Introduction
Physician shortage is an issue that contributes to the reduction in quality of healthcare. A reduction in the number of physicians, nurses, and pharmacists reduces access to direct healthcare. Certain factors have influenced the need to have technology in healthcare. For instance, the population growth is increasing at a high rate. The aging population is increasing and this is resulting in the increase in demand for healthcare services, which implies an increase in the need for medical staff. The aging population is highly affected by chronic diseases and illnesses such as heart diseases and strokes. According to Spekowius and Wendler (2006), the use of medical technology helps to manage these chronic diseases. Additionally, technology applied in the management of medical information improves quality of care (Rajagopal, 2013).
However, a large population of baby boomers in the medical field is approaching the retirement age and this will result in most of the medical doctors dropping out of the medical system. Additionally, this means that most of these baby boomers in the next 20 years will require greater care. Implementation of the federal government budget cuts continues to reduce the number physicians and nurses. Reduction in salaries of medical residents has reached 50% (Physician Shortage, 2013). In addition, with the implementation of Obama Care, the number of patients is increasing drastically, which results in an increase in demand for doctors. Another factor that warrants the increase in use of technology is that the shortage of physician may result to overworking and this causes an increase in medical errors, which result in the harming of lives of many patients.
Need for Healthcare technologies
The application of technology in health care has been significant from an information and communication technology aspect. According to Rajagopal (2013), the use of technology in healthcare aims at improving the quality of care. The shortage of the medical practitioners in the hospital facilities may result in poor handling of patients. However, using technology such as magnetic cards and patient identification tags may help the physicians monitor the progress of patients. A solution to addressing the pharmacist shortage is using ePharmacist technology (Berkowitz and McCarthy, 2012). Using the ePharmacist program, a hospital trained pharmacist can work from a remote location to aid bedside clinicians provide timely medical treatments for patients (Berkowitz and McCarthy, 2012). Using this program, pharmacists can be able to have a virtual face-to-face visit for a pharmacy consultation with the nurses, physicians, and patients (Berkowitz and McCarthy, 2012).
Technology in Assisted Living Residence
The increase in baby boomers as discussed earlier will result to more care needed in the next 20 years. Most of the aging population will be in assisted living care where access to physicians and pharmacists may be limited. According to Golant and Hyde (2008), the implementation of technology in assisted living is possible in variety of ways. These include computer-based rehabilitation, entertainment, interpersonal communication, cognitive stimulation, and managing of medical records. Additionally, with the use of technology monitoring of vital signs and patient tracking is possible.
Using social media has helped in the socialization among the elderly. The elderly can be able to communicate with their family and friends, which provides a form of rehabilitation to the elderly (Golant and Hyde, 2008). Another aspect is the use of medical records software in the assisted living residence, which can help the medical providers to plan for resident service hours. Consequently, allocation of adequate numbers of staff becomes simplified. In most of the assisted living residence, the most common staff is skilled caregivers. With the increasing physician shortage, training of caregivers in the use of medical devices to measure heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels and glucose levels is significant in reducing the number of visits to doctor’s office. This can be an effective way of managing chronic diseases prevalent among the elderly (Golant and Hyde, 2008). Using monitoring and tracking technology to detect cases where the patient has fallen maybe in the bathroom is also possible. Such a technology involves the use of non-wearable fall detectors.
Conclusion
While there might be significant benefits of using technology, addressing the shortages of physicians by increasing their numbers through provision of better payment packages to medical residents is one of the best approaches. Additionally, it is important to note that technology without the human aspect may fail to achieve the desired quality healthcare hence the technology should not be considered a replacement for the shortages of medical practitioners. Improving pharmaceuticals and real time monitoring and expert systems may help reduce physician-patient face time (Physician Shortage, 2013). Additionally, there have been calls for the applications of intelligent virtual assistants in the medical field to aid doctors meet their capacity. A supporting factor to the use of the intelligent virtual assistants is their ability to consume more information than the medical doctors can, but not as a replacement of doctors. It only aids in increase the efficiency of service delivery to the patient.
References
Addressing the U.S. Physician Shortage. (2013). Trends Magazine, 10(10), 22-29.
Berkowitz, L., & McCarthy, C. (2013). Innovation with information technologies in healthcare. London: Springer.
Golant, S. M., & Hyde, J. (2008). The assisted living residence: A vision for the future. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Spekowius, G., & Wendler, T. (2007). Advances in healthcare technology: Shaping the future of medical care. Dordrecht: Springer.
Rajagopal, N. N. (2013). Impact of Information Technology on Service Quality of Health Care Services. Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal of Management, 10(1), 79-96.
