Future Trends in Health Care Over the years many things have contrubuted to the advancement of the electronic age in the health care system. In the beginning, the primary function of the information system in the healthcare setting was administrative tasks, such as billling. That has changed over the years. According to Blackwell (2008) “As IT developed, systems were marketed for the specialist medical departments and niche markets developed, for example, for laboratories, pharmacies, diagnostics, imaging and intensive care.” Although email, telemedicine, and electronic transfer of records have impacted healthcare today, understanding how they can impact health care 5 years from now can be equally as important. This paper will
It starts with an embryonic electronic patient record, and ends with the death of a patient. The EMR is a cradle-to-grave health care file that has the capability of following someone throughout their entire life. When all the health care information in a hospital is computerized, the convenience will be overwhelming. Eradicating paper files is the beginning of ensuring quality, patient safety, and obtaining timely information. A paper-free hospital can offer convenience to its patients and employees by providing system stability and accuracy as well as “real time” information. Communication issues are a major concern for hospitals today. According to Hilts (2010) “Ten years or so ago, the investment in IT was 1 percent or less of a hospital’s operating budget, on agerage. Big initiatives of the last decade, including EMR and CPOE projects, have brought the IT spending up rapidly, to an average of 5 or 6 percent or above in most institutions” (p. 22). One form of communication is health related web sites, they account for at least 100,000 sites offering health information. These are some of the most accessed sites on the internet. Not only has health web sites impacted how the medical profession performs their jobs, but the use of email has also made advances in healthcare also. Email is used as a form of communication between health professionals. The email lets them