With the advancement of technology, there is a need to incorporate the current trends and improve on the existing ones in healthcare facilities. Patients need the best treatment, and the caregivers focus on delivering top-notch services. This can only be achieved if the systems in the healthcare facilities are compatible to deliver the required results. Integrating current technology trends in healthcare is essential to ensure efficient facility operations. The Healing Hands Hospital already has an existing Electronic Health Record (EHR). However, if the management plans to increase the number of outpatients, adopt telemedicine, or expand its health system, it will require an integration of a current technology trend. Adopting a Decision Support System (DSS) at Healing Hands Hospital is paramount since it will help it manage the increased population of patients effectively and promote other trends, such as telemedicine.
The pros of DSS are numerous; for instance, it can enhance service delivery since it helps in decision-making. A DSS is a computerized program used to determine results once the data is given (Sarkar & Samal, 2020). Caregivers apply the clinical DSS in diagnosing patients’ illnesses based on clinical knowledge and patient information (Sutton et al., 2020). Therefore, its integration with EHR will improve the output of the nurses since, based on the patient’s records and their symptoms, the nurse can get the diagnosis directly from the DSS with little intervention.
Additionally, DSS improves the patients’ safety since it reduces errors made during diagnosis. Sutton et al. (2020) argue that up to 65% of inpatients are exposed to harmful medicine combinations. Such is very alarming, especially if a facility is to accommodate many patients. In the case of Healing Hands Hospital, which is planning to increase the number of outpatients, it is crucial to have a well-developed DSS to ensure it serves them efficiently. Under another score, efficient clinical management can be achieved by adopting DSS since it increases adherence to clinical guidelines. Moreover, it can reduce diagnostic costs since there are no duplicate tests. DSS is also likely to save time for Healing Hands Hospital and enable it to handle many patients without the nurses being exhausted.
The cons of clinical DSS include that it can disrupt the workflow of the caregivers. This effect may impact them significantly since they are required to use increased cognitive effort. Such happens if the DSS is not designed considering how humans process information and behave (Sarkar & Samal, 2020).
Therefore, clinicians may spend more time diverging from the system to their knowledge, causing delays. Thus, adopting the system at Healing Hands Hospital may drag service delivery as anticipated. Another pitfall of adopting DSS is that there could be insufficient data and incorrect information since the DSS may not be updated with the inventory regularly (Sutton et al., 2020). This aspect may result in problems in the medication sector, especially for telemedicine, where patients may not have contact with their caregivers. To resolve this, the facility may be required to enquire manually if the patients have undergone tests or taken medication. Such will be tedious if the facility wishes to serve many patients.
In conclusion, integrating a DSS with the existing HER will help Healing Hands Hospital effectively serve the large prospective number of outpatients. Such is possible since it will help in fast and accurate diagnosis. In addition, it will enhance patients’ safety since there is likely to be reduced wrong medicine combinations. However, if the DSS is not designed to accommodate human information processing and behavior, it may disrupt clinicians’ workflow, making them spend more time on diagnosis. Moreover, irregular inventory updates in DSS may lead to confusion and slow management since the caregivers may be forced to make follow-ups with patients manually.
References
Sarkar, U., & Samal, L. (2020). How effective are clinical decision support systems?. Bmj, 370. Web.
Sutton, R. T., Pincock, D., Baumgart, D. C., Sadowski, D. C., Fedorak, R. N., & Kroeker, K. I. (2020). An overview of clinical decision support systems: benefits, risks, and strategies for success. NPJ Digital Medicine, 3(1), 1-10. Web.