Purpose
This week’s graded discussion topic relates to the following Course Outcomes (COs).
- CO4 Investigate safeguards and decision-making support tools embedded in patient care technologies and information systems to support a safe practice environment for both patients and healthcare workers. (PO 4)
- CO5 Identify patient care technologies, information systems, and communication devices that support safe nursing practice. (PO 5)
Directions
- Discussions are designed to promote dialogue between faculty and students, and students and their peers. In discussions students:
- Demonstrate understanding of concepts for the week
- Integrate scholarly resources
- Engage in meaningful dialogue with classmates
- Express opinions clearly and logically, in a professional manner
- Use the rubric on this page as you compose your answers.
Case Study: A 65-year-old woman was just been diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She was informed of this diagnosis in her primary care physician’s office. She leaves her physician’s office and goes home to review all of her tests and lab results with her family. She goes home and logs into her PHR. She is only able to pull up a portion of her test results. She calls her physician’s office with this concern. The office staff discussed that she had part of her lab work completed at a lab not connected to the organization, part was completed at the emergency room, and part was completed in the lab that is part of the doctor’s office organization.
The above scenario might be a scenario that you have commonly worked with in clinical practice. For many reasons, patients often receive healthcare from multiple organizations that might have different systems.
As you review this scenario, reflect and answer these questions for this discussion.
- What are the pros and cons of the situation in the case study?
- What safeguards are included in patient portals and PHRs to help patients and healthcare professionals ensure safety?
- Do you agree or disagree with the way that a patient obtains Personal Health Records (PHRs)?
- What are challenges for patients that do not have access to all of the PHRs? Remember, only portions of the EHRs are typically included in the PHRs.
ANSWER:
What are the pros and cons of the situation in the case study?
The pros of the situation would be that the patient is being an active team member in their own healthcare. It would help them to keep a record of visits, imaging, medications, labs and anything else that they needed to see for their visits. The patients tend to feel more in control trust the healthcare team when they are involved. In the past the patients had no access and everything seemed to be a secret. This tends to cause more anxiety, and the fear of the unknown. The cons would be, as in the scenario, that the patient may not have………..
What safeguards are included in patient portals and PHRs to help patients and healthcare professionals ensure safety?
The risk of a breach in privacy…..To continue reading, click on the button below.