August 8th, 2020 
Please respond to each post with at least a 100 words. You must cite and reference your response.
post 1:
In the 1980s, the personal computer (PC) emerged, and revolutionized the utilization of technology in various aspects (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p.595). For instance, healthcare providers became direct users of computers, which promoted the use of technology to better patient outcomes (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p.595). Patient medical history/data was gathered, interpreted, and organized into EMR/EHR systems, increasing the efficiency of healthcare institutions and better yet, patient safety. In addition, authorized healthcare providers may share patient information with more than one healthcare organization; thus, patient outcomes increase through coordination of care. In addition, patient participation increases with the use of an EHR and facilitates communication with a provider. Overall, Health information technology (HIT) has been shown to improve patient safety, especially with processes and applications that improve clinicians’ decision making, documentation, and communication (Helwig & Lomotan, 2016). Hand in hand with the use of an EHR, technological options vary readily available for patient care, such as wearable technology, interactive patient technology, and smart technologyleading towards fewer adverse events.
And yet, our healthcare system fails, as with the case of John Alexander James. Considerations for patient safety care begin at or even prior to admission and continue after discharge follow-up. There was a lack of consideration for patient safety in John Alexanders case. To begin, basic medical errors were made with regards to lab values. Per Dr. James, John Alexanders potassium level was consistently low and left untreated, resulting in his death (Patient Safety Movement, 2019). In addition, various EKGs depicted an arrhythmia, representative of a long QT intervalpossibly as a result of the untreated hypokalemia. At this point, healthcare providers should have responded to manage these symptoms. They had the data, information, and more than likely the knowledge to treat John Alexander, but failed on the wisdom of nursing (Nelson, 2018). Wisdom is demonstrated when the nursing data, information and knowledge are managed and used in making appropriate decisions that meet the health needs of individual (Nelson, 2018). Furthermore, John Alexander was deceived that a cardiac MRI was performed; however, the available technicians were not readily trained to utilize the equipment (Patient Safety Movement, 2019). This resulted in John Alexander pushed further into invasive procedures, a cardiac catherization and electrophysiology test (Patient Safety Movement, 2019). The use of technology can only be effective to better patient outcomes if proper training for equipment/procedures is done prior to implementation. In addition, there was a major lack of communication throughout his treatment, discharge instructions, and follow-up appointment. For example, an EHR system will alert if a lab value is out of range, coordinate appropriate follow-up care, and electronically provide detailed discharge instructions; however, basic, yet key communication among care providers lacked significantly. The accumulation of errors resulted in an adverse event for John Alexander James.
References
Alex James. Patient Safety Movement, 2 Apr. 2019, patientsafetymovement.org/advocacy/patients-and-families/patient-stories/alex-james/.
Helwig, Amy, and Edwin Lomotan. Can Electronic Health Records Prevent Harm to Patients? AHRQ, Feb. 2016, www.ahrq.gov/news/blog/ahrqviews/020916.html.
Nelson, R., (September 19, 2018) “Informatics: Evolution of the Nelson Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom Model: Part 1” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 23, No. 3.
Nelson, Ramona, and Nancy Staggers. Health Informatics: an Interprofessional Approach. Elsevier, 2018.
Post 2:
1) Mr.James has his Ph.D. which helps him with being a great advocate for health education and his son. He has knowledge of the healthcare system based on his education. Mr. James went through the parent role in losing his son seeing things from a different view. Having been on both sides gives him great knowledge to pass on to others by sharing his story.
2) Some lessons to learn would be to look into learning more about the diagnosis to be sure they are correct and that everything was done to get a correct diagnosis and treatment, there was miss diagnosis in Alexs case. Communication was another error as no one warned him not to run after the first collapse on the discharge papers. It took after Alex died for anyone to let his father know that an MRI was done wrong due to poor training (ihi).
3) Technology can promote better healthcare by having better communication between providers by email, messaging, and online video chats. It can also help by giving access to records and Dr. orders reducing medication errors thus providing patient-centered care to all (HIMSS).
Reference
Retrieved from:
http://www.ihi.org/education/IHIOpenSchool/resources/Pages/CaseStudies/John-T-James-Case-Study-What-Happened-To-Alex.aspx
https://www.himss.org/resources/right-balance-technology-and-patient-care
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