Technology has led to many changes in every sector of the society. In healthcare, technology is in every department right from the documentation to giving treatment to patients. Healthcare is a field that continues to witness technological innovations taking every aspect in the delivery of care. I did my practicum in the emergency department of the hospital unit.
The medical unit is overly dependent on technology because everything happens with the help of technology. The nurses, physicians and pharmacists rely on electronic gadgets to do their work. The current healthcare environment is challenging because of the heavy reliance on health information system (Berkowitz & McCarthy, 2013). The emergency department used paragon system as an electronic medical system. The aim of the implementation of the system was to improve the delivery of patient care.
The use of paragon system in the hospital emergency department presented much challenges. It made the order processing to become slow. The reason for the slowed order processing was the time used by the users. The users took much time because they were new to the system. The system required people who had more knowledge to operate.
Documentation of medical records became an issue while using the paragon system. Many errors arose because of using the system. The users of the system entered wrong information to the system, which led to administration of wrong medication to the patients. There were missed orders because of the omission experienced while using the electronic records. The medical errors in the emergency department were because of the implementation of the system that was new to the users.
The use of technology in the delivery of care is likely to take away hands on aspects of nursing because in the emergency department, everything runs on technology. Communication with various departments in the healthcare occurs using technological equipment. The communication takes a short time and it allows faster decision-making. Communication equipment in the emergency department is my favorite form of technology. It allows saving of many lives by communication with various departments who come and rescue the life at a risk.
The use of paragon information system in the hospital enables the caregivers in the department to collect and evaluate the information but it failed to work in the emergency department. Implementation of such a change in the system should happen gradually by first training the users of the system. The training allows the users to have all the knowledge and skills to manipulate the system for the benefit of the healthcare organization.
The future of health care is full of technological advances basing on the evidence of research that medical researchers engage. The government invests much in medical research and technology. Healthcare ranks the highest spender of the government’s money. Technology is helping the doctors to communicate their patients. Software developers continue to invest much of their time and funds to develop software that enables doctors and individuals to monitor their health (Tyrrell, 2012). The software allows the patients to stay health by monitoring their health.
Other forms of technology developing in the health care are the less invasive technologies that will allow delivery of care to patients without experiencing pain. Robots will soon be able to administer care to the patients. The technologies in healthcare will allow the patients to have better health and the healthcare professionals from the nurses to physicians will have an easy work in the administration of care. My practicum was enjoyable because despite of the challenges in the use of paragon electronic medical record system.
References
Berkowitz, L., & McCarthy, C. (2013). Innovation with information technologies in healthcare. London: Springer.
Tyrrell, S. (2012). Using information and communication technology in healthcare. Abingdon: Radcliffe Medical.
