Assignment Instructions
In what ways can informatics help health care providers overcome current or emerging barriers to care and increase access to safe, quality health care? Include a discussion of the value and challenges of clinical provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support systems (CDSS) in providing safe patient care in your response. Why are heuristic principles (human factors/usability/user centered design) important for efficient clinical information systems such as CPOE and CDSS?
Sample Answer
In what ways can informatics help health care providers overcome current or emerging barriers to care and increase access to safe, quality health care?
Health informatics is crucial in enabling healthcare providers to overcome barriers in care provision and increasing the quality and safety of healthcare. Informatics achieves this through data management that enables healthcare professionals to access and use information to provide the appropriate care. Telemedicine as a form of health informatics facilitates remote care provision. This increases access to care services, especially for patients living in rural and remote areas. Health informatics is used to make predictions in healthcare. It is used to predict outbreaks of diseases and this guides implementation of the necessary interventions (Jen et al., 2022). Additionally, informatics enhances interoperability in different healthcare systems and this improves care coordination.
Include a discussion of the value and challenges of clinical provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support systems (CDSS) in providing safe patient care in your response.
CPOE and CDSS are essential in reducing medical errors, providing quality care, and enhancing efficiency in care provision. The two systems reduce errors in medication by eliminating the issues in the different handwritings and standardizing orders. CDSS alerts healthcare providers on the issues that might arise in allergies and drug interactions (Hajesmaeel et al., 2021). The systems are efficient in streamlining workflows and reducing the time spent executing administrative tasks. Additionally, CDSS acts as a source of evidence-based recommendations and this enhances the provision of high quality and safe care. There are several challenges that are encountered in the use of CPOE and CDSS in care provision. A challenge of implementation is experienced as the use of both systems requires a lot of investment. Other times, healthcare providers can resist using these systems and the effectiveness of the two systems depends on the quality of data (Hajesmaeel et al., 2021).
Why are heuristic principles (human factors/usability/user centered design) important for efficient clinical information systems such as CPOE and CDSS?
Heuristic principles are important in the use of CPOE and CDSS. The two systems are usable as they are designed using user-centered principles that are easy to use and this minimizes the probability of occurrence of errors. Additionally, the good design of the systems is essential in saving time, streamlining workflows, and reducing frustration in care provision.
References
Hajesmaeel Gohari, S., Bahaadinbeigy, K., Tajoddini, S., & R. Niakan Kalhori, S. (2021). Effect of computerized physician order entry and clinical decision support system on adverse drug events prevention in the emergency department: a systematic review. Journal of Pharmacy Technology, 37(1), 53-61. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7809327/#:~:text=Data%20Synthesis%3A%20Results%20showed%20that,prescribing%20and%20dosing%20in%20compliance
Jen, M. Y., Mechanic, O. J., & Teoli, D. (2022). Informatics. NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470564/