Introduction
With the many advancements in mobile technology, the health care industry has been able to utilize this technology to enhance the quality of the services they provide. Thus the birth of wireless medical patient monitoring.
Monitoring Patient Vital Signs via Mobile Computing Versus In-Patient Visits
Mobile monitoring of patient vital signs has become more popular than ever. Imagine being able to monitor your blood pressure, glucose levels (diabetes), your body temperature and many others using mobile technologies that have surfaced today. I remember when a patient would have to make a trip to the doctor’s office to have their vital signs taken. Now vital signs can be recorded and stored onto a mobile device, uploaded to a database that can be accessed by the doctor’s office. Storing vital sign stats on mobile devices is light years ahead of having a person physically take those vital have to enter them on a chart and then enter them into a computer system. The mobile technology also saves time by allowing instant access to the data instead of waiting hours.
Patients are able to take advantage of the new smartphones and can monitor their own vitals and also have a digital record they can share with the doctor anytime. They are also able to chat real-time with the doctor of the doctor’s office in case there is a question that needs to be raised or addressed. Mobile technologies has helped patient buy into the concept of preventative care. The patients seem to get more involved when they have some sort of control over their information. The technology has not only been popular with patients but hospitals are also beginning to utilize this same technology and are able to monitor outpatient’s vitals. Hospitals can keep...
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... and in the workplace. While there are disadvantages with regard to security, access, and storage, the advantages seem to take a precedent over the disadvantages and offer the patients more knowledge, better relationships with their doctors.
References
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...benefits of this type of clinical decision support system include easy access to information and patient records, provision of timely support throughout the care process, reduced costs, enhanced efficiency, and reduced patient inconvenience. However the disadvantages include potential difficulties in interpreting information, difficulties in handling the huge amount of nursing literature, and probability of additional demands to care process.
Cardiac monitoring has been available since the early 1960s (Henriques-Forsythe, Ivonye, Jamched, Kamuguisha, Olejeme & Onwuanyi, 2009). George, Walsh-Irwin, Queen, Vander Heuvel, Hawkins, & Roberts (2015) explain, “Remote telemetry monitoring is the monitoring of cardiac rhythms of acute care inpatients from a central locate by personnel who are not directly involved with patient care” (p. 11). Researchers and authors published a multitude of articles, best practices, and standards for hospital monitoring (Drew, 2004, Funk, 2010). A basic internet query reveals injuries and deaths related to remote telemetry monitoring. Guidelines, best practices, and research provide the best evidence in the delivery of safe quality care
Wen, Y., Chao-Hsien, C., and Zang, L. (2010). The use of RFID in healthcare. Benefits and
Morrissey, J. (2013, October 1). Telemedicine: “If you aren’t doing anything now, you’re way behind”. Hospitals & Health Networks, 87(10), 22-23.
...ng informatics. The integration of an early warning scoring system with nursing practice is a means with which technology and nursing knowledge evolve to “applied wisdom” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). The data is represented by the vital signs. The collection of vital signs will generate information. The information will be scored in the system and alert the nurse when there are abnormal findings. The nest steps can only be taken by the nurse. Critical thinking, interpretation and application of the findings from the patient’s medical record are the next steps. Nurses must be able to apply the information into their nursing practice in order to continue to develop and deliver the best care to patients. As technology continues to expand to many clinical areas, nurses will need to continue to understand how the world of technology translates to patients.
Advances in technology have influences our society at home, work and in our health care. It all started with online banking, atm cards, and availability of children’s grades online, and buying tickets for social outings. There was nothing electronic about going the doctor’s office. Health care cost has been rising and medical errors resulting in loss of life cried for change. As technologies advanced, the process to reduce medical errors and protect important health care information was evolving. In January 2004, President Bush announced in the State of the Union address the plan to launch an electronic health record (EHR) within the next ten years (American Healthtech, 2012).
We as nurses rely on technology, but we also have been taught to beware technology from making judgments for our nursing car. We know that technology can be wrong or mess up just like a human; therefore, we must always be knowledgeable and question our practice, to ensure safe nursing. Technology has pros and cons just like the human person does. “Storing clinical data, translating clinical data into information, linking clinical data and domain knowledge, and aggregating clinical data” is a helpful and time saving use of technology (Yoder-Wise, 2015). However, technology sometimes take precious time away; for example, a study found that “nurses spend up to 40% of their workday meeting ever-increasing demands from the systems in which they work” (Yoder-Wise, 2015). Technology also brings up an “ethical dilemma” as to when and how to use “extraordinary means to prolong life for patients with limited or no decision making capabilities” (Yoder-Wise, 2015). When is technology prolonging pain and hindering a peaceful natural death. Other issues like, “safeguarding patient’s welfare, privacy, and confidentiality” have been called into question with use of patient information in the computer systems (Yoder-Wise, 2015). There has to be safety parameter to protect patients according to HIPPA law, for example firewalls (Yoder-Wise, 2015). However, computerized patient information has also been a live saver and time saver because “provider order entry” is more clearly written,
Sharing the personal health records with patients has the potential to improve the safety of medication prescribing and trending of physiologic data (e.g. blood pressure, clotting times, blood glucose, and daily weights). Patient portals can serve as personal health records in which health information is preserved over time (Gephart & Effken, 2013). Humana provides great features of patient portal for their members. The patient portal can be viewed on a computer, a smart phone, and a tablet. The members can utilize the portal to order and search medication, find physicians, view existing claims and benefits, and submit requested documents. Using the patient portal makes the members to monitor and manage their health easier than
Also, these studies question those who are effected; in this case, those who are most effected, is everyone. Doctors and nurses spend the most time working within these systems, but the information that is put into these systems effects every individual in America, because it is their information. Because nurses are often considered “both coordinators and providers of patient care” and they “attend to the whole patient,” their opinion is highly regarded (Otieno, Toyama, Asonuma, Kanai-Pak, & Naitoh, 2007, p. 210). It is clear that the use of these new systems is much debated, and many people have their own, individualized opinion. This information suggests that when there is a problem in the medical field, those who address it attempt to gather opinions from everyone who is involved before proceeding. It has been proven by multiple studies that this system of record keeping does in fact have potential to significantly improve patient health through efficiency, and it is because of this that the majority of hospitals have already completed, or begun the transfer from paperless to electronic (Otieno, Toyama, Asonuma, Kanai-Pak, & Naitoh,
...ncement can revolutionize the healthcare sector. Smartphones are more affordable, more accessible to the population than computers because these days everyone own a smartphone and are easier to carry. In the recent years the use of cell phones and wireless sensors to gather data and access health data has grown up tremendously. Lot of mobile applications are already available in the market that count your daily calories intake, keeps track of your nutrition’s and workout plans.
Smart phones and social media in the health care field presents opportunities and growth advancement but also comes with many consequences and challenges. Health care organizations have regulated the use of smartphones and posting confidential information on social media such as HIPPA, which have laws intact if violated these laws may lead to termination or fines. The patient’s privacy and confidentiality is important when creating such policies, to maximize work efficiency and to create a safe environment. Furthermore, health care staff need to ensure that their patient care standards aren’t compromised by the use of these devices or social media postings.
We are living in electrifying times. Mobile health (mHealth) technology is changing every facet of the way we live. Possibly no area is more imperative or more reflective than the improvements we are observing in healthcare (Fox & Duggan, 2012). In current years, there has been an increase of wearable devices, social media, smartphone apps, and telehealth, and each has immense promise for the future of organized health care (Fox & Duggan, 2012). With the capacity to assemble and interpret patient-made data, these mHealth tools keep the assurance of changing the way health care is provided, proposing patients their own customized medical guidance (Manojlovich et al., 2015). Health care availability, affordability, and quality are
Vital signs are the observation of the body’s vital functions and show an evidence of the person’s health condition. It is used as an assessment by the nurses to assess the patient’s blood pressure, temperature, pulse and respiration (Ackbarally,2012). This occurs initially on admission or when they arrive at different health care settings such as; transfer from hospital to a nursing home, during an emergency situation to help observe the persons condition, before and after operation, before, during and after treatment, when the patients general condition alters and also according to the local or national data gathering (Endacott et al , 2009)
From state and federal levels, the healthcare industry has come a very long way, experiencing changes along the way. The development of advanced technology that has enhanced the quality of healthcare delivery systems will help all patients to be able to benefit. Doctors are able to access patient records at a faster rate and respond to their patients in a much more timely fashion. E-mail, electronic transfer of records and telemedicine will give all patients and physicians the tools needed to be more efficient, deliver quality care and deliver quality telecommunication at a faster pace than before.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been shown to be increasingly important in the education or training and professional practice of healthcare. This paper discusses the impacts of using ICT in Healthcare and its administration. Health Information technology has availed better access to information, improved communication amongst physicians, clinicians, pharmacists and other healthcare workers facilitating continuing professional development for healthcare professionals, patients and the community as a whole. This paper takes a look at the roles, benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in healthcare services and goes on to outline the ICT proceeds/equipment used in the health sector such as the