Can Information System Make Your Doctor Better?

Q1. What problems are hospitals and physicians encountering in diagnosing diseases and prescription medications? What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for these problems?
Ans: Physicians encounter problems of misdiagnosing and wrong medications to their patients in hospitals, nursing homes and doctor’s office. As reported by the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine that, each year more than 1.5 million Americans are injured by drug errors and estimation of more than 7,000 Americans die because of inappropriate prescriptions. Erroneous charges are incurred to patients for faulty medication bills amounting about $3.5 billion annually.
Human factor is the key responsible for these problems because of their handwriting, memory lapses, fatigue and distractions. The proliferation of medications also raises confusions and complexity for doctors in proper prescriptions.

Q3. What obstacles prevent computer systems from improving the medical industry? How can these obstacles be removed?
Ans: Computer systems like CPOE and DDS have proven to be very effective at hospitals; enhancing activities by saving time and people lives. The obstacles that prevent computer systems from improving the medical industry are:
1) The resistance from doctors to change the traditional way of treatment, due to the complexity of the system.
2) Simple glitches in the system increase the likelihood of ordering wrong medications by scattering patient data and drug ordering forms. The program needs to be well designed.
3) Lack of gearing these systems towards the nurse, who actually has the greater impact.
4) Rigidity of such a system over the traditional paperwork also obstruct from improving the medical industry.

The obstacles can be overcome if: effective communication among the medical staff is achieved. They also need to learn more about the system and trust it. Finally, the system must be designed to have thorough pertinent information regarding each patient.