Application of Information Technology to Improve the Primary Care Experience

Conclusions), I discussed how IT was being deployed to make a visit to a MinuteClinic more convenient for patients and efficient for the NP caregiver. There was nothing earthshaking about the IT from my perspective -- making an on-line appointment, displaying wait time for patents in the waiting area, and news about the availability of a vaccine in short supply on the web. I immediately thought about how Uber and other ride-sharing apps have shaken up the previously stable taxi industry using IT. Many people now prefer Uber over taxis because you can summon a ride from any location in a city, you are messaged with the arrival time and shown the location of the Uber driver, you know the name of the driver, you can input your assessment of the driver, and your credit card number is kept on file so that payment is simplified. In the face of these conveniences, It has never occurred to me to take into consideration the skill of the Uber driver, assuming, that the skill of a random Uber driver was roughly equivalent to that of a random taxi driver. Let's now talk about a primary healthcare visit. For most visits, I believe that the skill level of an NP is equivalent to that of PCP. For certain unusual cases, the diagnostic acumen of a physician will obviously be superior. However, the NP can be supplied with computer-based algorithms that can provide alerts when a case needs to be turfed to a physician. Their own training, obviously, comes into play here and ...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Medical Consumerism Quality of Care Source Type: blogs