Health Care Automation for Developed Countries - myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theHealth Care Automation for Developed Countries. Answer: Introduction Advances in Artificial intelligence, big data processing and modeling of human behavior have led to development of new generation robots that can perform jobs like humans (Harari, 2017). Though the introduction of AI technology (robots) to replace the nurses and doctors are considered as disruptive (Mardell, 2016), there are many factors that support its introduction. The health care management leaders are of the opinion that robots are superior to humans in many respects such as they can be used 24/7, they commit far lesser number of errors, and their productivity is superior to humans. Due to these advantages, occurrence of adverse events and patient harm can be reduced to a large extent. This article explores the health conditions in Mali, the current challenges in health industry, the current automated practices and the future automation possibilities in health care. Health Care Condition in Mali There are many challenges Mali is facing in the health sector. The socio-economic conditions of its citizens, the prevalent malnutrition, and insufficient hygiene measures in the public and household places contribute to the health issues in the Mali (The World Fact Book, 2017). It is evident from various sources that Malis health and development indicators are far below most of the countries and life expectance is only about 60 years at birth. Most of the population in Mali does not have access to safe drinking water and the government budget for health care is a pittance. International organizations such as WHO, World Bank, etc. are extending support to improve nutrition through the local recipes (Bossuet, 2013), and women entrepreneurs are encouraged to develop the food quality through their domestic products. The health care facilities is very limited in Mali, often the patients do not receive the required medicines on time. Epidemics such as malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, etc. are rampant and most citizens are not protected from these diseases through immunization. Children are exposed to unhygienic conditions and malnutrition is very high in most communities. One of the major causes of patient deaths is due to the unavailability of the qualified doctors and nurses. The automated treatment disease will be a boon to the countries such as Mali, though the initial cost of acquiring the technology is high. The current challenges in Health care in Developed countries The principal responsibility of healthcare professionals and institutions is not only to help the health care users to overcome the diseases but also to prevent harm to the users. Since, most heath interventions are provided in a team situation, he chances of adverse clinical outcomes are higher. There are systems and norms to prevent harm to the patients and most number of people considers the hospitalization as a safe approach (Berwick, 2016). But the human errors sometimes lead to adverse events that bring unnecessary complications to the patients health. Irrespective of the system improvements, unwanted complications arise due to human error. In most countries, unlike the situation in Mali, patient safety is an important policy issue. Until recently, patient harm that happens in the process of providing health intervention was considered as part of health care practice. However, the recent systems have begun to measure and quantify extent of patient harm and the hospital management is held responsible for systemic errors. The burden of patient harm is placed on the total organization and a health care leadership is demanded in most institutions. WHO (2004) defines patient harm as any unintended and unnecessary harm due to health care process. This definition includes the failure to implement indicated medical treatment. Patient harm is often due to a preceding adverse event. A typical adverse event according WHO (2004) may include the following common actions such as medication errors, infections due to use of unhygienic tools, diagnostic errors, improper design of patient support systems, applying wrong procedures during the interventions, etc. The errors in health care process incur heavy cost to patients, the institutions and the communities. OECD (2017) reports that about fifteen percent of expenditure on health care is caused by the failure of safety measures. The experts are of the opinion that the broader economic loss due to patient harm is hidden as the patients capacity and productivity is lost in intangible ways. Health economists estimate the amount of loss due patient harm in trillions of dollars. Jackson (2009) reports an interesting statistics that every adult in United States is likely to be a victim of diagnostic error at least once in his or her life time. The annual per capita cost of patient harm may be around $3000 and the most adverse events are due to infections from health care process, pressure ulcers, wrong diagnosis and medication errors. The way out to prevent the unwanted cost It is universally agreed that the basis of improving patient safety rests on the moral and ethical inclination of the health care providers. Patient harm loads the user, his or her family, and the community with unimaginable implications, hence maximizing a patients safety is the primary responsibility of the health care institutions. The patient harm manifests its influence on the care costs in different forms such as elongated stay in the hospital, readmission for treatment, extra diagnostic testing, engagement of scarce resources, etc., and places a burden on patients, their families and loved ones, and the community as a whole. The impact of preventable safety errors is considered as significant and is receiving greater attention from institutional leaders, governments, and health care professionals. It is justified now that an investment to prevent the adverse medical events. Better policy and practice, training and skill up gradation, professional certification, etc., alone will not be sufficient to prevent the patient harms, automation technology and its appropriate implementation is required in this front. There are many case studies that indicated that proper automations have resulted in substantial savings to the health care institutions. The need for an automated technology in health care setting is inevitable to meet the demands of the patients and the society. Some current Automation in practice Automation practice in health care system has begun long time ago, and its emphasis is ever growing. Some of the current health care automations are discussed here. One of the successful automation is in the area of maintaining Electronic Health Records (EHR). Maintenance of EHR Krenn Schlossman (2017) report that (EHRs) have advantages in health care industry, especially in preventive medicine, communication between user and care professional, and in managing drug interactions. Patients too are benefitted by the EHR, as it helps them to review their treatment history and know their current status of health. Often the EHRs are maintained in central data base or in a cloud which allows the doctors and patients to access their records. All diagnostic test results are readily available to the physicians as and when the patient is examined. The immediate availability of test reports and critical data regarding a patient makes a doctor focus on the diagnostic and treatment issues leading to lesser patient harm. Also, the automated technology to enter patient data into the EHRs avoids the possibility of human error and thus reduces the chances for patient harm. The physicians and care professionals are not required to enter redundant data which frees up their time for better patient care. The HER management system helps the institutions to manage their clients appropriately and avoid the loss of revenue through unbilled services, wrong value entry, etc. Automated Drug Management System (ADMS) The economic and clinical effects of adverse drug events are a source of great loss to the patients, hospital administrators and the patients families. Hence, it is a potent influencer that prompts the hospital administrators to look for ways to improve patient safety. One of the important areas where automation is implemented is in the pharmacy section. Though the pharmacy automation is challenging and painful to implement, the benefits of a robust pharmacy system outweighs he risks. Aldosari (2017), reports that the automation in drug administration within a hospital has several benefits. First, increased patient safety is achieved due to reduction in errors due to human error. Second is improvement in compliance of drug related records; third, lower cost of managing pharmacy as it helps to dispose expired drugs and in managing inventory efficiently. The pharmacist can locate the drug easily and meet the time critical orders from the hospital. Finally, an automated pharmacy helps the health institution to manage the medication process in a holistic way. Next Step: Replacing nurses and doctors with Robots is disruptive or systematizing the health care? Though, the current automation practices have helped the care institutions to reduce the patient harm to a large extent, the technology is progressing to provide automatic diagnostic procedures and treatment interventions without a doctor. Stark (2017) has reported that personal healthcare robots may be introduced soon to replace some of the functions of a nurse. The robots having artificial intelligence may perform the job of a domestic nurse, such as reminding a patient take medication at prescribed time, coach patients to deal withchronic issues and communicate / report to healthcare professionals about the patient behavior and health progress Another situation that encourages the use of robots in hospitals is lack of specialists or senior doctor to examine the out patients and recommend treatment for them. Arif, Ahmad, Bakar, Ihtisham, Winberg, 2017) suggests that tele-presence may be used to in situation of absence of a doctor. Tele-presence is a set of technology that allows a person to be present in many parts of the world through teleconferencing and visual and auditory sensing robots. The robots are sensitive to the patients and will report to the distant doctors about the patient behavior and symptoms accurately. Medical errors are minimized and the doctor has the option of reviewing a patients behavior multiple times as the robot maintains a video of the patients critical behaviors. The specialist doctor can be present in any part of the world at any time within few minutes. The tele-robots located in many places help the system to be more economical, timely attention, and enhance the quality of medical care with least chance of patient harm. Conclusion Since the automation through robots considerably reduces the chances of patient harm, most hospitals are inclined to employ health care robots in their institutions. Many governments are in favor of automation in health care sector and are even thinking of replacing doctors and nurses in some jobs (Mardell, 2016). Especially country like Mali can avail the services of a specialist doctor from developed countries through the robotic assistance. References Aldosari, B. (2017). Patients' safety in the era of EMR/EHR automation Arif, D., Ahmad, A., Bakar, M. A., Ihtisham, M. H., Winberg, S. (2017, April). Cost Effective Solution for Minimization of Medical Errors and Acquisition of Vitals By Using Autonomous Nursing Robot. InProceedings of the 2017 International Conference on Information System and Data Mining(pp. 134-138). ACM. Berwick D (2016). Era 3 for medicine and health care. JAMA. 2016; 315(13):1329-1330 Bossuet, A. P., (2013). Nourishing Communities Through Holistic Farming, Impatient Optimists, Bill and Melinda Foundation. Accessed on 22nd March 2018, at https://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2013/04/Nourishing-Communities-Through-Holistic-Farming#.WrOwfh1ubcc Harari, Y. N. (2017). Reboot for the AI revolution.Nature News,550(7676), 324. Jackson, T. (2009), One dollar in seven: Scoping the Economics of Patient Safety. The Canadian Safety Institute. Krenn, L., Schlossman, D. (2017). Have Electronic Health Records Improved the Quality of Patient Care?.PMR,9(5), S41-S50. Mardell, M. (Dec 2016) The rise of the robots?, BBC. Available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38317786, Accessed on 22nd March 2018. OECD (2017). Economics of Patient Safety, OECD, March 2017. Stark, Harold. (2017). Prepare Yourselves, Robots Will Soon Replace Doctors In Healthcare, The Forbes, Tech# Change the world, July 10th 2017. Accessed on 22nd March at https://www.forbes.com/sites/haroldstark/2017/07/10/prepare-yourselves-robots-will-soon-replace-doctors-in-healthcare/#3667c6cd52b5 The World Fact Book, (2017). Country comparison, Mali. Accessed on 22nd March 2018, Available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ml.html World Health Organization (2004). World alliance for patient safety. Geneva: WHO