One of the constant concerns when it comes to the delivery and access to health care is the improvement of the quality of health care services rendered to individuals and populations. Quality improvement in health care is an important concern in the field of health care because of the aim of health institutions and organizations to improve the health outcomes and satisfactions of patients whether individually or as a population (Hughes, 2008).
Health information technology or the use of technology in the field of health care is one of the quality improvement projects being done in different institutions globally. The continuous development of technology have been applied when delivering health care services to lessen the errors encountered when dealing with patients. The application of information technology in healthcare aims to promote patient safety through provision of innovative designs and test that can help reduce medical error, development of different evidence based researches to support and prove different claims, improvement of training and education of health care providers like nurses, doctors, and laboratory professionals, establishment of different technological applications that can help in the further reduction of errors (Ortiz & Clancy, 2003).
My PICOT question is In Hispanic elderly population, aged between 65 and 90 years in a Community Health setting in Miami-Dade area, does implementation of a vaccination screening program, compared to no program, improve vaccination rates, over 16 weeks? This PICOT question can be adjusted by taking into consideration the “Enhance Professional Practice Model” used by the University of Rochester (Committee on the Adequacy of Nursing Staff in Hospitals and Nursing Homes, Institute of Medicine, 1996). This is the useful professional practice model because it takes into account the importance of control, continuing education, continuity of care delivery, collaborative practice, and even professional compensation. The vaccination screening program can use health information technology for better recording and assessment of the patient details along with the results of screening tests.
The best available evidence for the reformulated PICOT question is the current vaccination rates of vaccination screening programs involving a different population. In terms of the application of health information technology, the best evidence to be used for the assessment of its application in the PICOT question will be the researches and studies that aimed to assess and evaluate the effectivity and efficiency of health information technology applications in the field of nursing.
References
Committee on the Adequacy of Nursing Staff in Hospitals and Nursing Homes, Institute of Medicine. (1996). Nursing Staff in Hospitals and Nursing Homes:: Is it Adequate?. National Academies Press.
Hughes, R.G. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US).
Lavin, M.A., Harper, E., and Barr, N. (2015). Health Information Technology, Patient Safety, and Professional Nursing Care Documentation in Acute Care Settings. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 20(2).
Ortiz, E. and Clancy, C.M. (2003). Use of Information Technology to Improve the Quality of Health Care in the United States. Health Services Research 38(2): xi-xxii.
