Healthcare technology plays a significant role in healthcare organizations to provide better care and improved medical services to patients. Technology advancements raise the need for telehealth technology to meet the required changes in healthcare services and developments in current technology. To implement the changes or to introduce the new telehealth technology, a need assessment is carried out to evaluate the integration and improvement factors required in the current technology healthcare system (Vukovic et al., 2018).
This summary analyzes the challenges healthcare settings face via old patient information systems, technological gaps, and improvement solutions to address those gaps. Since the last decade, telehealth technology has been the new norm in healthcare organizations to promote patient care and clinical benefits by providing advanced solutions to problems and reducing medical errors (Angelis et al., 2017). For example, Regions Hospital in the United States is upgrading its healthcare information system to manage healthcare and patient data more efficiently. The hospital has adopted an integrated patient portal software within the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. The updated telehealth technology will offer telemedicine, clinical flowchart, and online 2-way communication with patients. This will facilitate nurses, physicians, and patients within one healthcare setting or multiple healthcare organizations to improve health outcomes. The need assessment on the use of telehealth and EMR will provide insight for all stakeholders to improve the hospital’s workflow, patient care, and quality of care.
The use of telehealth technology has revolutionized health delivery services and developed treatment strategies with accurate diagnosis and improved medication techniques. Nurses and physicians play a significant role in enhancing the quality of healthcare services via technology in their daily medical practices. The assessment of these technological healthcare services and medical frameworks is necessary to address the shortcomings and identify the competency of health professionals, especially for remote patients and pandemic emergencies (Wilhite et al., 2021). The needs assessment for the current healthcare system in Regions Hospital is necessary to understand the concerns of diabetes patients and deploy the changes according to the new telehealth portal (Sim & Lee, 2021). The healthcare organization will be able to implement the telehealth technology with the nurses’ perceptions and other stakeholders’ opinions to ensure the safety of patient information (Ayatollahi et al., 2022).
The suggested needs assessment of the technology will help the Regions Hospital authorities to assess the effectiveness of digital tools by conducting patient feedback activities and analyzing the patient experience and satisfaction. User or patient satisfaction allows the authorities to examine the advantages and possible shortcomings of the healthcare system. The use of technology and telehealth in healthcare systems at a large scale can lead to unfamiliar situations and health risks for diabetes patients (Appuswamy & Desimone, 2020). The University of Health Sciences, Medical Informatics, and Technology (UMIT) have developed a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This technology assessment model focuses on the user’s experience and addresses the key points and directions to improve user satisfaction.
Nurses are vital healthcare personnel who ensure patient care with all possible means in the healthcare setting. The primary purpose of deploying improved telehealth technology is to facilitate nurses in providing patients with safe healthcare services and developing treatment strategies. The use of manual patient management tools in the concerned healthcare organization does not meet the challenges of today’s complex medical problems. It is not enough to comply with patient outcomes. The nurses cannot fight the modern-day competencies and coordinate with other healthcare settings while technology-based healthcare systems are in practice. The fusion of smart technology with professional medical practices via integrated patient portals is the solution for nurse practitioners to ensure patient quality care (Dautov et al., 2019).
The best practice approach of incorporating the telehealth system to reduce Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) is described in a research study at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The study shows that the Hospital developed CAUTI Best Practice Alert (BPA) (a reminder alert) in 2013 for EMR. This digital too
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