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Information technology (IT) plays an important role in the modern world, impacting many industries such as the banking industry and tech industry. Not as widely recognized is the importance of IT in the healthcare industry.
Before delving into the importance of information technology to healthcare, it is necessary to understand what exactly IT refers to in this space. Most commonly, healthcare information technology employs the exchange of health-related data via electronic systems involving the use of digital technology to record, assess, and distribute patient related-data.
The importance of information technology in healthcare is demonstrated when its effective use leads to improvements which medical care providers can bestow upon their patients. Medical care often involves the analysis and decision making of multiple specialists, payors, and the patient and readily available and accessible information is crucial to help inform the patient’s best treatment plan and increase overall efficiency of the health system. It is often difficult to share, access, and maintain consistent information across the many sectors and stakeholders present in medical care. Thus, minimizing the demonstrated gaps of information that present themselves in healthcare financial is where information technology proves instrumental to the industry.
That said, improvements to medical care are limited by the quantity and quality of the information that healthcare providers have on their patients. Insufficient medical information can lead to medical errors that may potentially affect the medical and wellness of patients, payors, and healthcare providers. For example, adverse drug reactions can be linked to insufficient access to medical information and cause over 350,000 hospitalizations and 1.3 million emergency room visits every year in the United States. Therefore, by assisting the delivery of accurate and accessible patient information, supporting shared decision making, establishing networks of social support for patients, and enhancing treatment compliance tracking, IT drastically improves the quality of care provided to patients and avoids the unnecessary costs of medical errors and information gathering.
IT plays a role in medical data collection and research. By providing researchers with patient data, the development of new treatment options and clinical studies can be conducted. Additionally, IT eliminates unnecessary processes, such as physical test result interactions and information gathering interchanges using software such as MyChart.
IT also facilitates healthcare providers in the process of remaining compliant with increasingly complex regulatory policies and federal programs. An example is the 340-B Drug Pricing Program, where covered entities must maintain certain statuses and coverage statistics to qualify patients for reduced drug prices. With the development of platforms such as RxStrategies, hospitals and hospital networks can adhere to the strict regulations, minimize the costs of doing so, and maximize the benefit from such programs.
In conclusion, IT has impacted the healthcare industry across the multiple layers and institutions involved in the industry. Patients have benefited from improved medical care, physicians have been able to make better informed decisions, payors have been able to better track their beneficiaries, hospitals have been able to reduce unnecessary costs, and regulatory powers have been able to ensure complex regulation are complied. As information technology continues to develop, so will healthcare.
This article was authored by Yera Patel. Yera is a senior associate with expertise in performance improvement and non-labor cost reduction engagements at Pathstone Partners.
