The Information Technology Industry in Healthcare is if not the fastest growing and largest through-out world. In the last several decades IT in Healthcare has evolved through many iterations and technological growth. While it is generally difficult to be at the forefront in technology; budgets, labor pools and skillsets are usually the issues. IT in Healthcare has historically lagged behind the technology curve and in some cases far behind. Governmental regulations and others have stepped in to modernize IT in Healthcare. For example, in 2009 Congress passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health or known as the HITECH Act. The HITECH Act paved the way for Healthcare providers to adopt Electronic Medical Records also known as EMR.
There are many challenges in keeping up with the growing infrastructure, initiatives, security, patient data privacy, IT goals, Integrations stabilities, maintaining integrities, and adapting new technologies. IT services in Healthcare support a myriad of systems and technologies. In addition, integrations between these systems has evolved through many technological iterations requiring a personal IT Healthcare knowledge and skillset buoyancy to match the demand. My goal in this blog is to help others understand IT in healthcare and IT systems integrations drawing from my experiences, knowledge, and skillsets. See the about me page to read about my journey in IT with a focus in Healthcare.
Healthcare IT is expected to continue growth through 2029 by thousands of jobs
History in Health Information Technology
Health Information Management or HIM began in the 1920’s. Healthcare professionals began to understand that keeping records between patient and physicians created documentation of healthcare and historical records of the patients conditions. The details included the chief complaint and records of patients complications. In addition any health benefits and overall outcomes of the patient care. The patients entire clinical medical records was developed and transformed into what it is today. The American Health Information Management Association or AHIMA have adopted the standards developed by the American Association of Record Librarians. The AHIMA today works with healthcare professionals to ensure patients to stay connected to their data throughout the healthcare process.
In the 1960’s and 70’s new technology being developed began to be leveraged for the use in Healthcare. This was largely being pursued by universities in the beginning. In the 1980’s and 90’s the technology and systems took leaps and bounds with new inventions and new ideas in capturing medical record details. During this time as software and hardware evolved there were many issues including multiple departments communicating the patients medical records without having multiple antiquated methods of collecting the data. Software targeted departments needs statically. There needed to be a way to create a system that worked with all the departments while maintaining the integrity of the patients medical records.
With the antiquated systems and software providers were in a desperate search for an Electronic Health Records system that would provide better care and decisions to be made for the patients care. There were many errors and deaths. Healthcare providers were desperately seeking to resolve by the year 2000. The Government set out a mandate for the computerized health records EHR system which started the revolution to reduce medical errors, incidents, clarity and accuracy of medical records.
Value of Information Technology in Healthcare
Nurses, Physicians, and other healthcare providers used to work primarily on paper charts. Paper charts are highly inefficient and prone to errors. Hand written notes barely legible or the ink fading over time. Many issues with incorrectly reading or not seeing all the medications prescribed or used with the patient unfortunately leads to patient care issues. During a patients encounter with a healthcare provider there are usually many departments and other providers that will need to review the medical records. With paper charting that creates several challenges to maintain a high level of accuracies.
Information Technology encapsulates and utilizes electronic hardware and digital information through the architectural designs at the hardware and software levels. By bringing paper charting to a digital platform resolved many countless errors and inaccuracies found in paper charting. Communications has increased as well. Today any department healthcare provider, nurses, labs, pharmacies, or any other provider can pull the patients medical records and obtain just the information allowed to the provider viewing the medical records through secure devices.
Patient care and information has been an area of focus and sensitivity in protecting the patients information and medical records. “The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued the HIPAA Privacy Rule to implement the requirements of HIPAA. The HIPAA Security Rule protects a subset of information covered by the Privacy Rule.” – https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/hipaa.html While there are many systems in a Healthcare’s organization the EHR systems will be the main system used as a digital paper charting system. Any EHR system, resources and healthcare providers must be HIPAA compliant. With the EHR system the healthcare professionals whom need access to the patients records will have secure access to provide the services needed for the patients care. There are several EHR system vendors in the healthcare market place. The systems I have experience with I will discuss and provide information on how to get started with these systems as well as providing general information. If you have any questions about any of these systems send me a message. The system I will be discussing are Epic, Cerner, Meditech and Paragon.