Question

• Develop an example scenario containing a healthcare-related acronym or term that might have more than one meaning or might not be clear when used with other healthcare professionals or patients. Share your example scenario along with a response to the following questions:
  • What is a possible problem that could arise from using this acronym or term with an unfamiliar audience?
  • How might the problem you identified impede standardization of technology?
  • How might technology help solve this problem?
  • What steps should a healthcare professional take to avoid misinterpretation of terminology?

Answer 1

So this is a scenario I recently observed where a patient was brought into the hospital for a serious case of allergic reaction and was immediately hospitalized. The lead doctor on quick primary checkup instructed to get to EMR to be considered as soon as possible. The situation was serious and instruction was ambiguous do get clarity for further course of action

What is a possible problem that could arise from using this acronym or term with an unfamiliar audience?

The staff was recently trained on electronic medical records system installed to obtain all the healthcare records of the patients from the electronic database and provide optimal and most effective treatment and improved the care and efficiency. Also the previews use of EMR was for the term emergency medical rescue department which is the emergency ward where the allergic reaction and other serious condition patient are taken. Usually the patent is taken there when EMR instruction is given but in this case half the staff was thinking that the lead physician is asking to find medical records for EMR database to be accessed to fins the reason of allergy and this posed a problem as loss of precious time.

How might the problem you identified impede standardization of technology?

The standardization of any technology should be implemented in such manner that it does not overlap with the existing procedures, routines and practices. This uniqueness in the terminology and technology implementation should be considered before implementation so as to avoid any misinterpretation and errors that it can cause to patient care and treatment. So by labeling the electronic medical records as EMR like generic terms we could coin a proprietary term for the medical database software or develop a term that is not overlapping or not heard previously to identify the new term easily without any impedance to standardization of technology. In the hospital since that indecent we have implemented the acronym EMR to the same emergency medical rescue but changed the electric medical records software database to eMedRecords to clearly identify the medical records software database

How might technology help solve this problem?

The technology can be very helpful if we create a glossary of terms used int he entire hospital and come up with the overlapping terminology and acronyms that are used nt he hospital. With the help of technology we can identify the critical areas where the terminologies are to be renamed and reconsidered for a better implementation. By using the AI and medical database base don terminology usage we can come up with better terminologies and medical coding terms for a specific events or procedures and avoid any risks, misinterpretation and problems in the future with the help fo technology, database mapping and use of Artificial intelligence based processing to analyze large data,

What steps should a healthcare professional take to avoid misinterpretation of terminology?

In order for a healthcare professional take to avoid misinterpretation of terminology, the healthcare professional must make sure he is trained, studies and familiar with the current and existing terminology used around. When we ensure the current terminology is same, uniform and homogeneously used then remove the interrelated errors. The other precautionary measure the healthcare professional can take is to ask the other person receiving the instruction the quick feedback on the clarity of instruction so as to confirm the interpretation of the instruction is the same. Lastly we get rid of the assumptions and also caution for human errors and misinterpretation can occur n stress, rapid events, low repose time, etc. So always make sure the team members repeat the instructions, clarify the next course of action and give you a quick positive feedback on the interpretation of the terminology. At an institutional level we make sure we have refresher courses for all the processionals where the terminology and interpretation ambiguity is assessed and correct so as to avoid any problems in the future.