest clinic facilities are mandated with a crucial role of recording the data and periodic reporting of TB cases to the NTP for further consultations and decision making at the national level.⁸

NTP, being an integration of different healthcare units and profession, is headed by the countrys director general of health services and the rest of the committee members consist of directors of health care services at the national level. They include environmental health services, hospital services, medical pharmaceutical services, radiology department, disease control unit, epidemiologist, national principal nurse, senior scientific microbiology research officer, and senior supervisor of health education.⁹

However, the above NTP committee has various responsibilities that are of great importance in the fight against tuberculosis in Brunei. These responsibilities include the definition of national strategies for diagnosis and treatment policies in an effort to ensure uniformity in prevention and control of the disease in all health facilities. In addition, the committee is responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating NTP projects and preparing their budgets and execution plans. The committee also ensures that the government of Brunei and other stakeholders give high priority to the NTP in the allocation of financial, human, and other relevant resources in an effort to ensure smooth running of the program independently of the other national factors such as economic growth and development^10. Moreover, the NTP committee is responsible for ensuring that laboratory equipment and facilities are up to date in ensuring sputum smear-microscopy services and culture services for TB detections are in good conditions. Additionally, the NTP committee ensures that there is regular and independent supply of anti-TB drugs and other relevant medical equipment from the government and other stakeholders. This aspect ensures that the trend of TB cases is always under check and it is in a position to launch a quick action against slight detection of the rise of the vice. The NTP committee is also responsible for the supervision of health facilities/DOTS centres and ensuring quality training of health workers by the health training institutes in the country. Lastly, the NTP committee consolidates and evaluates submitted reports on the notified cases and results of treatments from the health workers at chest clinics across the country.¹¹

Looking into the mission statement for the National Tuberculosis Control Programme for Brunei, one gets the image of an active organisation whose vision is to zero-rate the tuberculosis cases in the nation. The most attractive statement in the mission says that NTP will ensure that good quality services are made available and accessible to those in need. The objectives of NTP are first, to reduce the annual infections by at least 7% per year^12. Second, to reduce the prevalence of sputum cases by at least 7% per year and finally reducing the mortality rate to as low as at least one person per 100,000 people in a population^13. The government and other health stakeholders are hopeful of achieving the goals of NTP, but there are factors that would greatly contribute to the realisation of the goals.¹⁴

Identification and Diagnosis of TB Cases in Brunei

Under the current measures of containing TB cases in Brunei, the first component to the service delivery of NTP is the case finding^15. TB infected individuals are identified through having signs and symptoms of TB. The rationale of identification is through focusing on the examination of sputum smear for patients aged 10 years and above and this rationale is effective due to two great reasons. First, the microscopic test has a higher chance of success in the detection of infectious bacterium like is the case of tuberculosis and other diseases that are caused by a bacterium^16. Second, the majority of infected patients fall into this age group due to lesser heath attention they receive as compared with the children of age less than 10years old. This rationale is essential for the early identification of TB cases because the bacterium cannot withstand the effects of available TB drugs as opposed to when they are identified at later stages of development.¹⁷

In order to ensure uniformity of diagnostics offered to patients, the NTP set policies that must be adhered to by all health workers in Brunei. First, the NTP demands that a health worker, who is working on a TB case, must use the direct sputum microscopic test as the primary diagnostic tool for identification of a case. In addition, in a case where other advanced health facilities such as culture and PCR are available, they too are acceptable for use as primary diagnostic tools^18.

After the identification process, an identified symptomatic case undergoes a smear examination process for initial diagnosis before the initiation of treatment. This process precedes other tests that confirm the validity of initial results. At this stage, the subject is not confirmed to having extra pulmonary tuberculosis regardless of having the results of x-ray.¹⁹ Smear examination is believed to be a near perfect test, but in case of yielding negative results, x-ray together with other tests are applicable. However, x-ray is not a reliable test for tuberculosis due to medical reasons, but rather results of sputum microscopic results are used regularly in the treatment process.

Comparing Brunei with China and Malaysia

Brunei is a small and developed country whose majority of population lives in the urban areas, hence implying that its urban areas are densely populated and hence infectious diseases pose a great health risk to her population^{20, 21.} Although Brunei has a small population of about 400,000 people, it is considered a developed country because of high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capital, but its yet to get to the level of the first world countries. Malaysia can be classified as a fast developing country as it has not yet gotten into the economic levels of a developed country, but it could be classified as a second world nation because it is bigger than Brunei and much developed in terms of infrastructure. China is a developed country with sufficient capacity to deal with health cases that affect its citizens.²²

Social Issues arising out of TB diagnosis coupled with how to overcome them

Various social issues arise out of TB diagnosis. Beginning with issues that affect an individual who is diagnosed with TB, they include social stigma, poor productivity, and emotion stress. Beginning with social sigma, according to the majority of people, tuberculosis is closely related to HIV²³ and thus it infects people who have low immunity such as HIV infected persons. That misconception has resulted to the prejudice and discrimination of tuberculosis-infected persons.²⁴ Social stigma leads to poor productivity of a person due to low social confidence that results from the feeling of being hated by other individuals based on ones uncontrolled situation like a disease.²⁵

In addition, just like is the case for all healthcare systems across the world, a TB infected person is isolated from the society to reduce the chances of passive infections. However, due to insufficient public education on how to control and prevent TB in Brunei, people perceive isolation as a case that is only applicable to a dying person, and thus they develop a negative attitude towards anybody who is isolated from the society due to TB infection. This aspect makes TB patients suffer emotion stress due to isolation and the realisation of the negative attitude that people have towards them for being TB victims.²⁶

Secondly, social issues that affect the entire society due to TB diagnosis are poor productivity and emotional stress. Society suffers from low productivity when a reliable individual is diagnosed with TB. For instance, in the case where an employer is diagnosed, employees lack the peace of mind, and thus they perform poorly due to the absence or poor productivity of their employer. This aspect has a direct relationship with an individuals poor performance after being diagnosed, as psychologists argue that when an employer lacks the peace of mind, his or her employees lack the peace of mind too.

In addition, when an individual is diagnosed with TB, the society suffers emotional stress. In this case, the society refers to the individuals family members and friends. When a family member is isolated from the rest of family members due to an infectious illness, there is sorrow in such a family that results from the feeling of near-loss of a family member and they cannot work effectively until when their person is discharged. Unfortunately, little can be done to rectify that situation as isolation is done to reduce the rate of new infections. However, only public education mechanism can work in such a situation to change the mentality of most people in the society. They above social issues have little impact on the societies living in either China or Malaysia. The main reason for such a conviction hinges on the fact that they are literate, and thus they understand the health procedures taken for infectious diseases such as TB.²⁷

Public Education

Citizens of the republic of Brunei need public education on the issues of TB in relation to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and control. The NTP committee set policies does not provide for public education on TB. Public awareness is the key determinant of the nature of a social reaction towards a problem. In many countries across the world, there have been numerous public campaigns carried out by the government and other stakeholders in the health matters over the issue of TB. The main aim of public campaign is to reduce the rate of infections through creating awareness to the public and at the same time educating on how to prevent and control the infections.²⁸ Public campaigns are most effective when carried out through public media such as televisions, radio, billboards along the highways, and posters in public places.²⁹

Financial Assistance or Self-Employment for Patients

Going back to the social issues that result from TB diagnosis, an individual suffers adverse effects of TB infections, which include poor productivity. Poor productivity is the root of poverty for unhealthy person will always consume more than what is being produced. Worst still, in the case of a sole breadwinner of a family being infected, the effects are worse than for other people as the family would face the risk of extreme poverty.³⁰ In addition, the majority of developed countries have policies that look into the welfare of a patient as the treatment process continues. Such welfare includes the dependent parties on the patient and in some cases; loans from financial institutions are exempted from earning interest when the patient is not in an economic activity. However, this social scheme is available to the Brunei citizens through government initiative to give financial assistance to the TB patients as a way of reducing emotional stress.

Self-employment may not work well for patients as they lack the peace of mind, which would then deter them from working effectively. This aspect implies that it may only be possible after the patient is discharged from the hospital, after which, self-employment may work well. However, after a TB patient recovers from an illness, it may not be good to do business because financial and business intelligence are the key factors of self-employment. Surprisingly, developed countries like Brunei do that, although it is normal to offset the hospital bill of a patient if he or she cannot raise the bill in many other world countries regardless of economic status.³¹

Special Rooms for isolation in Clinics

It would be necessary for Brunei to adopt the same mechanisms that are applied in the developed nations in their fight against infectious and viral diseases. Most developed countries as well as some second world countries such as Malaysia have isolation wards in the majority of health clinics, and in majority parts of the country. In most cases, those isolation units are used for other purposes when emergency medical needs arise.³²

However, Brunei has isolation rooms in the majority of health clinic across the country, but according to World Health Organisation (WHO) report, they are still not sufficient to cater for the needs of her population in the urban areas. Hence, in order to reach the level of China and Malaysia, the government of Brunei should increase the number of medical clinics to satisfy the demand so that some special facilities can be added to the clinics for the case of isolation and other emergencies.

Education of Health Care Providers

It is very necessary for the NTP to not only supervise the quality of education and training being offered to the medical practitioners, but also ensure that education is up to date and in line with the education offered in other developed countries. This move will go a long way in ensuring that high quality education is available for medical students and boost the competitiveness of the medical practitioners operating in the country^33. This scenario is prevalent in nations such as China and Malaysia whose education system is in line with the education system of developed countries such as Russia among others^34. In addition, some countries attract investors from developed countries who invest in the health sector and help in the provision of high quality training of medical personnel and medical services to patients^35. This move will bring a remarkable difference in the health sector of Brunei and bring it closer to the level of China and Malaysia in health perspectives. Improved education system does not necessarily imply that economic growth has to reach that of developed countries as some countries carry out exchange programs in the medical sector to improve the sector^{36, 37.} This strategy will be of great benefit to the citizens of Brunei if the government, through the NPT, finds the program appropriate for the development of the health sector.

Conclusion

Tuberculosis infections are a major health concern in Brunei, just like is the case for other South Asian countries. The Brunei government, through the National Tuberculosis Program, has made many achievements in the fight against tuberculosis in the implementation of international standard health policies for containing the increasing rate of infections in the country. However, the government should look into various areas in a bid to reach the status of other countries such as China and Malaysia. Such areas include the improvements of health facilities by installing isolation rooms for accommodating tuberculosis patients in urban health clinics that normally receive numerous new cases of infections. In addition, measures that would improve the creation of public awareness should be implementation in the fight against the spread of tuberculosis.

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Zigno M, Hosseini MS, Wright A. Global incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2006; 194(9): 483-6.

Bennett J. Humour in medicine. South Asia Medical Journal. 2003; 96(12):1256-9.

Blumenthal D, Hsiao W. Privatisation and its discontentsthe evolving Chinese health care system. New England Journal of Medicine. 2005; 353(11): 1168-71.

Zigno M, Hosseini S, Wright A. Global incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2006; 194(9): 482-85.

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The problem of maintaining proper temperature for inpatients has been a concern in the operating room (OR) setting for quite a while due to several challenges. Specifically, due to the impact of anesthesia, patients are unable to maintain their temperature and adjust to the changes in the environment. Therefore, once brought into the setting of an OR, which is typically kept cold, they face the threat of hypothermia, which, in turn, may lead to multiple nosocomial complications, including pneumonia (Becerra et al., 2019). Therefore, introducing tools for managing temperature in the OR so that the patient could retain the standard body temperature of 98.6°F (Becerra et al., 2019). In turn, the use of prewarming procedures as the method of ensuring that patients temperature remains at the required level of 98.6°F is a viable option that needs to be considered. Specifically, by applying prewarming techniques on patients, one is likely to ensure that their temperature remains at the required rate for a certain amount of time.

However, the range of tools that can be used in the setting of an OR range substantially, which means that the choice of a prewarming technique must be made beforehand. Studies show that the use of a forced-air prewarming strategy is likely to leave the best impact on the body temperature of a patient due to the opportunity to maintain the temperature consistent and keep every part of the patients body heated (Alfonsi et al., 2019). The importance of forced-air prewarming has been particularly high for the post-surgical recovery as well, which is essential since the extent of patient monitoring post-surgery is lower than that one in the OR environment (Alfonsi et al., 2019). Therefore, the application of the forced-air prewarming techniques appears to be the best solution currently.

References

Alfonsi, P., Bekka, S., Aegerter, P., & SFAR Research Network Investigators. (2019). Prevalence of hypothermia on admission to recovery room remains high despite a large use of forced-air warming devices: Findings of a non-randomized observational multicenter and pragmatic study on perioperative hypothermia prevalence in France. PloS One, 14(12).

Becerra, Á., Valencia, L., Ferrando, C., Villar, J., & Rodríguez-Pérez, A. (2019). Prospective observational study of the effectiveness of prewarming on perioperative hypothermia in surgical patients submitted to spinal anesthesia. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1-7.

Introduction

Technologies are an integral part of coherent society as they penetrate all areas of human activity and drive radical changes. The modern digitalized world is also characterized by significant shifts in peoples mentalities and their perspectives on traditionally essential issues, such as healthcare. The scientific progress and the demand for improved quality of services provided to clients with diverse needs facilitate the integration of technologies into the functioning of hospitals. The central goal of this process is the achievement of higher effectiveness levels, reduction of risks and negative outcomes, and achievement of improved results. Multiple benefits that are associated with informatics in the healthcare sector make it one of the central aspects of care delivery.

The Current Role of Informatics

Today, the role of nursing informatics cannot be overestimated as it serves as the basis for further improvement and achievement of positive results. The term is defined as a science and practice integrating nursing and its knowledge with information and communication technologies aiming at the promotion of peoples health and improved cooperation at different levels (Cummins et al., 2016). The given description demonstrates the scope of the concept and its significance for the healthcare sector. In modern hospitals, the informatics nurse specialist acts as the person responsible for managing electronic health records, data analysis, and its classification, which is vital for the creation of a framework for better effectiveness and results (Cummins et al., 2016). At the same time, the list of competencies might include the provision of services remotely by using existing devices and methods such as telehealth or the Internet (Cummins et al., 2016). Because of the critical importance of these technologies and their contribution to data sharing, the role of these specialists increases, and the future development of the healthcare sector, along with its ability to meet modern challenges, is linked to the current state of nursing informatics and its capabilities.

Connected Health

The rise of technologies and the reconsideration of the approach to the provision of care give rise to the emergence of new methods to cooperate with clients, specialists, and care providers. Thus, connected health is an innovational socio-technical model for the delivery of health services via using new devices and tools to provide demanded care remotely (Cummins et al., 2016). It includes different projects of telehealth, remote care, chronic disease management, and emergent help by using specific networks and communication devices with the primary goal to enhance care and increase its availability and affordability to patients (Cummins et al., 2016). The rise of the concept of connected health is linked to the fast evolution of technologies and their ability to guarantee stable connection and data exchange between different individuals.

There are multiple examples of how this technology is employed nowadays. For instance, diabetes is one of the major concerns for the health sector today, as there are numerous patients with this disease. Under these conditions, monitoring glucose levels becomes vital in terms of managing diabetes. The Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) system is one of the examples of connected health, which helps to accomplish this task (Greenwood, 2015). It helps to monitor the level of glucose via the electrode sensor under the skin and transmit information to a device that is linked to it. It can be a smartphone, a tablet, or specific applications (Greenwood, 2015). The major advantage of this system is that patients remain informed about their current states; however, it might also demand the use of specific equipment such as sensors to work appropriately.

The change in chronic disease management is another positive effect of health informatics. For instance, clinical-grade wearable trackers are created for patients living with cancer or pulmonary disease. The given technology provides specialists with an opportunity to measure sun exposure, undesired or abnormal health patterns, or other vital characteristics associated with chronic illnesses. The collected data contribute to better treatment outcomes and more effective plans and medical advice (Aktas et al., 2015). In such a way, using such tools, clients become involved in connected health and acquire multiple benefits, such as the chance of improving their states by providing data they were not able to collect themselves previously (Aktas et al., 2015). It is a significant step towards better chronic disease management, but it requires additional education of patients about how to use these devices effectively.

Finally, connected health is widely used today to monitor the state of patients who have been recently discharged from the hospital. Clients after complex treatment or surgeries might demand special care and conditions to recover. Additionally, it is vital to observe the treatment plan recommended by specialists. Under these conditions, care providers use such devices as smartphones, laptops, or tablets to remain in touch with patients, monitoring the adherence to recommendations and their states visually or by using sensors (Aktas et al., 2015). It helps to reduce the readmission rate and the recovery period as the inability to follow doctors prescriptions is one of the major causes of the deterioration of treatment outcomes. However, it might demand the creation of a specific environment characterized by access to the Internet, devices with web cameras, and sensors, which might be costly for some categories of clients.

Informatics and Public Health

The multiple examples of connected health provided above and the fundamental role of the informatics nurse in the modern healthcare sector demonstrate that technologies impact public health and drive positive change. One of the most obvious achievements is the improved availability of health services. The spread of the Internet means that people in areas with problematic access to hospitals can use their devices to acquire the needed information by consulting with care providers, discussing their symptoms, and waiting for recommendations to improve their states (Williams, Oke, & Zachary, 2019). At the same time, informatics improves patients data and information management, creating an environment beneficial for sharing experiences and discussing the most complex cases in teams consisting of specialists from different locations (Greenwood, 2015). It contributes to the emergence of multiple positive changes in contemporary public health.

For instance, the employment of electronic health records is one of the alterations in the public health sector preconditioned by the rise of technologies. The given system replaced the old one because of its increased effectiveness and opportunities for enhanced data management. Personal patients data is nowadays stored and managed by using special software, which helps to structure it and share with other specialists if there is a need for additional consultation or opinion of other specialists (Williams, Oke, & Zachary, 2019). It also helps to reduce the number of mistakes caused by the human factor and helps to attain better treatment outcomes by decreasing the level of medication errors.

Enhanced cooperation is another effect that can be observed in public health due to the impact of informatics. Because of the diversification of patients needs, health care becomes more specialized. It means that a single client can demand attention from more than ten different health workers during one hospital stay (Williams, Oke, & Zachary, 2019). This demand in specialists preconditions the need for improved cooperation and coordination, and health informatics is capable of achieving this goal. It provides specific networks that allow specialists to communicate and solve emerging issues in the short term. Additionally, it helps to manage information of patients such as tests results, and provide it to workers responsible for different areas.

Finally, nowadays, patients become active participants in their treatment process. They have electronic access to history, prescriptions, and doctors recommendations, which provides them with an opportunity to make informed decisions about a certain procedure or care (Williams, Oke, & Zachary, 2019). Additionally, the limitless access to data helps clients to educate themselves about their symptoms, their management, and the use of medications to attain desired outcomes. In such a way, individuals become a vital part of public health and teams responsible for their recovery, which increases their motivation levels and helps to achieve improved outcomes.

Conclusion

Altogether, health informatics can be viewed as a critical element of the healthcare sector today. It helps to drive positive change and improve outcomes by providing new opportunities for cooperation, data exchange, and patient participation. Moreover, connected health offers people a chance to acquire the needed information and services remotely by using innovative technologies, the Internet, and their devices. In such a way, it is possible to conclude that the informatics nurse plays a vital role in hospitals and guarantees enhanced results and better care delivery.

References

Aktas, A., Hullihen, B., Shrotriya, S., Thomas, S., Walsh, D., & Estfan, B. (2015). Connected health: Cancer symptom and quality-of-life assessment using a tablet computer: A pilot study. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 32(2), 189197.

Cummins, M., Gundlapalli, A., Gundlapalli, A., Murray, P., Part, H., & Lehman, C. (2016). Nursing informatics certification worldwide: History, pathway, roles, and motivation. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 1, 264-271.

Greenwood, D. (2015). The connected health environment: New opportunities for diabetes educators. AADE in Practice, 3(3), 1212.

Williams, F., Oke, A., & Zachary, I. (2019). Public health delivery in the information age: the role of informatics and technology. Perspectives in Public Health, 139(5), 236254.