Question

Discuss does Health Information Technology Reduce healthcare Costs?

Some analysts have suggested that the adoption of electronic medical records (EHR) by hospitals could eventually reduce annual healthcare expenditures by one third or more. Others have been far less sanguine about such projections, arguing that adopting such information technologies may, in fact, increase costs. State if you agree or disagree with reasons.

Answer 1

The introduction of information technology has a vast impact on the health care sector and it do can reduce the expenditure gradually. Technological advances has provided ease to function in the clinical setting. Majority of the work has become paperless, with introduction of EMR which can reduce the expenses on stationaries. Another benefit is pertaining to storage. The storage of patient files in physical forms demands large space and the maintenance of old records is difficult. Electronic Health records facilitates storage of large amount of data, without risk of degradation with time and provides easy accessibility. In other words these technologies provides access to health care related information at the fingertips without time waste and manual labor.

Introduction of a new software or technology and its maintenance increases the expenditure initially. It needs the service of experienced personnel for handling and orienting it to the staff. With time, the efficiency in handling and maintaining such systems improves. With less distractions, the health care workers could concentrate more on patient care that can improve the patient satisfaction. Improved patient satisfaction can improve the rating of a health care organisation as well as its revenue.

Another factor that may affect the expenditure with introduction of innovative technologies is location of the hospital. Hospitals located at remote areas, where the accessibility to resources is less can lead to higher maintenance charges and thereby increase in the expenditure. On the other hand hospitals located in more advanced areas, may have easy accessibility to IT services which reduces their expenses on maintenance.

Finally to conclude, financial gain or loss with the introduction of Health Information Technology mainly depends on institutional factors like location, accessibility to resources and availability of experienced staffs to handle with minimum errors.