The healthcare industry is undergoing a revolution in value-based care, a shift from the traditional pay-for-service model. In the quest to provide the best care possible, experts in the industry have leveraged technology and several care models.
Amid this change, however, one thing stands out: patient data. IT solutions that use critical data points, such as patient data, enable clinicians to have real-time access to patient information, and when this is combined with the total patient care model, the results can be significant.
Total patient care
Total patient care is a nursing model where one nurse provides total care to a single patient or a group of patients during his/her shift. During that shift, all the patient needs are addressed by the nurse, and in some cases, the nurse issues care until the end of the patient’s medical needs. The nurse will have all the patient data on hand.
Since they are dealing with a single or a handful of patients at a time, they can respond promptly as needed. Patients also tend to respond more favorably to this type of care, mostly due to the level of trust developed throughout their interactions.
Leveraging patient data
Patient care technology is helping clinicians improve efficiency, quality, and safety of services with lower costs for patients and clinics. If you are a healthcare facility looking for ways to improve efficiency with the help of IT support services, using patient data with your total patient care nursing model is a move that not only yields financial benefits but also results in improved patient outcomes.
With advances in healthcare technologies, complexities are unavoidable, and what nurses could previously accomplish with the help of their senses (sight, smell, and touch, etc.) is being done with the help of IT solutions designed to detect physical changes in the patients. While it may seem a bit complex, the major upside is the ability to quickly detect subtle changes in a patient’s physical stats so that nurses can respond promptly.
Also, as previously noted, total patient care yields more favorable patient outcomes, as care is issued by someone who has been handling the patient through the entire medical needs period. All background information is well known to the nurse, and they have first-hand knowledge of what works and what does not, including medical allergies and drug intolerances.
There is, however, a downside to this care model. Since the nurse must interact with groups of patients, the patient load may be too high for a single nurse. If you run a small clinic and are looking to use the total patient care model, this would mean hiring a large team of nurses to be able to address each patient’s needs. Of course, this comes at a huge cost, and the financial constraints may bar you from embracing the model despite its advantages.
The solution
The application of IT support services that use patient data and make it easily available can help ease the patient load without having to hire a large team of nurses. If you have already adopted electronic health records, chances are that you have all your patient data at one central point.
Even if you do not have large IT infrastructure, small business IT support services, such as cloud IT services, enable you to store patient data and other records on the cloud, which saves on costs. Furthermore, trends in healthcare, such as electronic health records (EHR) optimization, want more interactive interfaces to improve care delivery and lowers burnout.
IT solutions, such as big data, is another concept that is changing the face of medicine and helping clinicians achieve value-based care. A large amount of data, including patient data and all related healthcare data, makes it difficult to extract meaningful information on time. However, new IT solutions are helping quickly process the data to enable clinicians to make prompt and informed decisions. For a total patient care model, making timely decisions based on patient data can help save a life without the nurse having to spend too much time on a single patient.
Challenges
As with all technologies involving large amounts of data. Patient data poses a serious threat stemming from cybersecurity risks, such as data breaches and hacking.
Moreover, cybercriminals are always changing the ways they steal and use patient data for own gain, necessitating the use of advanced safety measures to secure your data.
Besides, regulations requiring all healthcare providers to be HIPAA compliant underline the need to cyber secure your medical practice. Data breaches can be costly, and as long as you have unprotected client data in your hands, hackers and other cybercriminals are always on the lookout for ways to access it.
Protecting patient data is, therefore, a crucial part of running your facility. Even without an in-house IT team, small business IT support services can still do the job at a fraction of the cost. After all, the benefits of using patient data to enhance total patient care outweigh the costs, making this a wise investment.
For more information
Take your facility to the next level by using patient data alongside your total patient care model. Contact Scale Technology at (501) 213-3814 to speak with an IT professional.
