On March 18th I represented the American Academy of Nursing (www.aannet.org) at The Women’s’ High-Tech Coalition Luncheon that took place on Capitol Hill. The title of the Panel was Health Information Technology: Addressing Privacy and Security Concerns to Bring Healthcare into the 21st Century. The other panelists were: Kate Gross from Senator Jay Rockefeller’s office, Lisa Gallagher from HIMSS and Eva Powell, Health IT Director for the National Partnership for Women and Families. With all the momentum around Health IT I was pleased to have this opportunity to participate in this important discussion and present the nursing perspective.

Here are the thoughts I shared…

1. The Academy is supportive of the investment in smart health IT as it has the potential to be a useful tool that can assist patients, families and health professionals in reducing errors, improving care coordination, patient safety, quality and outcomes. However, we want to ensure there is discussion surrounding how to sustain the technology so it can continue to meet both patient and provider needs happens during the initial implementation stages.

2. We believe there needs to be a balance between privacy and the realities of health practice and the need to share timely information.

3. Nurses and other direct care providers that interact intensely on a day-to-day basis with patients will be who the patients seek out for help in understanding health IT. Therefore, nurses need to know that the appropriate security measures are in place so they feel comfortable reassuring the patients that the system can be trusted.

4. Nurses understand the complexities of diseases and are aware of the benefits health IT can have for these individuals in their care provision.

5. The Academy supports the involvement of nurses and other direct care providers in the development and deployment of health IT. In 2005, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation the Academy’s Workforce Commission began their Technology Targets Project. A major component of the project is a process called Technology Drill Down, which provides medical/surgical units the opportunity to develop and improve their process and workflow inefficiencies by identifying technological solutions. The results of the Workforce Commission’s project “Technology Solutions to Make Patient Care Safer and More Efficient,” suggest through the proper type and use of technology there is a potential to increase the amount of time nurses spend providing direct care, which increases patient safety, improves clinical outcomes and decreases costs.

6. It is important to recognize the age differentials and learning curve for both clinicians and consumers and provide the appropriate education.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 1:46 pm and is filed under HIT/Health Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.