Health Care Assignment: System Failure in Medical Settings of United Kingdom

Question

Task

Write a well research health care assignment critically discussing the major system failure witnessed by the health care settings of United Kingdom and identify the reasons behind it.

Answer

Introduction:
The main concern of this health care assignment is that the United Kingdom health care organizations have been witnessing an increased rate of complications and issues related to patient health and well-being for the past few years. The increasing rate of complications in health care delivery has been developing a threat for the patients as well as the health care organization. One of the chief reasons behind the occurrence of the incidents includes the deprived condition of the Information system. A health care system functions and relies entirely on the process and structure they follow to maintain and secure their health care records. These records are the key elements to better care and services of the health care setting and have been the prime to better recovery rate. Failure in the Information system leads a health care setting to several complications which often leads to an increased rate of mortality and morbidity among the patients (Wilmsen et al., 2019). The failure is not only due to poor record management. But it also involves the role of health care professionals and other staff related to the access of health care records of the patients. Thus, it explains how necessary it is to maintain a firm and well-organized Information system in order to minimize the threat of record-keeping system failure which may lead to greater challenges for these settings from diverse regions of the United Kingdom (Palabindala, Pamarthy & Jonnalagadda, 2016). The health care assignment thus focuses on discussing the major healthcare system failure witnessed by the health care settings of United Kingdom and the reasons behind the occurrence of the complications and threats related to the condition. it intends to develop a proposal for corrective action which is states to be helpful for such conditions in the future, as it has been one of the top complications and failures witnessed by any health care setting. The health care assignment also focuses on discussing the complication or unintended consequences that might be involved with the action plan proposed in order to provide an opportunity to overcome any such issue from an occurrence. The total cost-effectiveness of the process will also be discussed for the benefit of the health care setting as it will guide them with an overview of the overall expense of the whole action system.

Discussion:

Healthcare record-keeping system in the United Kingdom:
The information system is one of the fundamental aspects of every health care system and the responsibility of every nursing facility within the health care setting. The information system defines the act of restoring and safeguarding every information and data related to the patient's medical history, current health condition, treatments provided, and other related facts (Aubyn & Andrews, 2017). The aim of conducting and maintaining a firm and well-organized record keeping ensures that every health care professional, nursing facilities and other staffs have access and proper information related to treatment and recovery options that are provided to the patient. This information is only accessible to the stakeholders who are an active part of the treatment and recovery of the patients within the health care setting (Mather & Maw, 2017). The nursing facilities within a health care setting have their major role in maintaining the record-keeping process, thus their key principle in keeping good records explains that they must record and store every detail and information attained during the assessment and treatment provided by the health care setting to the patients. Thus, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of United Kingdom has been guiding their nursing facilities with four different codes and principles related to maintaining an appropriate and fair record-keeping process. These four principles outlined in the present context of health care assignment explain;

1. The nursing facility must record and save every data and information attained from any kind of assessment and analysis or review related to patient health. It must have fair and clear evidence of all the services and facilities that have been delivered to the patient for the patient's health condition and have been planned for future care (Armstrong, 2020).
2. The record that has been attained needs to be accurate enough to avoid any chances of misunderstanding and it should be recorded in a manner that will clearly provide the exact understanding of the recorded data. It must not be complicated or recorded in an unclear manner, as it may cause misinterpretation (Barnes & Jenkins, 2018).
3. While keeping the record, it is necessary that the patient along with the other health care professional involved must be included as a fair participant in the record-keeping procedure (Shepherd, 2017).
4. The nurses must have appropriate and clear communication and interaction with the other professionals involved in the care process to make sure they are provided with every data and information they are required to deliver advanced and effective care and treatment to the patients (Griffith, 2019).

There are several complications which take place related to poor Information system within the health care settings which have a greater impact on the failure of the health care system. There are several incidents witnessed by the health care setting throughout the United Kingdom which leads to the acts of system failure. One of the major issue or complication which leads to system failure involves inappropriate access to attain data between professional. These are incidents provided in the health care assignment where professional often have a miscommunication or lack of interaction which lead to developing a gap within the treatment provided. It takes place, as they often forget to share the relevant data or information to each other (Sugden, 2020). Thus, the condition takes place especially when a patient is addressed by more than one health care professional. Thus, each professional provides treatment without having a clear idea of information about what treatments are delivered by either of the professionals (Wijesekara et al., 2020). This condition leads to developing a life-threatening condition for the patients and the health care systems aim to provide patient safety. There are incidents where professionals often lack the practice of keeping a proper record of the care and treatment they are providing to their patients, which is one of the causes behind the occurrence of medication error which has its significance the act of poor record keeping. Often medication error takes place due to having poor records and assessment of the medication dosage and the duration which leads to a life-threatening condition for the patients. There are incidents where patients have suffered from overdose leading to creating greater health complications because of having a poor record of medication administrations (Mohle, 2020). This condition also has been one of the errors which take place due to poor record-keeping, hammering the health care system's effectiveness. Patient confidentiality has also been one of the issues associated with the act of poor record-keeping within a health care setting which often causes failure of the health care system. As mentioned in this section of the health care assignment, there are incidents where the patient's information has been used or accessed by professionals or people who are not a part of the treatment process. Such conditions often cause violation of confidentiality of the patients leading to the threatening of health care services failure. A patient's information must not be shared or discussed to others apart from the stakeholders and poor record-keeping often permits and provides access to others to sustain information related to any patient within the setting. Thus, it hampers the confidentiality bond between the patient and the health care setting leading to causing the ethical issue which is stated to be an act of misconduct of authorizations (Dodd, Siddique & Kumar, 2017).

Indicator of the severity:
The information system is one of the essential aspects which is involved in building a strong and effective health care organization with better patient satisfaction. Failure in maintaining or conducting a fair level of information system has always been the reasons behind falling apart a health care system, record keeping does not only involves a patient case study but also includes every detail delated to treatment, facilities, resources, and medications along with recovery options which are delver to the patents from the end of health care setting (French-Baidoo et al., 2018). An information system failure takes place when the health care system does not attain its general requirement or needs and discontentment or failure within the information system increases up to an extent, leading to hampering the effectiveness of the services providers. These failures often lead to the severity of the health condition of the patients along with a threat to the health care professional involved. One of the major indicators of severity due to poor record-keeping and failure in the information system includes, that the treatment and care delivered in incomplete. Often record is not appropriately addressed or recorded due to incomplete procedure or delivery of care (Shenoy & Appel, 2017). As per the research on health care assignment, patients are often addressed with improper care and treatment facilities by health care professionals which causes the major issue of health acre complication and deprived health record registration. These gaps between the records often reflect that the acre and services that have been delivered to the patients are improper and insufficient to the level of recovery. Such a condition develops a life-risking complication which is one of the reasons behind the unexplained death cases within the health care settings. Another indication of severity within the information system demonstrates that the organizational or the NMC policies defining the role of health care professionals and nurses towards information systems and record-keeping is not been addressed (Aubyn & Andrews, 2017). It also signifies that the health care system has a poor organizational structure that does not regulate or monitors the duties and responsibilities of its staff. This condition has been developing a major failure within the health care systems, it has been promoting the neglecting behaviors of the professionals leading to failure in attaining the patient’s satisfactory level. Due to these factors, the record-keeping has been witnessing breakdown and patient care has been witnessing increasing issues these days. The health care organization have been unable to maintain their standards of care and services due to these factors associated with poor record-keeping and have been the major contributing factor in increased mortality rate due to medical error (Rodziewicz & Hipskind, 2020).

What is the role of the Electronic Health Record System mentioned in the current context of health care assignment?
The United Kingdom health department selected a top-down approach that has been driven by the government as nationwide incorporation of Electronic Health records which is also known by the term "the National Health System Care Records Services". It is a foundation of the National Programme for Information Technology or NPfIT for the Health care system worth £12.7 billion. An electronic health record or EHR is one of the most effective and widely used information technology used within the health care system worldwide in order to maintain and manage the standards and effectiveness of the information systems. It is a record-keeping device customized in order to store and safeguard individual health information and data within a health care setting (Millares Miller & Sbaffi, 2019). It has been developed with several facilities one of which permits the cases of health care records of patients to their respective health care professionals and stakeholders. It has been developed to maintain the code of conduct of health care services focusing on the terms of patient confidentiality and privacy. It does not account for access to any random individual to the data and information of the patients and helps to keep them getting violated by others. It has its role in the digitalization of patient information and upgrading the facilities of record-keeping within a health care setting. It has been making the record-keeping facilities easy and accessible to the health care facilities along with the patients (Wilson & Khansa, 2018). Thus, it has minimized the rate of error and failure of the information system as people are able to access their health records through mobiles and computers. The issue of violation of the code of conduct has also been reduced, as it has been storing the information about every health care professional and nurse who is involved in patient care and treatment. Also, the issue of poor communication and conflict leading to deprived sharing of information has been resolved as every information related to the patient is updated with the EHR thus, permits access to the other professional regarding the desired information (Fletcher et al., 2020). It has improved the issues the health care organizations of the United Kingdom were witnessing due to the Paper record system and have restored the standards of the information system of the settings. Incorporation of the system is one of the most effective actions which can be sued in order to restore the failing health care system’s organization structure and keep track of the role and responsibilities of the nursing facilities. It is known to be one of the advanced technologies helping in reducing the chances of treatment and medical errors related to the record-keeping process (McGuinness et al., 2019).

Proposal for corrective actions: respective Electronic Health Record database
As discussed in the health care assignment, one of the effective action plans towards developing the effectiveness of the Electronic Health Record system includes the adaptation of the Person or individual Electronic Health Record database. It represents the customized and personal database system which will be accounted for by the EHR database respective to the patient. In this process, every individual or patient seeking assistance from the health care setting will have their respective EHR database with their personal details. Electronic Health Record system has been one of the inventions within the health care setting which have been supporting these care organization with its better support and consideration (Gold et al., 2017). It will consist of every information, and data related to their medical history, medication currently provided, treatment, and services provided to them regarding their past and present health condition. It will help in minimizing the chances of error that take place due to misplace or lack of consideration of the data and information related to the patent. In order to make it effective within the patient, it will be necessary to educate and guide the patients regarding the facilities which are correlated with the EHR database and the complication which might take place due to disruption of the facility (Denaxas et al., 2019). The EHR database will help in reducing the issue of confidentiality and privacy as the patient will have the proper idea about accessing the medical record and facilities. It will also provide an update to the patient on their personal mobiles or laptops related to the changes that have been conducted or nay new information that has been upgraded. It will also help the health care professionals in keeping a firm track over the cases they have been working with and will help them plan better care and treatment for their patients. It will also help the nursing facilities to conduct their role of record-keeping with advanced benefits as paper record-keeping was quite complicated as a health care setting witnessed hundreds of patients per day (Ratwani et al., 2018).

Unintended consequences to the proposed corrective action:
There are certainly unintended consequences related to the personal Electronic Health Record system, which may have an impact on the effectiveness of the action. One of the major consequences of the action provided in the health care assignment is a conflict between the health care professionals and the patient leading to disrupted health care service. The majority of the patient seeking assistance belongs to the elderly population and using Electronic Health record system may become complicated due to lack of knowledge and education related to using technologies these days. This may create a hurdle and misunderstanding between the patients and the professional leading to a lack of understanding of the process and treatment they are delivered with (Kruse et al., 2016). Also, there may be a confidentiality issue at a certain level which may or may not take place within the actions. This includes the cyber issue within the personal database system, as there may be chances of cybercrime-related to the patient data, here the data can be accessed or attained by means of hacking. It will create a matter of cyber threat for the health care organization as well as the patient. These are certainly unintended consequences that may take place with the activities related to the failure of the information system within the health care organization. Thus, it will be necessary to develop technology with much more danced facilities in order to minimize the threat (McDermott, Kamerer & Birk, 2019).

Description of the method:
The proposed system of personal electronic health record database ahs been effectively been incorporated within several health care systems of United Kingdom. It has been used in order to support the patients with the benefits of the electronic record-keeping process and thus, helped in developing the information system of the health care organization. It has been proving to be one of the effective measures within the health care setting which has been supporting working along with the health care professionals and the nursing facilities. The patient has also been showing greater consideration of their care and treatment process related to record-keeping technology (Krawiec, 2019). The threat to patient privacy and confidentiality has also been minimized and has been safeguarding the medical information within the premises of care. As per the information provided in the health care assignment, it has also been found to be effectively minimizing the threat of medical error within the setting as the rate of medical error due to poor detail management has been reported to be decreasing. The process has thus shown better patient satisfaction and better health within the setting which are actively involving the personal electronic health record database within their premises (Graber et al., 2019.

Ballpark estimation of the cost:
The implementation of the person electronic record system database and its monitoring has its overall cost estimation up to $162,000 which may vary depending on the cost of monitoring and health care setting’s population and strengths. The estimated cost for the implementation of the information system and maintenance every year includes $85,500 as it will be updated and fixed relayed to rising issues every year. The monitoring of the effectiveness of the personal electronic health record system within the setting requires a year duration with the cost of $45,500 each year. The cost may increase or decrease related to the population of the patient, the health care setting witnesses every year, and the effectiveness of the record system within the setting. The cost of the whole action plan is based on the estimated value of the technology purchase and implementation long with maintenances which may have an upraise due to changes according to the desired outcome (Mc Cord et al., 2019).

Conclusion:
In order to conclude the above discussion provided in the health care assignment, it can be thus, stated that the health care system has been getting influenced by several correlated factors one of which includes the information system of the health care organizations. Information system failure has its effectiveness in deprived stability of the health care system of many organizations. Thus, it is necessary that these organization of care and treatment have their greater consideration towards the information system and record-keeping facilities in order to maintain the level of care and services they deliver to the susceptible populations in the United Kingdom. The chief objective behind maintaining a fair and well-organized information system with better record-keeping is to provide better care and treatment options to the patients and maintain the standards of the nursing practices delivered. It is not only essential to maintain the organizational standards and effectiveness along with professional values but is also crucial to better health within a population. Health care documents and records have their major impact on everyone's health conduction and roles within a health care setting, and it is necessary to maintain the standards of record-keeping and storing the data of the patients in order to maintain and deliver a better quality of care to every individual. Electronic Health Record system has been one of the inventions within the health care setting which have been supporting these care organization with its better support and consideration. It has been safeguarding the patient's care and treatment process along with maintaining the code of conduct guided by the NMC of the United Kingdom. Incorporation of the health record system within the health care setting is known to be providing better services and quality of care to the patients with a minimized rate of error and mortality causes. It is also stated in the health care assignment that the development of a personal Electronic Health Record database will be one of the effective cation plans against the rising issue of information system failure as it will provide the health care professional and patient with the authority to take control over the record-keeping and database process.

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