1. Identify the benefits of office automation technology to the following healthcare departments and services: admissions, insurance, respiratory therapy, radiology, medical labs, pharmacy, critical care units, medical education, library, medical records, social services and food services.
Currently, over 90 percent of the available software products in healthcare revolve around billing systems ("Health for profit," 1994, p. 45). However, the fundamental needs of the emerging networks is to automate and share as much clinical information as possible. Billing systems will become increasing irrelevant as more and more services are pre-paid. Capitation is forcing hospitals and physicians to re-engineer the enormous inefficiencies in the present delivery system. A delivery system that is ten years behind in leveraging information technology to lower costs and increase the productivity of it's workers. These inefficiencies are not easily reversed as evidenced by staff model HMO's efforts over the last 10 years.
The computerized patient record captured and shared at the point of care has been a goal of almost all major staff model HMO's for the last 10 years. However, after millions of dollars invested in numerous projects, the computerized patient record currently eludes virtually all of them.
The key issue currently blocking the successful wide-scale implementation of the computerized patient record is the automation of medical notes. This key medical notes conundrum in itself would help address admissions, insurance, medical labs, pharmacy, critical care units, medical education, library, medical records, social services and food services, leaving only respiratory therapy and radiology in question. Medical notes are created by the provider during the physician/patient encounter. A good medical note is meant to be a complete audit of this encounter. It includes all the symptoms, physical exam findings, diagnosis and all therapy...