Question

Discuss how a health information exchange can enhance patient safety and quality of care in an integrated health care delivery system.

Answer 1

The patient centered care is the key aspect of the high quality of the care in the health care organization and it can be only achieved by proper and timely health information exchange among the healthcare professionals as the healthcare is the integrated system.

The complete health care delivery system should be the patient focused and having the common goals.

When healthcare professionals access the complete and accurate case information regarding the patient history, the medication status and the current status of the patients they can work together in the more effective and specific manner so that patient can receive the better medical care.

And in this way we can reduce the chances of the medical errors and thus can achieve the improved patient outcomes ensuring the patient safety and quality of care in an integrated health care delivery system.

Furthermore it can be achieved by utilizing some current IT based information tools like the Electronic health records (EHRs) it can be used to coordinate and share the overall information of the patient during the therapy including the patient history also.

Eg: In certain cases there is the allergic history of the patient to certain medication then this information can be shared in the group during the treatment of the patient with minimal errors and the high patient safety to assure the better quality flow of the healthcare services to the patient.

Thus the health information exchange can enhance patient safety and quality of care in an integrated health care delivery system.