Politics

Patient Care Technology Systems of Mission Viejo, California has developed technology that will futuristically change the system of health care as we know it today. The game changer used to avoid newborn abductions in the early eighties has now revolutionized the way Health Care Administrators track and monitor their patients, staff, and equipment. Electronic tags similar to bar codes used in products at local stores such as Wal Mart, and JC Penny are being used by hospitals to keep an eye on vitally necessary equipment used for emergency purposes such as EKG’s, and defibrillators in the emergency room, all the way down to monitoring arriving patients, and sending needed staff to understaffed areas of the facility. On one side of the table this technology provides for a more efficient health care facility, one that keeps patient waiting times low, inventory control more effective, and accurate, and staff more closely available for emergency tasks at hand. “Christiana Care Hospital, a 907-bed teaching hospital in Newark, Del., installed an electronic tracking system in 2004. The system, using infrared sensors in the ceiling that automatically read badges, shows the location of patients and doctors on an electronic map. By keeping closer tabs on people, the hospital says it has been able to cut about 40 minutes from what used to be a typical emergency-room stay of four to six hours. It's also reduced by about half the 4% to 5% of emergency patients who used to become frustrated and leave without treatment.”

However, this technology does not sit well with the pundits, which although given all of these qualities still poses major drawbacks; one in particular is the privacy issue. In a way it is like treating all of your assets as if they were items, in terms of equipment that would be perfectly acceptable, but when closely monitoring your employees for known, or unknown reasons that in my opinion crosses the lines. Staff members also felt that administrators could, and would use this device to track employee coordinates, thus eliminating confidentiality of paid or unpaid downtime. Also, a study published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association warned that systems using high-frequency radio waves, the most powerful of the tracking systems, could interfere with the functioning of medical devices. The signals could stop a hospital pump from operating, switch off a ventilator or interfere with a pacemaker, the researchers warned. It is almost like using the philosophy of kill one to save a thousand, if the benefit outweighed the risk in the majority of circumstances it may just be in the best interest of companies to install, and utilize the up and coming technology.

Do you believe that health care facilities would benefit, or lose from this type of technology? Why or Why not....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122645364411819495.html

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