Health Care Disparities
Connected for Health
The Potential of Health
Information and Communications
Technologies to Reduce Health
Care Disparities
In today’s technology-filled world, we have become dependent on the Internet for everything from doing any research (“Google it”), making travel and restaurant reservations, paying our bills, managing our investments, finding recipes for dinner, making charitable and political contributions, all types of shopping, and on and on. And we communicate primarily by e-mail and text messages, and chat using instant messages, much more than by phone, or the mail.
Unfortunately, U.S. health care delivery systems have been slow to embrace information and communication technologies. Physicians’ offices are filled
with …show more content…
Barcodes that give us calorie, fat, and other data will help us make healthier food choices, both in the supermarket and in restaurants. The Institute of Medicine recently issued a report on the potential impact of health information technology: [There is a] need for the establishment of a “new norm” around engaging patients and the population in health (theirs and that of the population) through the use of the digital infrastructure. Basic to this “re-norming” is a deepened appreciation by patient and the general population for the personal and public benefits that are likely to occur, as well as a strong measure of confidence in the security of the system and their records as they are used for new insights [p. 30].
Here are a few scenarios of what will soon be the new norm in health care: r You will be able to make all your appointments online, choosing appointment times most convenient to you. r Physicians will replace their off-hours answering services with nurse advice phone services, so that most of the time, your questions can be answered over the phone (or the nurse can instruct you …show more content…
(Unfortunately, usually it isn’t.) If we don’t know how many patients coming to our hospital (or who live in our community and should be able to use our hospital services) speak
Vietnamese, we will never plan for Vietnamesespeaking health care providers or interpreters. If we don’t know which of our patients might benefit from large-print educational materials, we will keep handing out materials they can’t and won’t read.
In order to get the HITECH Act payments, hospitals and physicians will have to collect the race, ethnicity, and preferred language of more than 50 percent of their unique patients. With such data, their electronic health record systems will then be able to alert them when a patient speaks a language other than
English and that a bilingual health care provider or a health care interpreter is needed. Such languageassistance-needs data can be shared automatically with the pharmacist to ensure translated medication labels, instructions, and counseling. It also can be shared with labs and specialists so that
The Potential of Health
Information and Communications
Technologies to Reduce Health
Care Disparities
In today’s technology-filled world, we have become dependent on the Internet for everything from doing any research (“Google it”), making travel and restaurant reservations, paying our bills, managing our investments, finding recipes for dinner, making charitable and political contributions, all types of shopping, and on and on. And we communicate primarily by e-mail and text messages, and chat using instant messages, much more than by phone, or the mail.
Unfortunately, U.S. health care delivery systems have been slow to embrace information and communication technologies. Physicians’ offices are filled
with …show more content…
Barcodes that give us calorie, fat, and other data will help us make healthier food choices, both in the supermarket and in restaurants. The Institute of Medicine recently issued a report on the potential impact of health information technology: [There is a] need for the establishment of a “new norm” around engaging patients and the population in health (theirs and that of the population) through the use of the digital infrastructure. Basic to this “re-norming” is a deepened appreciation by patient and the general population for the personal and public benefits that are likely to occur, as well as a strong measure of confidence in the security of the system and their records as they are used for new insights [p. 30].
Here are a few scenarios of what will soon be the new norm in health care: r You will be able to make all your appointments online, choosing appointment times most convenient to you. r Physicians will replace their off-hours answering services with nurse advice phone services, so that most of the time, your questions can be answered over the phone (or the nurse can instruct you …show more content…
(Unfortunately, usually it isn’t.) If we don’t know how many patients coming to our hospital (or who live in our community and should be able to use our hospital services) speak
Vietnamese, we will never plan for Vietnamesespeaking health care providers or interpreters. If we don’t know which of our patients might benefit from large-print educational materials, we will keep handing out materials they can’t and won’t read.
In order to get the HITECH Act payments, hospitals and physicians will have to collect the race, ethnicity, and preferred language of more than 50 percent of their unique patients. With such data, their electronic health record systems will then be able to alert them when a patient speaks a language other than
English and that a bilingual health care provider or a health care interpreter is needed. Such languageassistance-needs data can be shared automatically with the pharmacist to ensure translated medication labels, instructions, and counseling. It also can be shared with labs and specialists so that