Consumer Health Informatics

Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) is the field that helps to connect the gap between patients and health resources. Its focus is to provide patients with the most complete health information possible.

Using the South University Online Library or the Internet, research on CHI. Based on your readings and understanding, create a 3- to 4-page Microsoft Word report that provides the answers to the following questions:

· What role will medical informatics professionals play in CHI? What are some of the barriers to the growing role of CHI?

· What do you believe is the most important thing that needs to happen next in order for CHI to continue evolving? How can it best be addressed?

· What are the key factors in training users of health information systems technologies?

· How can personal health record systems and electronic health systems contribute to advancing the role of CHI?

· What are the three options for CHI that could improve healthcare quality and lower costs in the future?

Support your responses with examples.

Cite any sources in APA format.

Importance of Training in Patient Evacuation

In an emergency evacuation of patients, training plays an important role. Here is an incidence of emergency evacuation of Phillips County Regional Medical Center discussed by Vogt and Sorenson (1999):

· Shortly after 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, 1997, clouds of foul-smelling smoke began pouring from an herbicide and pesticide packaging plant in West Helena, Arkansas. An alert was sounded, employees evacuated, and the West Helena fire department was called. As three firefighters prepared to enter the plant, the chemical compounds exploded, collapsing a solid concrete block wall, and killing all three firefighters. As the odorous smoky cloud drifted away from the plant, authorities ordered residents in a 2-mile area downwind of the plant to evacuate and those in the 2- to 3-mile zone to shelter in . . . The findings indicate that 90% of those that were told to evacuate did so but only 27% of those told to shelter-in-place did so, with 68% opting to evacuate instead. The implications of these findings for emergency managers is that people will likely choose to evacuate when both warnings to evacuate and warnings to shelter are issued to residents in close proximity to each other (Abstract section, para. 1).

· The evacuation of the medical center was facilitated by efforts taken 6 months earlier to update the hospital’s evacuation plan and reconfirm support agreements for relocation sites and supplies. At that time of updating the plan, the entire staff had also participated in a mock drill. When the safety officer observed the buildings across the highway being evacuated and started questioning officials on the possibility of also being evacuated, evacuation plans familiar to staff were in place and had been practiced. When the Director of Nursing gave the “Code White” alert (the signal that an evacuation to an off-site facility would follow) staff was amply prepared to move patients (p. 11).

· Interviews with staff indicated that all patients that could be discharged were sent home with a physician’s nurse. Another four or five patients (the most seriously ill) were transferred to a hospital about a half hour away. The majority of the patients 11 (approximately 17) in the rehabilitation unit were transferred to a vacant wing of the Crestpark Nursing home accompanied by hospital support staff. Only one maternity patient evacuated to the Phillips College—Community College where the hospital staff had evacuated and opened emergency room services. The evacuation of patients began at 1:40 p.m. and all patients (except for two on ventilators and one being stabilized in the emergency room) were out 55 minutes later. The remaining three patients were evacuated 15 minutes later. A variety of vehicles transported patients—vans, school buses, ambulances, private cars, and mortuary services. As a precaution, National Guard personnel provided security at the evacuated hospital (pp. 11–12).

On the basis of your understanding on the topic, answer the following questions regarding the incidence of emergency evacuation mentioned above:

· What does this study tell you about the lack of training for the community?

· Why is communication and education of the community important in saving lives?

· Was the community clear on what the procedures were? How?

· Why was the evacuation of the hospital so successful?

· How important are external relationships with other agencies to having an efficient evacuation plan?

Your review should be at least 2- to 3-page Microsoft Word document, not counting the cover page or the reference page.

Support your responses with reasoning and examples.

Cite any sources in APA format.

Public Healthcare Services

Create a presentation of 10- to 12-slides in Microsoft PowerPoint that addresses any one of the following topics of Healthy People 2020. Explain how it benefits the individual and the community.

Please select any one topic from the given list:

· Access to health services

· Educational and community based programs

· Environmental health

· Maternal, infant and child health

· Mental health and mental disorders

· Older adults

Note: The title slide and reference slide will be in addition to the twelve slides required.

You are asked to deliver a twenty-minute keynote address to an audience consisting of health care, managed care, and government health professionals. You will focus on one topic of the Healthy People 2020 and address the interests of each audience members. Include the actual speech in the speaker notes below the actual slides of the above presentation.

Also, address the following in your presentation:

· Provide the outlook of the chosen subject and how the health will be affected if requirements are not met by 2020.

· What current public and private agencies provide assistance to the consumer to help them make health changes to meet the requirements of the chosen subject’s objectives?

· What current issues are perceived or real barriers to attain the objectives of 2020?

· What roles do health care professionals from all areas (healthcare, managed care, and government) need to provide to the consumer to help reach specific objectives in 2020?

· What role does public health contribute to meeting one or two objectives?

· What specific health promotion or wellness program will you suggest to help reach the 2020 objectives? If no programs are available, what type of program will you develop?

· How can communities help reduce issues and risks so objectives can be achieved?

· What types of financial support is needed by organizations to make the objectives attainable? Who should support the program financially and if the government is involved, what other program should be cut to be able to meet the needs of this program?

· What health risks will continue to develop if the objectives are not achieved by 2020?

· How will technology advancement help track data, provide resources for individuals, or monitor progress to stay on task for successful implementation?

· What disparities for minorities are apparent to impede progress and not achieve the objectives? Does socioeconomic status factor in to a successful result?

· Conclusion slide: Summarize findings and prediction if the objective(s) are on track to meet the 2020 timeline.

Note: Please add additional content in the Notes section. Provide title slide and reference slide (reference slide should include three scholarly references) in the presentation.

Support your responses with examples.

Cite any sources in APA format.

Evolution of Health Care Paper and Timeline

There are specific trends from manual to electronic operations in the health care facilities, healthcare providers and similar businesses operators. The evolution has taken place within the health care providers, administrative data and the insurance plans as well. The health care industries have automated several procedures such as the supply of drugs and accurate record keeping (Loker 2012). Electronic health care uses sophisticated technology unlike the manual one; this advanced technology has been applied in the provision of health care all over the world hence saving both time and cost It has also widened and perfected the scope of operation.

How has this change impacted the quality of care?

The change to electronic medical records has proven to be successful and helpful in providing quality patient care. Some ways that it has helped is improving patient care, increasing patient participation, improved care coordination, improved diagnostic and patient outcomes, and practice efficiencies and cost savings. (HealthIT.gov). Patients are able to be more involved in the patient care process and are able to access to their records which was not possible in the past. The transporting of records from one physician to another is much quicker now because it can be done by a click of a button. When needing to send a patient to a specialist or when getting an authorization for a patient’s recommended treatment can be done a lot quicker as well. This is speeding up the process in being able to provide quick and quality care so the patient does not need to wait as long as they would have had to in the past.

Percentage of physicians whose electronic health records provided selected benefits

(HealthIT.gov)

Electronic medical records has proven to be a good thing for both the medical provider as well as the patient and it has decreased the wait times to results or any potential errors and enhanced patient care.

Did Societal beliefs and values influence this change? Why or why not?

The health care delivery system in our country has its roots in the beliefs and values of the people (Shi & Singh, 2012). The firm belief in technological innovations leads to higher expectations of people, which has fueled the growth in technological innovations. The culture of individualism has led the medical practice to keep the individual healthy. Patients tend to evaluate the institutions by their acquisition of advanced technology. The expectation of Americans on what technology can do to cure illness is higher compared to the Canadians and Germans (Shi & Singh, 2012, p. 168). The societal beliefs and values impact not only the structure of health care delivery but also the training of health care providers.

The use of EHRs provided access to patients’ records on demand and have improved the quality of health care (Shi & Singh, 2012). Although the EHRs were to improve the quality of health care delivery, many providers and institutions did not adopt them due to the cost involved in implementing them. Since a vast majority of the society expects the government to take care of their health, the government agencies play a significant role in passing laws and guidelines in the best interest of public health. To motivate physicians to use EHRs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) offered incentives to physicians investing in the EHR systems (Tripathi, 2012). The adoption of EHR would mean the improved health of the individual and the population. The use of EHR has improved the relationship between the patient and the provider as information is readily available to both the provider and physician, which increases patient involvement in the prevention and coordination of care. Americans have become involved with their health care and has taken a shift to preventive solutions from being treated for illness.

Change affecting team views.

While the change from manual to electronic health records instigated substantial progress in the way health information technology was implemented and sourced, it still has yet to launch advanced use of health information technology in a highly operational healthcare system. In order for success to be achieved, systematic changes need to take place with medical payments. Making and receiving payments has been quicker with the use of EMR and the medical coding process. With everything being done electronically, medical payments are distributed quickly and efficiently. In addition to the requirement imposed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to use EHRs in health care settings, positive outcomes of using the EHR like improved patient relationship, quality of care, patient centered care are a testimony to the fact that the use of EHRs will continue to trend upward.

Time line of health records.

In the 1920s, healthcare professionals recognized they were more effective at treating patients with comprehensive and correct medical history thus paper medical records were kept. Technology continued to advance and the beginning of a new system was introduced from 1960 to 1970. During this time, patient data was generated electronically and stored at a specific facility, typically university healthcare facilities, but the patient data was only retrievable at the specific healthcare location. From 1980 to 1990, a major success was the roll out of the first database of patient information, called master patient index (MPI) managed by all divisions of healthcare organizations. Later in the 1990s, computer healthcare applications were introduced to the market but they lacked the capability of communicating with each other or being viewed by other divisions. In 1996, medical record standards were established and distributed to provider offices with regular compliance assessments. By 2000, electronic medical records were responsible for reducing medical errors and increasing quality care but a surge in accidental patient injuries and deaths prompted President Bush to appeal for computerized health records in the State of the Union Address in 2004. A major reform in the medical software and databases was underway. In 2009, President Obama passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which requires seventy percent of all primary care providers to implement Electronic Medical Records by 2014 (Brooks, n.d.). According to Healthcare IT News, “The most recently available survey data finds approximately three-quarters of U.S. nonfederal acute care hospitals have at least a basic electronic health record system which represents a significant increase from the prior year.” (Miliard, 2016).

Conclusion

Conclusion – Summarize the main points of the paper.

References

Benefits of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). HealthIT.gov. Retrieved from: https://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/benefits-electronic-health-records-ehrs

Brooks, A. (n.d.). Rasmussen College. Retrieved from http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/health-information-management-history/

Loker, T. W. (2012). History and evolution of healthcare in America: The untold

backstory of where weve been, where we are and why healthcare needs more reform. Bloomington, iN: iUniverse Inc.

Miliard, M. (2016). Healthcare IT News. Retrieved from http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/where-are-we-headed-post-hitech

Shi, L. & Singh, D. A. (2012). Delivering Health Care in America: A Systems Approach (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning

Tripathi, M. (2012). EHR evolution. Journal of AHIMA, 83(10), 24-30. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1040421420?accountid=458