When healthcare first became digitized, computers were used in the healthcare system predominantly for administrative uses. However, in recent years, computers have become more common place across a wide variety of medical facilities for a range of different applications from laboratories to operating rooms to medical computer carts in every ward, and the technology continues to advance rapidly. Read on to learn more about how computers have revolutionized medical care.
Improved Doctor and Patient Interaction
The medical field is highly regulated and deals with immense amounts of sensitive data. However, over the last two decades, the healthcare industry has increasingly opted to digitize patient records and data, which as completely changed the way that doctors and patients interact.
Previously sensitive data was not readily available to patients and lag times in paper processing meant that test results or diagnostics could take weeks before being received by the doctor. New medical social networks and portals allow patients immediate remote access to necessary information and allow doctors to connect with other medical staff and patients improving communication within the healthcare system.
Better Workflow
Information is a pervasive part of the healthcare system. Nurses and doctors spend a significant amount of their shift completing paperwork which leaves less time for important face-to-face patient interaction.
New computing technologies, such as the use of a medical computer cart, can improve workflow by allowing nurses to make real-time patient information updates, and help to eliminate personal errors in record keeping. With all patient data digitized and accessible to medical staff via computers on mobile medical carts rather than constantly stopping at stationary workstations, doctors and nurses can now accomplish more within each shift.
Better Diagnostics
Diagnostics has always been an area in the healthcare system that suffers from errors and delays. It used to take weeks to receive test results due to slow lab processing, but with the use of a computer to do the majority of the heavy lifting, doctors and patients can now receive results within a fraction of the time.
Computers control or are integrated into nearly all medical machinery and equipment including MRI, CT scanners and ultrasounds. This not only allows diagnostic testing to be more accurate by removing error, but it also offers faster and more effective patient monitoring leading to more accurate diagnoses.
More Collaborative Healthcare
Collaborative work is one of the keys to a productive healthcare system. Fast computer processing times, mobile medical carts and social media networks allow doctors, patients and medical staff to collaborate more than ever.
Remote access to records and remote monitoring allow patients more autonomy when it comes to their medical care. This patient-empowered approach is one of the most recent developments in healthcare reform and has been shown to improve patient health outcomes and quality of care.
More Efficient Experimentation
Computers expedite the experimentation process and help to create new medical technologies, pharmaceuticals and advance medical discoveries. This is particularly important concerning disease outbreaks, highly communicable disease and in an area that receives a lot of medical interest such as cancer.
Faster experimentation means that vaccines for deadly outbreaks can be developed before the disease has a chance to spread and potentially decimate populations. It also allows doctors to keep up with continually mutating strains of viruses such as influenza.
Final Thoughts
Computers are a vital part of the healthcare industry from developing more efficient medical systems with medical computers carts to creating a more transparent and accessible healthcare system. To learn more about how you can use medical computer carts and other technologies in your medical facility, call Scott-Clark Medical on (512)-598-5466 to talk to one of our expert sales staff.