Source Evaluation
Source Evaluation: Patient Informatics
Introduction
Frequently in healthcare valuable time, finances, and resources are spent due to the lack of communication and accessibility of patient information. This waste of resources comes in the form of unnecessary testing, because a similar test had been completed at another facility; and unnecessary questions that could have already been answered, such as allergies and confounding health issues. This reduction in efficacy is manifests in higher than necessary medical costs and time spent by the patient. Providers who have a greater accessibility to patient information could save lives by decreasing response time by having access to important answers, decreasing error rates made by patients who are poor historians, decreasing unnecessary procedures and diagnostics, increase time spent with patients dealing with their current situation, increasing the relationship between provider and patient.
Though there may be several ways to address this lack of consistency in health care communication, I feel strongly that the most effective solution for the dissemination of patient information is via a government-sanctioned centralized patient medical database.
This medical database would house all of the patient information from emergency room visits in New York to wellness check-ups in Seattle to immunization records from childhood. This database would be accessible via a patient’s government designated number, e.g., social security number, to all healthcare providers in all networks regardless of insurance provider or hospital system. This integrated and universal database would allow for a collaborative effort amongst providers to ensure that the patient in their care is cared for in a properly informed and cost-effective manner.
In this paper, I will examine four sources that present research in the field of patient informatics: A source from popular literature, a scholarly website, and two from scholarly
Introduction
Frequently in healthcare valuable time, finances, and resources are spent due to the lack of communication and accessibility of patient information. This waste of resources comes in the form of unnecessary testing, because a similar test had been completed at another facility; and unnecessary questions that could have already been answered, such as allergies and confounding health issues. This reduction in efficacy is manifests in higher than necessary medical costs and time spent by the patient. Providers who have a greater accessibility to patient information could save lives by decreasing response time by having access to important answers, decreasing error rates made by patients who are poor historians, decreasing unnecessary procedures and diagnostics, increase time spent with patients dealing with their current situation, increasing the relationship between provider and patient.
Though there may be several ways to address this lack of consistency in health care communication, I feel strongly that the most effective solution for the dissemination of patient information is via a government-sanctioned centralized patient medical database.
This medical database would house all of the patient information from emergency room visits in New York to wellness check-ups in Seattle to immunization records from childhood. This database would be accessible via a patient’s government designated number, e.g., social security number, to all healthcare providers in all networks regardless of insurance provider or hospital system. This integrated and universal database would allow for a collaborative effort amongst providers to ensure that the patient in their care is cared for in a properly informed and cost-effective manner.
In this paper, I will examine four sources that present research in the field of patient informatics: A source from popular literature, a scholarly website, and two from scholarly
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