Technology sits at the core of practically all fields of life today, and the healthcare industry is no exception. Technological developments in the healthcare industry have brought a landscape change in how healthcare facilities operate from using state-of-the-art diagnostics machines to improved workflows and enhanced patient care. Technology directly influences how healthcare facilities interact with patients and caregivers.
As the pandemic has driven the digital-first strategy during the last couple of years, the healthcare industry has reaped the benefits of improving operational efficiencies, reducing overhead costs, and, most importantly, improving patient care. The healthcare industry is increasingly moving toward a patient-centric approach, facilitating a more positive hospital experience through technology. This article presents nine ways hospitals and healthcare facilities are leveraging technology to improve patient care.
1. Improved Accuracy in Reporting and Diagnostics
Although hospitals focus on providing the best healthcare service to patients, unintentional medical errors can lead to wrong diagnoses and incorrect treatment. Most human errors occur during manual patient record handling and data entry during test requests. For example, a patient may receive treatment intended for someone else. In such a case, the healthcare facility may face major damage to its reputation and deal with a lawsuit from a patient or a government penalty.
Clerical errors during sample collection, testing, and reporting account for the vast majority of laboratory mistakes and inaccuracies. With a laboratory information system like NovoPath, laboratory staff can streamline lab operations and use digital information to retrieve patient medical history, doctor prescriptions, lab requests, test details, reference ranges, etc. NovoPath LIS can fully integrate with an existing healthcare system, electronic health records, online payment modules, and other information systems. The cloud-based lab systems provide a unified platform for all laboratory disciplines to allow staff to monitor the progress of a single patient test request containing multiple reports. This results in enhanced accuracy and reduced human mistakes. Furthermore, medical alerts, push notifications, medication reminders, clinical indicators, and instant report collection can help healthcare facilities prevent data duplication, medical errors, and false identity, resulting in better patient care.
2. Healthcare Wearables and Remote Patient Monitoring
Healthcare facilities are increasingly using digital patient wearables to improve patient care for both inpatient and remote patient treatments. The most common wearable technologies being used by healthcare facilities include CGM sensors, electronic skin patches, ECG sensors, PPG sensors, hydration and sweat sensors, smart glasses, and smart clothing. Patients can wear these electronic devices that are directly connected to wireless networks and send real-time information to healthcare facilities and concerned doctors.
Doctors can use these devices to monitor a patient’s health remotely and help them manage chronic diseases. Doctors can use this data to examine the efficacy of the medication and make informed decisions for further treatment.
3. TeleMedicine
Telemedicine is the practice of providing patient care remotely when both the physician and patient are not physically present. According to the latest statistics, nearly 22% of US citizens used telemedicine in 2022. Using telemedicine, patients can connect to concerned doctors using mobile phones 24/7, irrespective of their location. Telemedicine has greatly helped healthcare facilities streamline their operations during lockdowns amid the pandemic. People from rural areas can benefit from telemedicine and get access to specialists without traveling long distances.
On the other side, telemedicine provides healthcare providers with the ease of operating from home and reducing commuting costs to the healthcare facility. Healthcare facilities can drop the infection rate significantly during an epidemic by introducing telemedicine hotlines.
4. Virtual Patient Care
Virtual patient care refers to the use of technologies, including telephone calls, video conferencing, text messages, and emails, to arrange a patient’s virtual visit to the concerned physician. Following the pandemic, virtual patient care has become a convenient and safer option for senior citizens and physically or mentally impaired inpatients.
5. Increased Intra-Organization Communication
When physicians collaborate, patient care improves. Technology has enabled doctors to consult with their colleagues worldwide via audio and video conferencing, emails, texts, and cloud-based unified platforms. Integrated information systems allow better data transparency and increased collaboration between various departments within a healthcare facility. Doctors can access patient records using their devices and compare them with medical case studies to make informed decisions regarding patient care and treatment. All medical staff can get real-time accurate patient records.
6. Patient Portals
Patient portals have been increasingly popular among patients and doctors equally. Using patient portals, doctors can interact with patients more efficiently, and patients can get their medical information instantly. Patients use portals to schedule appointments, view reports, check over the diagnosis, and send queries to concerned doctors. Patient portals successfully engage patients, which leads to better results. Patients who are more involved are more likely to get better patient care and be able to address any medical concerns promptly.
7. Access to Medical History and Prescription Notes
Hospitals can significantly enhance patient care by leveraging modern technologies and increased information availability. Doctors, nurses, and paramedic staff utilize handheld devices and smartphones to record or retrieve a patient’s medical history. They can counter-check medication and treatment, analyze test reports, check patients’ vitals, and review prescription notes. Healthcare facilities synchronize their patient record with electronic health records to centrally update patient records simultaneously.
Access to centralized patient records serves numerous benefits to scientists and medical researchers. They can consolidate the data to analyze medical trends, discover possible mutations in viruses, and investigate causes and symptoms of diseases and health conditions to discover or improve treatment.
8. Enhancing Drug Safety
Doctors are responsible for ensuring that their patients receive the right medication and dosage at the right time and counter-check that it doesn’t conflict with other ongoing medications. For increased patient safety and advanced patient care, doctors need to examine drug interaction with patients’ blood type, medical condition, and sensitivity issues. Computerized prescription procedures can increase the safety of medicine prescribing, which, in turn, improves patient care. These information systems also ensure medication compliance and reduce miscommunication between doctors, patients, and pharmacies.
9. Using Big Data Analytics to Predict Medical Trends
Big data analytics has far-reaching benefits for businesses and organizations of all types, but its application in the healthcare industry has helped bring down virus transmission rates of contagious infectious diseases and saved millions of lives. Medical experts and decision-makers can use real-time patient diagnosis data and health information to analyze patterns and predict medical trends.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the internet of medical things (IoMT) combine to help hospital management trace operational inefficiencies and improve the speed and accuracy of medical services. Data can also be utilized to review schedules, assess time spent on specific patient clinical duties and nursing tasks, optimize hospital space, estimate operating costs, and analyze medical supply order statistics.
Final Thoughts
Medical science and the healthcare industry are one of those fields that reap the most benefits of technological developments. To improve patient care, hospitals must employ the latest technology to monitor patient progress and increase patient involvement in diagnosis and treatment.
The above examples of patient care technology show how healthcare facilities can leverage technology to improve patient care, safety, and quality of treatment. As the world progresses in artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and robotics, we expect more groundbreaking technologies in the healthcare industry in the near future.
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