Computers help medics in acquiring, managing, analyzing, and dissemination of healthcare information and knowledge. Adoption of proper and effective technology facilitates meaningful advances in patient safety as well as health care quality. Below are 5 common mistakes, and the precautions you can take to avoid them.

Lack of proper training

It is imperative that nurses, physicians and other staff should be trained on the proper use of electronic health record and other emerging technologies. Some medics face daunting experiences while transiting from a paper-based environment to an electronic-reliant system. Nevertheless, with proper training medical staff can learn on how to use even the most complicated systems.

Training is essential in the implementation of electronic health record; it plays an incredible role in avoiding setbacks, errors, employees’ turnover, as well as in enhancing a smooth transition from paper to electronic system.

Poorly designed software

It is vital that your organization conduct a thorough research on various software prior to settling on a particular one. Poorly designed software, among many other problems, has a high likelihood of obscuring clinical data and generating incorrect treatment orders. It’s imperative to make sure your software is easy to use, and comes without glitches.

Irregular updates

You need to update all tasks no matter how large or small they may be. With the robust growth in the research, the treatment and management strategies keep on changing. And to keep abreast with the changing protocols in management, the medical coding system is constantly getting refined with being more specific. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to keep your software updated with the latest codes for diagnosis, prescription, treatment, wellness visit, or a simple procedure.

Ineffective communication of safety flaws and incidents

You should ensure prompt and effective communication of any safety flaws and incidents that may arise from your computers or technologies that your organization uses. E-mail list-serves, one of the informal notification system, is a victim of such flaws. Healthcare providers are now acknowledging the setbacks in the system and informing the relevant authorities.

Some of these flaws tend to be related to the vendor’s software creation; therefore, you should instantly notify your vendor upon identification of a flaw in the software. Vendors, in turn, should recommend appropriate software upgrades or configuration changes as soon as they are notified of the identified flaws.

Inadequate time to evaluate a new technology prior to its adoption

Healthcare organizations should set enough time to evaluate a particular technology prior to embracing and adopting its use. This plays a significant role in improving implementing, fostering communication, as well as reducing non-value added work. Hasty-thought process holds a high likelihood of forcing your organization into huge investment in complicated technologies. Such technologies often lead to the creation of more waste in a system already fraught with inefficiency.

Conclusion

Health care organizations rely on computer and other technologies in their quest to deliver services that are of high quality. Undeniably, proper utilization of such technologies requires proper training of staffs, properly designed software, and effective communication of safety flaws among others.