Automation in Hospitals and Healthcare
Healthcare is a complex industry, but yet it lags behind virtually all others in automation and use of information technology (IT). For healthcare, technology serves as an untapped catalyst for higher efficiency, lower cost and broader access to care. The
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Automation i
77. Automation in Hospitals and Healthcare
Brandon Savage
Automation is so ubiquitous in our daily lives that few of us give it a second thought. Whether the automated teller machine (ATM), a barcode scanner, or wireless communication, we embed automation as a fundamental mechanism of our daily lives. It’s stunning to notice how few parallel examples exist in the average hospital or physician office, when the exchange of accurate information can literally be a matter of life and death. In today’s healthcare system the majority of medical records are still kept on paper – and most of them, including prescriptions, are still handwritten. Even most electronic are commonly in stand-alone systems, and unlike ATMs, are not interoperable and cannot share information.
77.1 The Need for Automation in Healthcare ....................................... 1380 77.2 The Role of Medical Informatics ............. 1382 77.2.1 Information Management ............. 1382 77.2.2 Knowledge Management .............. 1383 77.2.3 Knowledge Representation............ 1384 77.2.4 Knowledge Generation ................. 1385 77.2.5 Knowledge in Action .................... 1387 77.3 Applications ......................................... 1389 77.3.1 Patient Access .............................. 1389 77.3.2 Healthcare Billing ........................ 1389 77.3.3 Healthcare Administration ............ 1390 77.3.4 Clinical Care................................. 1391 77.3.5 Patient Connectivity ..................... 1393 77.3.6 Interoperability............................ 1394 77.3.7 Enterprise Systems ....................... 1395 77.4 Conclusion ........................................... 1396 References .................................................. 1396
As an example, if you live in Duluth and need to check your bank balance while visiting New York City, it’s easily within reach. If you’re ill while in the Big Apple and are taken to a hospital emergency department, it will be virtually impossible for the medical staff to check your medical record for allergies and past history. And, only a few healthcare institutions use barcode scanning to confirm accurate dose and treatment administration. Managing the complexity of healthcare warrants the need for automation that same complexity is also the reason effective automation is so difficult. There are thousands of data and decision points in the course of treatment. As medical knowledge expands at a breakneck pace, what we define as today’s best practice and standard protocol, may not exist tomorrow.
Part H 77
Healthcare is a complex industry, but yet it lags behind virtually all others in automation and use of information technology (IT). For healthcare, technology serves as an untapped catalyst for higher efficiency, lower cost and broader access to care. The appropriate application can minimize medical errors, promote better management of chronic illness, and enable clinicians to intervene earlier and anticipate prognosis. Additionally, medical informatics provides the tools t
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