Future Trends

Future Trends in Health care
Information technology is a valuable asset in in the health care organization for improving today’s health care business competitiveness. In order to provide service in a competitive health care environment, demands on the quality of care and service should be met while maintaining the core values. Consumers are aware of their health care needs, and demands quick response, less waiting times and needs health care services near to them. Information technology has a great potential to meet consumers’ needs. Embracing e-Healthcare and using information technology as a strategic tool will enable health care professionals to benefit from information technology (Hovenga & Heard, 2010). This paper examines the future trends in health care, provides an assessment on use of internet as an external delivery source in communicating patient specific information, and discusses the impact of distance delivery in health care. Also about issues that impact health care today and five years from now. Internet as an external delivery source in Communication.

The development and refinement of the Internet helped health care industry to explore faster in technology and research. Telemedicine allows the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve patients’ health status (ATA, 2011). Patient provider portal is an emerging information technology tool which allows the client to access personal health data. This helps the clients to be increasingly involved in their own care, enhances patient provider communication, improves clinical outcomes, access to care, and reduces the inequality in distribution of care due to geographic reasons.

The patient provider portal is increasingly used and implemented throughout United States. The web page provides education material, and access to different providers. Patient provider internet portal is with functions that includes updates on current medications, allergies, immunization history, lab tests, medical history, features for scheduling the appointment, links to different informative sites, e-mails from providers, appointment remainders, billing information and rapid check-in during visits (Shaw & Ferranti, 2011).

Research shows that the use of internet or any other form of electronic communication as an external delivery source in communicating patient-specific information demonstrated increased customer satisfaction, improved screening of chronic disease conditions, greater patient empowerment and better adherence to treatment and which improves overall patient care outcomes. Providing patient to review the records and patient health information enhances safety and quality of care. In United States health care information is sought by 81 percentage of the people over the internet of which 66 percentage is adults. Patient care can be well managed with the constant provider-patient communication which can avoid multiple hospitalizations. Avoiding unnecessary hospital visits helps in potential cost savings and clients valuable time. This enables the client to manage their own health and gives a greater confidence in health management.

Use of Internet portals has a considerable promise to improve health care delivery and patients’ health. Development of internet portals with adequate safety and security benefits the patients and the doctors. Provider have more control over their time and less time spend than answering a phone call. With the use of next generation internet which promises more speed, and increase in bandwidth with adequate security and safety standards in place, health care is to be more exposed to the public to improve patient care (Shaw & Ferranti, 2011). Impact of Distance Delivery on Health care.

Distance delivery bridges the access gap and provides increasing service accessibility. The delivery of health care services has always been a local phenomenon in the past. With the use of the Internet, it is made as an inherently global phenomenon. It is possible to get medical information and medical advices from geographically different locations. Web-technologies, intranets, extranets and internets serve as a low cost, rapidly deployable media for disseminating information across any integrated health care organizations and any part of the world. Increase access and convenience in health care delivery system enhances health care outcomes. Information technology, Tele-health, Internet, Online health and health telemetry made the distance delivery possible in health care industry (Robert & Mary, 1999).

Patients with chronic disease conditions began to use the personalized health records to track their daily progress. This helped the patients in adherence to diet, exercises and medication regimen. Online purchase of prescription drugs and over the counter medications has increased over the last decade with the use of technology. Another important advantage of distance delivery on health care is the online support groups which is more convenient for busy or house-bound people that provide support at all times of the day and night. In the near future hospitals and physicians will be available online providing different service choices to the consumers of health care. Providing amble choices to the customers in health care services or a combination of services allow them to choose the best services that meet their needs. Distance delivery in health services hold a potential to reach more children and families in underserved communities who need help at their convenience (Robert & Mary, 1999). Although there is concerns about the security and liability about offering medical advice using distance delivery which needs to be analyzed. E-mail, Telemedicine, and Electronic transfer of Records.

E-mails has become increasingly cost effective in getting connected to the health care professionals. This allows the patient to communicate with the physician or other health care team before any crisis develops. The primary goal of e-mail communication is effective and appropriate communication with health care provider. E-mail technology delivers communication in a timely manner and provides satisfaction to the users. The public key Infrastructure (PKI) used in health care organizations provides security and protection to the electronic health records send by e-mail. Patient education needs to be provided for the effective use of this technology.

Health care organizations also use formal and informal e-mail, communications to the employees to notify the system down times, meetings, and education (Fusaro, 1998). Telemedicine is a term used for the remote delivery of health care services, in which the physician and the patient will be in geographically different locations. This helps in electronic transferring of health information to distant sites. Currently telemedicine is used in various clinical services such as teleoncology, teledermatology, telepsychiatry, teleradiology, and telepathology to store, transmit and retrieve information. At present every state in United States is having one telemedicine program offering a range of clinical services, continuing education and involving large number of hospitals and clinics. The various applications used in telemedicine includes the organizational and management areas such as billing, and decision support. Telemedicine application in personal managed areas includes admission, patient registration, results reporting, and the clinical care areas includes diagnosis therapy and monitoring.

Telemedicine emerged as a result of geographical imbalance in distribution of health services, especially for the people living in medically underserved areas or inner cities (Bashshur, Reardon, & Shannon, 2000). Electronic transfer of records in health care field is the fastest process which can be completed within minutes, compared to the old way of paper record transfer which takes up to weeks. This is an example which explains how Information Technology improves patient outcomes with the use of electronic transfer services. It enhances continuity of care with better treatment options, and saves time of the health care provider. With The HITECH Act, electronic health records with its ability to exchange information online with other providers is going to be the key component in patient care. (“Pulse Finance:Electronic records transfer explained,” 2007). Impact of Health care today and in next Five years.

Aging American society needs better health care delivery and management with the emerging scope of telemedicine. Currently the health care focus is on treating acute medical problems and trauma care. Studies shows that 75 to 85 percentage of health care expenses are towards managing chronic medical conditions, and more than half of Americans has one chronic medical problems. Health care focus should be on preventive care, and promoting wellness with accessible health care services. Today’s health care market needs consumer oriented services, in which patient expect high levels of respect, good customer service, treatment from a specialist with short waiting time and less travel distances. Another issue that impact health care delivery currently is the professional shortages and misdistribution of health care professionals.

State and Federal government is providing community oriented services during the curriculum to create interest in working with underserved community. Increase in health care cost with the advancement of health care technology is a major concern. Patient protection and Affordable Care Act is to address the health care cost and quality of care in the coming years (Schimpff, 2013). Beyond the five year frame the bandwidth to the home and workplace increases, online support group may begin to add new media choices beyond the simple texting done now. People will be able to do video-mediated groups with adequate safety and security. Currently all the medical facilities are adopting Electronic Health Records (EHR) and is in the initial stages, in five years the facilities will transition to fully functioning EHR in which the data can be transmitted to regional and national levels and bring together more efficient and effective health care to a today’s fragmented health care delivery system. Ethical issues and concerns in public health and health care service management is to become more complex in the future. Research works needs to be done on the potential issues and adequate intervention needs to be implemented for a prosperous future in health care.

In conclusion today’s health care organization is accelerating towards the implementation of Information technology systems in all sectors. Research works need to be done to understand its consequences both positive and negative for future growth. Technology has undergone considerable change and transformation during the past several decades and it continue to evolve as the technology culture expands. Hence understanding the future trends in health care and emerging technologies will facilitate understanding of health care technologies and its outcomes now and in the future. With the advancement of distance care delivery, patients’ home is once again becoming the hub of medical care. How far will we develop in health care technologies in the next ten to twenty years?

References
ATA. (2011). American Telemedicine Association.

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