Question

Administrators at a local hospital determine that they need to computerize their patient data. The hospital currently has a software program for entering and accessing laboratory, radiology, and cardiology test results. The administrators decide to designate a position for a nursing informatics specialist, and they receive two applications:  

Tony has a baccalaureate degree in nursing with certification in nursing informatics. Although he has not practiced bedside nursing in 5 years, he does have experience in implementing a computerized hospital data system at a small county hospital.Angie has a master's degree in nursing and is planning to obtain a nursing informatics certificate. She is working in the education department of the hospital as a clinical nurse specialist.

Once the hospital's strengths and weaknesses are evaluated, possible concerns are identified. Such areas include changes to the layout of the units, interfaces between existing programs and the new program, and how forms will need to be redesigned for the computer program.

The informatics nurse specialist will coordinate an education plan for the personnel affected by the changes. Nurses will attend one-day classes on computerized charting, with practice sessions available on computers in each unit.

Q4. During the implementation phase, what is the role of the nurse informatics specialist?

Q5. Explain the concern or potential conflict between HIPAA and computerization of patient data.

Q6.If the hospital uses mobile computing, such as a tablet, for nurses to gather and input assessment data, which of the following is the nurse’s responsibility or the responsibility of information services to protect him or herself from a potential HIPAA violation?

Q7. How does change theory affect the nurse informatics specialist's practice?

Answer 1

Nursing informatics is using the knowlegde of nursing with IT applications and communication technologies to improve the quality of clinical care and health of all.

Q4.ANS In implementation phase the nurse informatician should prepare a checklist of items to be entered in the Electronic health records so that no important information is missed.Being the superuser as having clinical nursing knowledge and computer applications knowlegde provide training to all other staffs. If there is any problem in EHR the nurse informatician willl be contacted primarily. Set a practice time for all staffs to enter patient's data in the EHR and supervise their needs . Outreach and technical assistance sholud be provided to physicians and nurses who has not come in contact with these applications of new software . Check whether necessary hardwares like printers are installed to decrease time consumption. Provide necesssary training to staffs and reimpose the use of EHR.

Q5.ANS  Health Insurance Portability and Accountability privacy rule helps in protecting the patient's personal information and medical records . The datas about a patient are entered in EHR which can be easily shared between any two physicians or healthcare workers . Knowing that patients maynot tell any very sensitive information which can create any loophole leading to compromised care. The patient's information shouldnot be shared with anyone unecessarily and EHR should be secured using firewalls, intrusion detection software and antivirus softwares. Employee only should have access to patient's data in EHR secured with passwords and also encrypted according to HIPPAA. Audits are to be conducted to track system usage activity. Breach of privacy should be prevented according to HIPAA rule.

Q6.ANS The devices like tablet, smartphones have potential to introduce malware or viruses in hospital infrastructure applications of electronic computed records which may lead to breach of privacy and security violating HIPAA rule. Information system in hospital should implement mobile device management system by monitoring all the mobile computing devices connected to hospital databases to ensure that privacy is maintained and also when a tablet or smartphone is lost which was connected to hospital database , the datas in that particular device can be deleted . Medical sensors to monitor the vitals of patient may be connected to tablets which when hacked by private user can be posted in social media leading to breach of privacy so no datas of patient should be shared with any outsiders at any cost .

Q7. ANS Setting long term goals and analysing it from present and past to find out the needed changes to be done in improving the practice . Nurse informatician may analyse the necessity of staffs and their capabilities in using the electronic system . Electronic documentation has many positive effects and also there is chance in breaking of security.Being superuser they are responsible for managing and interpreting datas getting in and out of hospital database , they should train the staffs before introducing any new software or updating the programs.