Impact Of Information Technology On Healthcare Sector
Information Technology (IT)
Discuss about the IT in Healthcare Sector.
Information technology has invaded the regular life and has become an unstoppable force in business (Borghoff and Pareschi 2013). In this report, the impact of IT on businesses had been analyzed in detail. The analysis has been done in six segments, the first segment introduces Information Technology (IT) and discusses the concepts. The second segment deliberates the requirements for installation of IT. The third segment discusses the how the technology can be used for businesses and the subsequent section presents the advantages of the installation. The fourth section analyses the importance of IT for better services to the patient. In the subsequent section deliberate risk analyses have been done regarding the implementation of IT in business and finally, in the last segment, recommendations for improvement have been presented that will help in the development of a safe and secure system for business implementation. For the case study, implementations of cloud services for record availability in Royal Australian Air Force Association have been discussed.
IT, in Oxford dictionary, has been defined as the usage and study of the system, especially computers and telecommunication equipment, for sharing, storage, and retrieving information. Hence IT is the usage of the computer peripherals such as the storage devices, processor, networking capabilities and the other infrastructures creation, processing, storing and exchange of data among the peers for various purposes. IT is typically used in the context of enterprise operation and for advancement in entertainment technologies and consists of two parts, computer for fast processing and networking for information sharing (Schwalbe 2015).
The success of an organization depends on two major factors, vision and analysis (Cosgrove and Rijsberman 2014). The vision gives the required goal that drives the system, and the analysis shows the present status and the resources that can be used to reach the goal and prolonged stay. IT system automated the analysis part. Research have shown that proper implementation of technology has helped the system to reach the pinnacle of glory and IT is that valued resource. With enhanced connectivity, automatic data compilation, real time data monitoring, etc. IT reduces the previously monotonous, month’s long processes into a process that can be monitored real-time (Thompson et al. 2013). Thus with increased speed and accuracy, IT is not an option for the Health Industry but a necessity for survival in this competitive market and providing better services.
Need of IT for Business
In this era of cut-throat competition, the price, time and the quality of services are important for better services to the patients. A computer is far more superior to a human being in the field of computation and repetitive work. Hence more and more can be seen in the hospital premise that helps in real-time monitoring of the health parameters that help the doctors to have a better view into the patient’s system. With the advanced sensor and the IT tools, all the health parameters are visible on the screen. Thus a computer reduces the time of operation, reduces the errors and is cheaper (Schwalbe 2015). With the advent of better connectivity services like mobile technologies, 3G, internet broadband, telemedicine has become a reality and has already contributed a lot. With these technologies remotest part too can have expert advice regarding the critical situation.
The heart of the IT services is the computer and the processors, which are capable of computing data faster than human and it’s networking capabilities which help in sharing of information which can be, accessed anywhere. For the implementation of IT in health care and to enhance its usability, four major aspects should be borne in mind, they are:
Planning: Any project that has to be started should be planned well to understand the requirements. Understanding the present scenario should be the preliminary goal, which will help in the subsequent phases. In this case, the interconnectivity of the devices was a major concern. Hence the cloud services were used for interconnectivity of the devices that are being used at various facilities (Scholten and Stillwell 2013).
Cost: The cost of the system plays a pivotal role in a project. Once the system requirement is understood, design has been made, and the equipment has been identified, the cost is analyzed for implementation and installation and is presented to the client for final approval.
Installation: After all the estimations, the equipment were finally purchased, and the required product is installed accordingly. In this case study, the cloud services were installed at the facilities by ‘iCareHealth.’ After the installation, the project was checked for a time to check whether the installed services ran smoothly.
Training: Every system needs a dedicated workforce for its maintenance and upkeep. Hence after the installation of all the components of the system, the user of the system should be trained to use and maintain the system. The simple interface developed by the company has made learning easy and fun.
IT for Business Survival
In this case study, cloud services were installed at the site. RAAFA (Royal Australian Air Force Association) has five facilities distributed around the country and the management and coordination among the peers has been difficult with phone calls. The patient information was hard to obtain and hence the services were not smooth.
With the implementation of the present system, various aspects of the services have been smoothened and bettered. First of all the cloud services were implemented to assure the availability of data at every point. The cloud can be seen as a universal computer which can be accessed on demand, and the data can be retrieved anytime, which means the local failure won’t affect the services of the cloud.
As the services are available on the cloud, all the relevant details can be seen from the system, and any update can be checked in real time. Thus saving a lot of time and mistakes that had been common with the manual system, which has not only helped the staffs of the organization but also has increased the trust of the consumers as the aged and the sick are more sensitive to the quality of the services, thus increasing the trust over the organization.
The advantage of the system could be summarized into following sections:
Productivity: According to the CIO (Chief Information Officer), the services that are installed in the premise offer transparency and has increased the productivity of organization considerably. Since the staffs are connected real time to the system, the information can be accessed anytime and anywhere thus reducing the time in interaction. Apart from the saved time, the process has become more visible, and the errors in the system have reduced considerably (Drnevich and Croson 2013).
Business process transformation: In the case study, the workforces of the organization are connected to the central cloud system via the internet that enables access to the patient data. This has increased productivity, transparency, recruitment and finally the ease of the usage of software has made the staff act effectively.
Business Scope transformation: The induction has created a revolution as the staffs are coming up with better ideas to use the system more productively. The organization is now exploring the various aspects to further improve the efficiency of the present system (Osterle 2013).
There are various security threats to an organization that has installed the IT services. The threats are due to both the internet connections that help in sharing the data with other computers and the hardware and the software that are used to compile the data. The threats can be classified in to two segments which are deliberate and accidental.
Requirements for IT Installation in a Business
Deliberated threats are those contingencies where the security of the system is compromised due to actions that are aimed at the organization (Theoharidou et al. 2013). Among the deliberated threats, information leakage, damage/theft, malware, web-attacks are the highest. The various risks to data are:
Privacy: Privacy is roughly equivalent to confidentiality. The computers that have been installed contain all the relevant details about the patient. The data in wrong hand may cause a disaster like identity theft; hence a system security is so designed to prevent authorized such access.
Security: The attacks and the malware can severely cripple the system thus creating havoc. So, it can be noticed that privacy and security are the two faces of the same coin. Hence a high security is a necessity to ensure the better privacy of such sensitive system.
Accidental threats are that risk that compromises the security of the system either due to the negligence of the system operators or because of errors committed by the employees of the organization (Heckmann 2016). Above mentioned factors creates a loophole that can be exploited to create damage to the organization. For reducing such threats training of staffs are important.
The system has been successfully implemented and has created a strong impression on the managers, who are lamenting the delay of implementing the system in their organization. For avoiding any mishap that might affect the working the following recommendations should be incorporated:
- The present system uses don’t discuss the security features of the installed system. It should be understood that no device is totally secure in this era of connectivity. Hence a capable security system should be included in the system.
- The system connects to the central server through the internet; the application developer should work together with the CIO to incorporate the new ideas presented by the staff.
- Finally, it should be understood that internet connectivity is extremely risky; hence any automation of the site devices should be totally avoided to ensure the security of the patients.
Reference
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