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It- Enabled Health Care
Background of the Study
Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for Health, stated,
“The NHS cannot be the last man standing as the rest of the economy embraces the technology revolution. Only with world-class information system will NHS deliver world-class care.”
The idea of globalization from this quote can be attained from the point where it has been asserted that the global economy is revolutionizing itself by adopting the wonders of information technology. This statement reiterates that globalization, despite the high cost of health and lack of training, requires the intervention of technology into the healthcare system to generate innovative solutions to the traditional problems. Buttigieg & Gauci (2015) presented that the implementation of technology is progressing at a slow pace that leaves the room for practitioners of both IT and medicine to identify the source of successes and failures of the innovation. It has been stated that the capacity and extent to which information technology can be intertwined is of wide and diverse nature, therefore, it is necessary to adopt a standard perspective to global delivery of equal healthcare benefits (Buttigieg & Gauci, 2015). The setback of the approach is that studies have not yet identified or agreed upon a common perspective.
Currie & Guah (2006) highlighted the governmental efforts in the matter that has primarily included the National Programme for Information Technology (NPFIT), an initiative of United Kingdom that aims to serve the National Health Service (NHS). The program worth for about $10 billion that targets the development of a strategic model for the electronic health record, functioning on a National level and storing data for ten years (Currie & Guah, 2006, pp. 7-22).
To this date, NHS has comprehensively adopted the technology in running and maintaining the practices of the organization. Tabulation presentation has been added to this section in order to highlight the efforts of NHS and the measures that they have adopted over time in order to upgrade the system as per the IT revolution.
Table 1 here presents the initiatives that have been successfully adopted by NHS in due course (Liddell, Adshead & Burgess, 2008).
Table 1: IT enabled initiatives of NHS and its practicing benefits (adapted from the report by Liddell, Adshead & Burgess, 2008).
| Initiatives were taken by NHS | Practicing benefits |
| Electronic Health Records
|
These provide the concerned staff personnel with 24 hours accessibility to patients’ health summaries. |
| Electronic Patient Records
|
These have enabled to develop a standardized manner of recording clinical details regarding management and treatment of the patients. |
| Technical Infrastructure
|
It has established a wide networking of dictionary containing the clinical terminologies and a strategic service for communication. |
| Evidence-Based Health and Health Care Information | It has improved the public and clinicians’ access to the research based evidence and information through National Electronic Library for Health and NHS Direct. |
| Telemedicine and Telecare | NHS has developed and implemented guidelines that have promoted the utilization of telemedicine and telecare. |
NHS has developed its National Programme for IT in 2002 with the aim of replacing all the fragmented applications with the updated models of information technology. The program is now known as Connecting for Health that asserts on the key factors that are presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Key approaches of ‘Connecting for Health’ Programme by NHS (adapted from the report by Liddell, Adshead & Burgess, 2008).
| Service | Approach |
| NHS Care Records Service
|
The system provided individual electronic health records for the patients that had linked back to the national records, providing accessibility to the authorized personnel. |
| Choose and Book
|
This service enabled electronic appointments confirmation in the hospitals with appropriate date and time. It has been estimated that the medium used by 97% GPs and 40% specialist to reach out to the patients easily. |
| Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)
|
This system has been providing the issue, dispense and reimbursement of drug prescriptions in a streamlined manner. So far, only 10% of the prescriptions have been recorded that are generated through EPS. |
| N3 | This is an in-process modality of broadband IT networking based on the national grounds. |
| Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS):
|
This is a database that stores the digital record for the patients. It has been storing the images obtained from the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and x-rays. |
| NHS mail
|
It is an email system that has been developed for the NHS staff. This service has been employing about 153,000 active users that are only 125 of the 1.3 million staff of NHS. |
Problem Statement
The report on ‘The National framework for service change in NHS Scotland’ (Team, 2005) has presented that the rural general hospitals of the area suffer from fragility due to the limited number of employees and size of the staff. Thus, the unplanned absence of any member holds a potential of delivering drastic output to the system. To cover the leaves of the study, these settings require the employment of a locum dedicated to this service particularly. Due to the paucity of services in rural regions, it becomes ineffective for the facilities to engage such operations without disturbing the expenses and time. It has been identified in the report that development and implementation of central locum can benefit in such cases thus, saving time and money (Team, 2005). It is commented that with the intervention of IT based infrastructure, these services can further reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of the practices.
Although the extensive integration of IT enabled setups, health care system is still facing deprivations and obstacles in learning effectiveness and efficiency for its employees (NHS, 2013). NHS has been dealing with various managerial issues over the years of its establishment (NHS, 2013). These have included the demographic concerns, behavioral transformation, financial burden and the significant issue of upgrading the system with emerging technology. It is predicted that by 2023, NHS will come across a challenging era in terms of maintaining the financial aspects. It has been asserted that the system must adopt serious measures to deal with the probable situation (NHS, 2013).
Financial pressures have been presented in association with the shortage of skills within the health care system (NHS, 2013). The notion has been reinforced due to the significance of a narrow set of skills that are required in the field. It is necessary to maintain a strong financial setup for the health care staff to deliver effective clinical outcomes. It is believed that financial challenges can lead to the disparity among the staff and may lead to the lack of human resources. Thus, the study has focused on the development of a platform that can assist doctors and nurses with the financial aspects, in an efficient and timely manner. The financial situation has been a topic of debate at NHS centers for a long period and now, the organization has decided to adopt practical measures. The IT enabled system will be provided to regulate and manage the monetary decisions, transactions and transfers that will eventually encourage the doctors and nurses to deliver efficient health outcomes. These setups will primarily include the platforms developed for the locum doctors.
Motivation for the Study
The motivation for this study is the launch of a computerized locum for the employees for managing their administrative tasks and activities. The computerized locum has been presumed to bring about efficient practices within the system and effective outcomes for the health care services. Computerized locum system basically refers to an IT enabled model that assist the permanent staff to easily locate, contact and hire a locum for their position. The system has been introduced and implemented in various setting, particularly the health care facilities. The usefulness and certain setbacks of the IT enabled system has been discussed further in the section of literature review (Sandler, 2015). Researchers have presented with the idea of developing platforms for the management of routine practices. The entity is known to be based on two factors: the industrial economy and engineering designs. The element of the economy in the platforms deals with the efficiency of these mediums to manage transactions between the groups and the impact of networking on the market. While the designing with respect to engineering assist in innovations that ensure the generation of modular outcomes (Gawer, 2014, pp. 1239-1249).
Platforms are basically structures that are built on the architecture concerning the technology. Gawer (2014) has asserted that platforms are a medium that assists in economic management. Rochet & Tirole (2003) have presented the idea that a platform based system requires the involvement of both sides of the market (Rochet & Tirole, 2013, pp. 990-1029). In the case of health care, one of the two parties primarily include the health care staffs are doctors and nurses. This study has identified the development of locator as a platform that can assist the locum doctors and nurses with their administrative tasks.
Main Objective of the Study
The primary aim of this study has been to determine the significance of implementing a locumator in health care system for the aid of clinical staff. This study will collect and evaluate the perception of doctors and nurses regarding the platform intervention that may assist them I managing their administrative activities, like financial transactions. The practice has been presumed to assist in determining the probable successes and failures of the IT enabled model in the clinical settings. The approach can prepare the responsible personnel for understanding the associated factors and identifying them before the occurrence of any major setback.
The objective statements for this research are:
- Identify the usefulness of organizing administrative tasks for doctors.
- Analyse whether locumator be convenient to meet the expectations of the locum doctors.
- Examine the possible drawbacks of using the system.
Research Question
The study has focused on core issues concerning the IT enabled health care system. The concerns have mainly included the employment of information technology and perception of health care staff towards the application. Research questions for the study have been further narrowed down to the concepts that are addressed as the primary issues of the IT model. These questions are:
- Will doctors and nurses perceive the locumator as a helpful modality for managing their administrative tasks?
- What are their expectations with this up gradation in the health care system?
- What are the possible setbacks they may expect from the IT based system?
Nature of the Study
This study has adopted a mixed approach with the aim of conducting an interview based analysis. Investigator has planned to develop a strategically designed questionnaire for recording the perception of doctors and nurses regarding the platform based locumator services. The survey has been designed with direct questions that will allow the respondents to express their views quickly. The themes of the questions have been targeting the notions of perception, expectations and doubts associated with IT enabled health care system. Data has been intended to be collected in an anonymous manner from online surveys. Possible limitations of the study have been identified as the lack of availability of health care staff to vouch for the study.
Significance of the Study
Health care industry is undergoing a revolution according to which it is adopting the computerized applications and practices. Despite the extensive innovations, the integration of IT and medicine still lacks the knowledge for determining the probable challenges and accomplishments of the IT intervention. It is presumed that the findings of this study will serve the health care organizations for preparing the system. Moreover, it has generated and emphasized the need for strategic planning and well-developed infrastructure for the implementation of information technology into the health care system.
Contribution of the Study
Researcher of this study has undertaken the idea of implementing platform based locumator within the health care facilities. It is a well-known fact that doctors and nurses tend to have a hectic work schedule that deprives them of ample time for performing their routine activities. The job nature doesn’t even leave room for them to manage their financial matters and agency bookings. This study has been planned to investigate the approach of doctors and nurses towards a setup that may assist them in performing their administrative tasks. Investigators have determined that a locumator will enable the health care staff to announce their availability and manage their appointments efficiently along with other managerial options. It is believed that this implementation will reduce the burden health care staffs and work as locum system to manage their details, work, history, finances and other such factors. This study has presented the idea to the doctors and assessed their response to the application. It is presumed that this evaluation will help the policy makers and app developers to realize the thinking and perceptions of doctors and nurses on ground levels. This will eventually help them in delivering better quality and assistance to the health care staff as per the satisfaction and comfort.
Summary
The study has been designed to investigate the perception of locum doctors towards the IT based management of their nonclinical tasks. It has been presumed that there is a dire need of developing and introducing an efficient tool, or a locum software, that may assist the locum doctors with their employment, administration and other managements.
Organization of the Dissertation
This dissertation has been divided into six chapters that deal with separate themes….. Read More
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