Impacts of technological changes on health and human service delivery PDF

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Essay on the impacts of technological changes on health and human service delivery....

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Running Head: IMPACT OF TECHN0LOGY ON HEALTH CARE

Impacts of Technological Changes on Health and Human Service Delivery Amanda Perkins 01/09/2017 BSHS/385 Audra Stinson

IMPACT OF TECHN0LOGY ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICE DELIVERY Over the last few decades, the world has experienced an enormous change in technology that has changed both personal and professional lives. One area that has been greatly impacted by the technological change is health and human service delivery. Increased use of emerging technology in the two areas has led to the delivery of quality services to clients and efficiency. Use of technology and reduced service access time thus ensuring health and human service workers can be able to serve a large number of clients. This has been made possible through technologies like online reservation, mobile communication, video conferencing, and availability of wide range of information on the internet[ CITATION Kin04 \l 1033 ]. However, use of technology in health and human service delivery has raised ethical and legal issues that have to be eliminated for better operation. Both health and human service delivery deals with highly confidential client information and thus security and confidentiality must be observed by peoples involved in the practices. Human services are defined as those activities that meet human needs through remediation, prevention while improving the quality of life of the general population[ CITATION Ser15 \l 1033 ]. Technology is, therefore, used in human service delivery to improve coordination, accessibility, and accountability in various service delivery agencies. On the other hand, technology has greatly revolutionized the health through data management systems such as Electronic Health Records (EHR), Health Information Exchange (HIE), and Management Systems (MS). Emerging technology trends have greatly improved health and human service delivery in many ways. For instance, many services have moved from internally focused model to external ones where all the services are available in the cloud. The cloud infrastructure has ensured better connectivity between service providers and consumers. The cloud has enabled health and human

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service agencies to serve multiple customers without increasing operations cost. The cloud infrastructure uses economies of scale to reduce workload for personnel while decreasing the cost of operations and services. Additionally, mobile technology in health and human service delivery has greatly helped in reaching out to customers who are located in different geographical regions. Development of mobile technology has ensured low-income families can have access to smartphones which have access to the Internet[CITATION KIS12 \l 1033 ]. Technology has also led to the invention of IT hardware and software that can analyze a large amount of data enabling agencies to make viable decisions. These systems have enabled close to real time support to customers. Research has shown that 30 million Americans that are over 50 years of age are using the Internet to access Medicare and other online services. This is an indication that there is a need for health and human services agencies to avail their services online. With the adoption of the cloud infrastructure, many agencies have been able to offer services such as reservation, inquiries, and payments online. Online services are convenient to the users because they are accessible around the clock. Healthcare industry is also using the Internet to share patient information such as previous prescriptions and allergies. The internet technology thus allows customers from rural areas to have access to specialized treatment from urban areas without having to travel. Technology has also enabled transmission of digital images and other diagnostic tools for efficient treatment. Counselors are also using the internet to contact clients in between sessions. In health care and human service, client’s information is treated with a lot of confidentiality and, therefore, technological systems adopted should uphold that. Therefore, all information systems should conform to set standards to ensure data protection. The Office of Civil rights (OCR) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ensure security

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privacy conformant of health systems through EHRs certification and HIPAA rules enforcement[ CITATION Ama07 \l 1033 ]. HIPAA rules provide guidelines to be followed by healthcare agencies to ensure the protection of patient information. These rules also emphasize the need for EHR developers to work closely with health care agencies. HIPAA directs organizations to implement EHRs in stages that meets privacy and security requirements. There are other federal organizations that are set aside to ensure medical systems meets the set security standards. Center for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) is set to ensure all programs used by different organizations are put into meaningful use. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) also sets security standards for federal governments but its reports are available for the general public. Confidential client information can be protected using encryption and access control. All data stored and in transit must be encrypted to ensure even if they fall into the wrong hands they are not compromised. Additionally, access to confidential information should be controlled using user privileges. Every system user should provide credentials to be allowed to access information within their privileges. The system administrator should set user privileges to ensure only selected few persons to have access to confidential client information. Use of technology raises many ethical issues that have to be considered before its use in health and human service delivery. Some of the ethical issues that arise from the use of technology and internet are pornography, identity theft and deception[ CITATION Ora00 \l 1033 ]. Health professionalism hinders practitioners from disclosing client information to the third party without their consent. However, information systems provide data centralization which enables unethical staff to have access to such information.

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IMPACT OF TECHN0LOGY ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICE DELIVERY

References Amatayakul, M. (2007). Electronic health records: A practical guide for professionals and organizations. Amer Health Information Management. Kincaid, S. (2004). Technology in human services: Using technology to improve quality of life. Council for Standards in Human Service Education, 7-49. Oravec, J. A. (2000). Online counseling and the Internet: Perspectives for mental health care supervision. Journal of Mental Health, 1363-1364. Services, N. O. (2015, June 24). What is Human Services? Retrieved from national human services website: http://www.nationalhumanservices.org/what-is-human-services Swaminathan, K. S. (2012, April 18). 4 Technology Trends to Watch in Human Services. Retrieved from govtech.com: http://www.govtech.com/e-government/4-TechnologyTrends-to-Watch-in-Human-Services.html

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