How to write an essay on the use of Informatics in healthcare

How to write an essay on the use of Informatics in healthcare

Nature is often unpredictable and uncontrollable. Nature may be characterized by sudden eruptions of certain natural disasters. Natural disasters such as fire, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and severe storms can destroy telephone lines and organizational internet servers (freeman et al., 2019). My healthcare organization has taken certain proactive and precautionary measures to cope with disasters. These measures focus on preventing such disasters from interfering with the delivery of healthcare services. Particularly, the field of informatics has taken various approaches.

My organization has incorporated preparedness strategies in case of any disaster. The first preparedness approach is the use of interoperable technology. This technology is an integrated and automated set of capabilities that allows healthcare practitioners to easily access and use data during a disaster. The creation of a regional interoperability health information technology is a key element in disaster response. This means that healthcare practitioners can access patient data between different systems. In case one system is affected, the individuals can still use the other systems to access the patient information to provide safe care to patients in times of a disaster.

The second approach is the location of the hospital servers away from areas prone to disasters. The organization has tried its best way to isolate the data center from any disaster that does occur. The servers have been located in interior rooms far from the windows and reinforced rooms (Freeman et al., 2019). This will minimize complete destruction in the event of a disaster. Partially destroyed servers can be repaired, and some data can be extracted from them. This will prevent the organization from losing valuable data.

The other strategy is ensuring that backup power is available for the healthcare organization. Destruction of electricity lines can create power outages, affecting healthcare organizations’ ability to use data and operate machines. The organization has a high voltage level generator on standby that automatically turns own in case of power outages. This means that the power in the healthcare organization will be maintained.

The final strategy involves educating the healthcare practitioners in case of disasters. This will improve their ability to respond and recover from the disaster. The personnel needs to understand their roles during the disaster recovery process. Equipment for disaster recovery should be tested and monitored to ensure they are functional when a disaster occurs. Additionally, the data recovery procedures should be well documented so that the health informaticists are not confused about their role in the event of a disaster. Finally, the health informaticists should be empowered to improvise and make decisions depending on the presenting situations.

How to care for patients in the event of a disaster

If the healthcare practitioner cannot access the electronic medical records, various strategies can ensure continued care delivery. Firstly the administrative and healthcare staff should utilize preapproved paper forms in patient intake and scheduling. If technology fails, individuals can switch to analog systems. The healthcare practitioners need to print out daily appointment schedules to keep track of patients who arrive, their history, and the care delivered. The patients should be assigned temporary medical record numbers until the electronic system is fixed.

The physicians and doctors should utilize the paper charting system, which will be used at the time of failure of electronic health records. They need to be aware of the types of documentation required in the form of the electronic medical record template (Shepard, 2017). This will make it easier to fill in the information once the failure is corrected. Entering the clinical information into proper charts by hand is a tedious process. However, that is the only way to guarantee care disruption until the disaster is fully controlled and the healthcare information technologies are back.

References

Freeman, J. D., Blacker, B., Hatt, G., Tan, S., Ratcliff, J., Woolf, T. B., & Barnett, D. J. (2019). Use of big data and information and communications technology in disasters: an integrative review. Disaster medicine and public health preparedness, 13(2), 353-367.

Shepard, A. (2017). Disaster recovery and the electronic health record. Nursing administration quarterly, 41(2), 187-189.

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