While American healthcare has not resulted in results comparable to other Western nations, changes are occurring at the cause of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that will ideally result in greater efficiency through the use of evidence based care and the use of health information systems. One example of a success story using this approach is the PSA screening test for prostate cancer. This case study showed that with a prescreening tool the mortality rate did decrease, and it also became more aligned with those of other developed countries. Evidence based practice represents an approach that could, along with the right health information infrastructure, result in a greater efficiency, lower costs and better outcomes for patients in the United States.
Health information systems are needed in order to implement a system for prescreening which can be scaled up and continuously improved. This could operate in much the same way a decision support tool uses data against preset flags and data ranges. With the use of electronic health record (EHR) information this prescreening could be automated to run whenever there is a change to information in the medical record. Such a solution could be implemented for not just one, but many prescreening tools, such as those for hypertension, breast cancer or even pregnancy. The trick would be a technological bridge between the medical information and the prescreening tools, one that would provide the structure for the implementation of prescreening tools which could access EHR information.
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Health information management skills in health care professionals are important, but capacity and mastery vary. This system would take care of the prescreening task and simply provide the healthcare provider with the most important results. This would allow health professionals to be appropriately supported while ensuring they can focus on the patient, rather than prescreening tools.
If I were able to implement this solution, my leadership would be in the form of marketing the concept to the decision makers in leadership, coordinating a project plan for a pilot development project and the raising awareness of the potential for a common system. The last duty could be met by presenting the need, at health information and related conferences, of the importance of creating a common means of having such a system read EHR information, which can be structured differently depending on the system used.
This topic is important to health information systems quality because it could result in well-being that saves time, effort, cost and the health of the patient. It provides much needed support, on an automated level, to implement prevention on a massive scale. The main feature of the software support would be the ability to process EHR information and assess that data against the prescreening criteria to make the same determinations that might be made on a paper tool. Unlike an automated version of the paper tool it would not require time or effort to process, and it could not be forgotten or skipped if pressed for time at an appointment. This is important because research has shown that existing prescreening tools are often not used by doctors and nurses, either because they are not familiar with them or they feel that they do not have the time (Rose et al., 2015).
This will have an impact on patient care by providing the warnings that could result in preventing disease and illness across a spectrum of issues that have plagued Americans, including diabetes, cancer and others. It is important that the system can be easily updated to accommodate the latest research findings, new screening tools and even genetic information. This will impact management, staff and the organization by streamlining the efforts required from them in order to implement important prescreening tools that can save lives and improve well-being for patients.
