Disadvantages of using computers in hospitals

Medical computers have numerous features that promote a cleaner environment

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Why is Technology Important in Healthcare
Advantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare:
Disadvantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Medical Technology PDF:

By Shira Sagal / Special to Healthcare Facilities Today
April 21, 2015

Healthcare facilities such as hospitals and clinics are increasingly reliant on technology. Technology in hospitals ranges from improved use of laparoscopic, minimally invasive procedures by surgeons to the use of mobile tracking and monitoring health devices by patients.

Medical computers are another area of technology that is becoming more commonplace in hospitals. You may already know some of their benefits, such as their ability to store, access and share patient data. Medical computers are specially designed for healthcare settings, making them more convenient for healthcare providers to use.

However, how do medical computers affect the most important part of healthcare? That is, how do they affect patients? Medical computers can have a positive impact on patients for many reasons, including the following:

Patient wait time is reduced

One of the complaints patients are likely to give when describing the healthcare system is the amount of time they spend waiting. When they have an appointment for an exam or routine procedure, they can spend minutes or hours in the waiting room waiting for a nurse to check them in, or in the exam room waiting for the doctor to appear. With medical computers, these delays can be shorter due to quicker data entry and more efficient procedures.

Another way medical computers can reduce patient wait time is because of the increased accessibility of doctors, particularly specialists. Rather than wait months for a specialist to be available for an in-person appointment, primary care doctors may be able to hop on a conference call with a specialist, with or without the patient present, in a matter of days or even hours.

Patients suffer from fewer mistakes

When the medical team makes errors, patients suffer. Paper patient records are a recipe for disaster, while the use of medical computers can help prevent costly and dangerous mistakes. First, maintaining electronic health records allows all patient data to be stored, so medical history is not lost and information from different providers is visible in a single record.

Second, medical computers can run programs that check patient data against doctor’s prescriptions and care plans. Accessing and analyzing all of the patient’s information by shuffling through stacks of paper records would be nearly impossible, but medical computers quickly check for errors, such as potential drug interactions or inconsistent treatment.

In one example, the use of a particular knowledge based hospital information system known as “HELP” led to detection of 60 times as many potential dangerous medicine interactions as in a similar hospital that did not use the system. Over 18 months, this affected 648 patients and prevented over 600 moderate to severe interactions.

Patients can be at lower risk for hospital-acquired infections.

A sanitary environment in hospitals and clinics is absolutely essential for lowering the risk of infections — and medical computers have numerous features that promote proper hygiene:

• Fully sealed enclosures to allow for cleansing with sanitizers.

• Fanless enclosures to prevent buildup of dust and a place for pathogens to grow.

• Anti-bacterial coating on monitors and keyboards so doctors or patients who touch them do not spread germs.

Patients have a better healthcare experience

Overall, medical computers can promote a better healthcare experience. Touchscreens let doctors easily enter data and read information without taking much attention away from patients. They can be small and portable, so they do not dominate an exam room. Plus, having the information at hand without repeatedly needing to enter it gives patients confidence in their providers.

Patients may be able to pay lower costs

Medical computers can help hospitals and, in turn, patients, lower costs. Going paperless saves money on paper, printing and postage. In addition, medical computers can support increased efficiency. They can help prevent doctors from ordering unnecessary tests, as evidenced in one study which found use of medical computers during outpatient visits to be associated with 14 percent fewer tests ordered per patient.

Patients may receive better care

Time is of the essence for many medical conditions, and medical computers can speed the process of initiating treatment. Lab tests can be released more quickly so doctors can make quick decisions about ordering further tests and determining the best course of treatment. That’s because medical computers can be set up on a network to be able to access all necessary information, while still complying with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy laws.

In addition, medical computers with Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) viewers enable doctors to view and interpret radiological images more quickly. Rather than waiting for a specific computer to be available to see and handle the images, they can view and edit them from any device on the network, thus letting diagnosis and treatment proceed more quickly.

Furthermore, patients can be more involved in their own healthcare because of email communications through healthcare systems that take advantage of medical computers. Finally, medical computers can provide access to large databases that allow physicians to predict trends in disease and provide preventive care or prepare for care.

Shira Sagal is the content manager for Teguar Computers.

Sources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/6-ways-technology-is-improving-healthcare-2010-12#

http://www.unc.edu/~kmonsalv/comp101/project1/

Advantages of using computers in health care:

-Using computerised system to look inside your body to see if you need an operation or have broken bones.
-Keeping electronic health records
-Increases storage compacity

The disadvanteges-

-Computer leaks: all information gone.
-Destruction of your eye sight due to radiation.
-Computerised electronic systems can give you wrinkles and pimples.

In this article, I will let you know about the Advantages and Disadvantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare.

After reading this article you will know about the importance and advantages of medical technology and also the disadvantages of medical technology.

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That is how technology works in the medical field, and its impacts on the students, patients, and also doctors.

Before going toward the advantages and disadvantages, I want to discuss a little bit about the importance of medical technology.

Why is Technology Important in Healthcare

As technology plays a very important role in every field of the world. New technological devices are invented in every field for helping people and making work easier for them.

Also, technology plays a very important role in the medical field and Healthcare. There are a lot of technological devices and equipment invented for the health care of people.

The medical devices include an insulin pump, digital thermometer, blood glucose meter, pulse oximeters, wireless brain sensors, smart inhalers, etc. These devices are made for improving the health care of patients.

Medical technology includes all the technological devices or equipment that are used to save human life.

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In the medical industry, there are more than 500,000 technological devices and equipment available used in hospitals and other healthcare departments.

Before the invention of medical technology, doctors only can predict disease. That is the disease or problem the patients suffering from.

Actually, that’s very difficult for doctors to find out the exact problems or diseases people suffer from.

But after the developments and inventions of medical technologies that become very easy for them to find out the problem or disease and give proper treatment to the patients for that.

So, technology plays a very important role in the field of medicine or healthcare. Technology has a lot of benefits in the medical industry but also has disadvantages.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare

I want to discuss some of the advantages and also the disadvantages of medical technology. How modern technology has good and bad effects on our lives.

The advantages of medical technology are given below.

Advantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare:

First, I would like to explain the advantages of medical technology one by one.

1. Electronic Health Records of Patients in Hospitals:

Electronic Health Records of Patients in Hospitals

The patient’s health records are now stored in computers. Mostly In hospitals or also with specialists the complete health records of patients are stored on a computer.

The patient’s health records are stored in the database or on the cloud servers.

keeping records in the computerized system is faster than the paper works. It takes less time instead of paper records.

2. Communication Systems in Healthcare Hospitals:

There is a lot of devices made for patients contacting doctors or nurse. These kinds of digital devices are made for patients who are placed in the patient’s rooms or wards in hospitals.

In case of an emergency, the patients can click the button on these devices. It informs the doctors or nurses on time to come for the patient.

This is one of the main advantages of technology for patients and doctors. With this kind of device, without wasting time the doctor can reach the patients and save their lives.

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3. Technology Improving Healthcare in Hospitals:

There are a lot of technological devices and equipment which improved the healthcare or treatment of patients.

The portable defibrillator, drug management technology, MR system, and electronic IV monitors are the new technological devices that improved the healthcare of patients.

4. Reduction in Medical Errors:

Before the advancement in medical technology, it was very difficult to know the exact disease and condition of the patient.

But after the advancements in medical technology, the errors in medical reports and treatments reduce.

5. Wearable Technology:

Modern technology introduced wearable medical technology tools into the market.

Those devices are a kind of electronic sensible devices which people can wear and know/her body condition.

Smartwatches, blood pressure machines, and many more medical gadgets can be and it shows the current state of the body of the patients.

Those devices have different kinds of sensors that can detect the condition of the body and show the data on the screen to the patients.

So, the patients can easily make the diagnosis and prevent their health from danger.

Disadvantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare:

The disadvantages of medical technology for people are given below:

1. Automatic Machine Treatment:

There is a kind of machine which is fixed in the patient’s body. It analyzes the patient’s body and inserts the medicines into patients’ bodies according to their body conditions.

These machines are made by programming in their programming if there come some errors and bugs.

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Then it is very harmful to the patients because it can insert the wrong diagnosis into the patient’s body.

which causes the critical condition and death of the patient.

2. Show the Wrong Result of the Patients Condition:

One of the cons of medical technology is sometimes the machinery or technological devices show the wrong result. Sometimes it didn’t show the accurate result of the patients to the doctor.

The technological machines are made by engineers and programmers. Sometimes errors and bugs come into it. Then it didn’t work properly.

If it shows the wrong result and the doctor gives the wrong diagnosis to the patient then it takes the patient’s life in danger.

This is one of the most dangerous cons of medical technology for the patients

3. Increased Cost of the Treatment for the Patients:

Increased Cost of the Treatment for the Patients

The increased cost of treatment is also one of the disadvantages of medical technology.

Mostly all the treatments and surgeries through technology are very costly, like robotic surgery, and other kinds of technological machinery surgeries are very costly.

And most of the patients belong to rural areas and they are poor. For poor patients, it’s impossible to pay for costly surgeries.

Technology increased health care but also increased the cost of that. Which is impossible for the patients to pay.

Lack of information is also a disadvantage of medical technology. Safety and privacy are some of the laws of hospitals.to protect the patient’s privacy.

But by technology, this law can be a break.

The information of the patients which is stored in the computer database of the hospitals can be a leak.

The computer systems can be a hack and the secret information about the patient’s treatment can be stolen and also can be changed.

If someone changes the complete history of the patient’s treatments. So, it can be a danger for the patient’s next treatments.

5. Patients’ Online Treatment Through Technology:

Patients’ Online Treatment Through Technology

Nowadays doctors do online treatments. The patients contact them online and suggest the diagnosis to take.

The patients do have not to go to the clinic of the doctors. They can easily get the treatment at home.

Without any checkup and analysis of the patient, the doctor gives them the diagnosis. Which can be wrong and can be dangerous for the patient’s health.

6. Damaging Cells and Organs of the Body of the Patients:

Now a day’s laser surgeries are very famous. Which has a lot of bad effects on the human body?

The lasers can damage the cells of the body. It can damage our other internal organs in our body, which is very harmful,

7. Time-Consuming in Recovery of Medical Machines and Devices:

The technological machines and gadgets which are used in the hospital for treatments and checkups of patients are made by engineers and programmers.

If there come some kind of faults and errors. So, no one can fix it because they didn’t have the knowledge of recovering and fixing that machine.

It required a specific person who has knowledge of it. The engineers who made it. He can fix it.

So, it consumes a lot of time fixing and recovering the machines.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Medical Technology PDF:

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I hope you find this article helpful.

If you have something in your mind about the Advantages and Disadvantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare. so you can ask me in the comment section below.

I will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading.