Healthcare Informatics
450 words
1 biblical integration
34 minutes ago
Emily Mosley
Discussion #6
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Gone are the days of paper charting and documenting. Today, in most places, health care facilities use technology and computers to chart. From the moment someone steps foot into a doctors’ office to being admitted to a hospital to being discharged from the hospital, everything is documented and checked. This has helped change health care for the better and ensure that the Affordable Care Act is being met, implemented, monitored, and maintained.
The Affordable Care Act has three main goals which are to “make affordable health insurance available to more people, expand the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level, and to support innovative medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of health care.” (Healthcare.gov, n.d.) Another way to ensure that these goals are met are the standards that are created. The insurance standards, according to the article “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Implications for Public Health Policy and Practice” are “designed to set a federal minimum; it is the expectation under the Affordable Care Act that state insurance departments will implement and enforce these laws as part of their legal insurance oversight powers.” (Rosenbaum, 2011) These insurance standards ensure that people are not being excluded and prevent cost-sharing. Health IT governance is able to check and monitor these standards to ensure that are being implemented and followed.
With the implementation of electronic medical records it has become easier to track information and ensure proper documentation. Prior to electronic medical records, records were stored and locked away so it was very difficult to access these files. However, nowadays, everything is basically accessible with a click of the button. Electronic medical records may be accessible to most healthcare providers in the facility, however, it has improved safety and quality outcomes. A position created to ensure only the proper people were accessing records is a HIPPA compliance officer. Basically, the HIPPA compliance officer makes sure that an excessive amount of people are not in the records, ensure that the records are being monitored, and keeps track of who has been in the record in case something happens to the patient.
To ensure this process is being followed a position created to ensure proper documentation is the Chief Knowledge Office/Information Governance Officer. “Someone in this profession is the most knowledgeable about what must be documented as required by government regulations, accrediting standards, and third party payers and as required to protect the legal interest of patients, healthcare providers, and health care facilities” (Shanholtzer & Ozanich, 2015) In other words, this position monitors documentation to ensure that it is complete before it is officially finalized. This ensures that patients will be reimbursed to the fullest and prevent insurance or other entities to question why something may have been done or someone was at a doctors’ office or in the hospital. These professionals also ensure that the right information is in the right place at the right time and in the correct format. A person will not receive proper care without all of the necessary information.
A bible verse that can be related back to this subject is Romans 7:12 which states, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Bible Gateway, 2016). This can be related back to Health IT Governance because it makes sure that everyone is receiving the proper care, documentation is correct, and health insurance companies are not overcharging for the healthcare being provided.
References
Bible Gateway. (2016). Retrieved from New English Standard Version: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+7%3A12&version=ESV
Healthcare.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from Affordable Care Act (ACA): https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/
Rosenbaum, S. (2011). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Implications for Public Health Policy and Practice. Public Health Reports. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001814/
Shanholtzer, M., & Ozanich, G. (2015). Health Information Management and Technology. New York: McGraw Hill.
5 hours ago
Joyce Pascual
Governance and Organizational Structures in Informatics
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Health care reform has been an ongoing undertaking in our nation and has needs for continuous improvement. Most times, we compare our health care system with our countries. We often wonder, why other nations’ health care system appears to be working and provides greater benefits than what we have in the United States. There are still a lot of improvements and details that need to be addressed. Health Information Technology plays a big role in facilitating the development to reduced cost of Affordable Care Act and aims to improve the quality of care.
One of the most recent changes in the health care policy is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The mentioned policy aims to standardize the health care coverage regardless of the past medical history of the patients. The health care Information technology maintains the electronic health records and keeps track on the standardization of the coverage of each individual. PPACA has five main goals:
1. Maximization of quality health care that can provide the ultimate benefits.
2. Freedom of decisions on choice as it relates to the “who, when, and where” of health care.
3. Implementing affordable health care to allow monetary resources to be used for other things in life.
4. Allowing Americans to share in the charges and likewise aids of health care (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2011).
5. Implementing the Dual Eligible program; a joint venture between the PPACA and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Health Information Technology (HIT) is used in transforming the health care delivery system. The use of HIT could help facilitate patients in engaging to mobile health or telehealth versus in-person visits with the health care providers. The ACA contains several advances for telemedicine. Telehealth/Telemedicine is a form of communication health which is a means to sharing of information and skill remotely and resulting to extension of capacity of workforce and increasing quality of care. Outpatient consultation has been a main resource for patients who are located in a remote area and are in need to be seen or evaluated by health care providers.
As for everyday use, health information technology has provided means in developing Information Management Systems to augment for daily tasks and integrate various aspects of patient care. ACA comprises of tasks that involve sharing of data. Electronic health records implementation is key and so it is important to make sure that patients receive education and ample training regarding proper use of the system. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is one element by information technology used to protect the health information of patients. But just a reminder, it is everyone’s responsibility to keep the information secured.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). The bible verse relates to the current topic as ACA relies on health care information in maintaining detains, policies and implementation of health care. ACA deals with a vast amount of information for the patients and HIT is continuously being improved to make sure that patient’s information are protected.
References:
Atkinson, G., & Giovanis, T. (2015). Impact of the patient protection and affordable care act: Overview. American Journal of Public Health, 105(S5). doi:10.2105/ajph.2015.302933
34 Bible verses about sharing knowledge. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2021, from https://www.openbible.info/topics/sharing_knowledge
Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for CatastrophicEvents. (2014, August 27). Leveraging the Affordable Care act and information technology to innovate. Retrieved February 23, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK241400/
Ruffin, D., & Tachin, R. (2017, December 15). Overview of health information technology and the Patient protection and Affordable Care Act. Retrieved February 25, 2021, from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3087065
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