Blog 2: Doctors Feel Vulnerable, Less Efficient Without Technology

The article explains that medical students from Vanderbilt University are having trouble when going from an HIT (health information technology) rich environment to facilities that are lacking in HIT. According to the study by Vanderbilt 80% of its graduates transitioned to places with less HIT from where they studied, which made them feel that they weren’t able to practice patient care, work efficiently, and communicate with others as well as they would have liked. Forms of HIT include computerized physician order entry, electronic medical records, and lab results reporting systems. Doctors feel at a real disadvantage from going from a high HIT workplace to a low HIT workplace. I think this is a perfect example of how important information technology really is. I do not think that it is right for doctors to work in places that are lacking in health information technology. All facilities should have the same levels of HIT so that no one is at a disadvantage. When dealing with health care everyone should be on the same plane. The article says that the doctors while in medical school are trained in the highest HIT available but when they get out in the real world many of these technologies are non- existent. The article continues to say that many of these medical students want to also have a strong background in the paper methods so they are not at such a disadvantage, I agree that medical school should teach both ways. I feel that all hospitals and medical facilities should implement the highest HIT that is available. Good HIT makes these facilities safer for the patients and doctors and more productive. Many of these HIT tools catch the simple mistakes that doctors frequently make. The HIT help send medical records, tests, and results much more rapidly and efficiently then done by hand. The HIT methods that are out there provide a safety net for doctors that make is much safer to the patient. This does not mean that HIT allows for incompetence but it just corrects the easy mistakes that are made by every doctor. I think that it is extremely important for every branch of the medical world to use HIT to its fullest extent. The main importance about HIT is efficiency if the hospital employees are feeling less efficient then all of the work gets sloppy and that allows for many more mistakes and people getting injured.

 

Sources- http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases.php?release=361