Healthcare policies affect the way organizations implement their programs to improve the quality and efficiency of care. With the developing technology that can be applied to nursing and health care practice, providers should understand the policies or legislation that affect their decisions to acquire, implement, and use information systems. They should also ensure complete compliance to prevent any violation of legal provisions in their interaction with patients. Although many healthcare legislation and policies affect the role of information experts, HITECH Act is the most applicable to such programs.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 is one of the policies that affect caregivers’ role in implementing and using information systems to support care delivery. The legislation offers the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the power to create programs for health improvement in terms of quality, efficiency, and safety (Adler-Milstein & Jha, 2017). The policy achieves the objective through the support of health information technology implementation, and application in health care facilities. It facilitates the utilization of electronic health records and information sharing in organizations to achieve positive care outcomes.
HITECH Act plays a critical role in information systems implementation in healthcare organizations. The organization has decided to implement an information system to ensure the efficient flow of medication information throughout the facility to prevent medical errors. Therefore, the policy will affect the system by, among other things, ensuring that the acquired system meets the government-mandated standards for such a system (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). Implementers must ensure compliance with the law in the selection of the most suitable system. The law will also influence the integration of the new system into the organization.
HITECH Act will affect the way health care providers deliver their services to patients. The specific area that will be affected by the implementation of the system and compliance with the law is the sharing of medical information to prevent errors (Lin, Lin, & Chen, 2019). Therefore, it will influence the way care providers use a patient’s data from the point of entry to the time the client receives medications and leaves the hospital. It will improve workflow by ensuring integration of services offered by various providers within the healthcare organizations, from nurses to doctors and to pharmacists.
The organization has policies and procedures that affect the implementation and integration of information systems. For example, the facility adopts a policy that requires compliance with the legal and ethical guidelines when acquiring and utilizing a new information system to promote and achieve positive care outcomes. The policy will be useful in the selection and implementation of the system to improve medication administration through information sharing (Mennemeyer, Menachemi, Rahurkar, & Ford, 2016). Generally, compliance with the policy will also prevent violations of the law and ethical standards in the implantation and use of information systems.
Overall, information systems are a critical part of health care service provision in organizations. Therefore, their implementation should comply with the law to prevent possible legal issues facing the facility. HITECH Act is one of the legislations that affect the choice and use of information systems because of the need to meet government quality standards. Information managers in health care settings should work with their vendors to ensure compliance with the legal requirements under the HITECH Act when implementing a new information system.
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