The Dual Nature of Informatics

Informatics can be used for improving health outcomes not only for individual patients, but also for whole groups of patients with similar conditions. This is often referred to as the dual nature of informatics. Technologies, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and clinical decision support (CDS) systems, can provide insights and guidance for health care professionals at the point of care. In addition, data warehousing and mining allow health care organizations to use the vast amount of information stored in EHRs to make predictions and diagnoses for other patients with similar conditions.

In this Discussion, you examine the dual nature of informatics. First, you review a scenario and consider the patient information to be collected and recorded at the point of care. Then, you decide how this information could be aggregated for population health and future use.

Consider the following scenario:

Mrs. Jones has come into your office stating that she has been experiencing frequent dizzy spells. She also reports that she has been unable to eat anything substantial over the last few days due to extreme nausea. The last time Mrs. Jones was in your office, the physician had suggested she start walking around the block or bicycling around the neighborhood to get her activity level up. Mrs. Jones admits that she did very little of that after a “ flip-flop” feeling of her heart scared her. You know that her symptoms could be a result of many conditions. Following the prompts on your informatics system, you begin to gather more specific information about Mrs. Jones’ symptoms and health history.

To prepare:

• Based on the scenario, what information would you want to immediately gather about Mrs. Jones?  
• With that in mind, compile a list of patient questions you would like an EHR documentation screen to have.
• How might the information derived from these questions help you provide high-quality care to Mrs. Jones?
• Once this information is collected, what alerts might be critical to the evaluation of Mrs. Jones?
• Review this week’s media presentation, Dual Nature of Informatics Systems, and reflect on the movement towards more transparent data and meaningful use. How might the data entered about an individual patient help to build preventative care and treatment for whole populations?
• Refer back to your list of patient questions. Of these questions, which would generate data that could be aggregated for use with a larger group of patients? (Note: When developing your questions, consider the whole patient.)

Post on Tuesday 06/06/2016 a minimum of 550 words in APA format with 4 references

1) A description of the ideal EHR documentation screen that you would like to have at the point of care for all patients and why.

2) Explain how information gathered at the point of care with an individual patient can be aggregated to help provide high quality care to a larger population of patients.

Readings

• Saba, V. K., & McCormick, K. A. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

  • Chapter 1, “Historical Perspectives of Nursing Informatics”

    In this chapter, the authors explain the transition from paper-based records to electronic records. The chapter provides an overview of the historical events that contributed to the rise of electronic health records.

• Liaw, S.-T., & Boyle, D. I. R. (2010). Primary care informatics and integrated care. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 151, 255–268.
  Retrieved from the Walden University databases.

  This article discusses how the health care field can be reformed by increasing access to information across organizations and professionals. The authors of the article justify the need for this reform and provide guidance on how it can be achieved.

• Mitchell, J. K. (2011). Nursing informatics 101: Using technology to improve patient care. ONS Connect, 26(4), 8–12.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  The emergence of nursing informatics in health care is the main topic of this article. New trends in informatics are discussed, as well as the certification process, nurse education, and the implementation of new systems to support patient care.

• Morath, J. (2011). Nurses create a culture of patient safety: It takes more than projects. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16(3).
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  The author of this article emphasizes the need for nurses to develop skills for improving care and embracing new health care innovations. The author also describes the connection between individual nursing practice and the system-wide success of informatics.

• Reiner, B. I. (2011). Improving healthcare delivery through patient informatics and quality centric data. Journal of Digital Imaging, 24(2), 177–178.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  In this article, the author analyzes the impact of the movement towards digitized medical data on patient care. The author discusses how this movement places more responsibility and empowerment on the patient.

  Media

• Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012b). Dual nature of informatics systems. Baltimore: Author. 

  Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 7 minutes.

  In this week’s media presentation, Gail Latimer, Dr. Patricia Button, and Dr. Roy Simpson discuss one of the most important aspects of informatics: the collection and aggregation of health information. The electronic health record (EHR) is discussed, as well as the nurse’s roles in working with EHR systems.