Nursing Informatics in Ambulatory Care Information System
Ambulatory Care
- Covers a wide range of health care services that are provided for patients who are not admitted overnight to a hospital.
- These services are performed at outpatient clinics, urgent care centers, emergency rooms, ambulatory or same-day surgery centers, diagnostic and imaging centers, primary care centers, community health centers, occupational health centers, mental health clinics, and group practices.
Ambulatory Care Information System
- Provides automated processing of data and information such as allergies and medical alerts, patients accounting system such as charging, billing, discounts and concessions, diagnostics imaging treatments, and etc.
- With this system, the patient waiting time is optimized through effective queue management.
- It involves one-time registration required per visit. It also facilitates the management of doctors schedule.
Advantages of Ambulatory Care Information System
- Real-time and easy access to patient’s medical records by healthcare providers.
- Improved workflow, which allows more time for comprehensive patient counseling and review.
- Reduced errors with the availability of various automation engines – drug interaction engine; medical alert engine; patient billing engine, etc.
- Automated and integrated back-end process such as pharmacy, billing, purchasing, inventory management, etc.
- Improved clinical outcome analysis – enhanced research productivity through data mining and facilitate institutional handling of managed care challenges in a timely manner.
- Improvement in hospital inventory management.
- Better monitoring and management of costs – prescription, consumables, doctor’s fees, etc.
Issues in Ambulatory Care Information System
- Increased accountability
- The need for continuous support
- Privacy and confidentiality of information
- Accessibility and security of data and information
- Integration and support to the other system
The Role of Nurse Using Information System in the Ambulatory Care System
- The very basic objective of the automated ambulatory care information system is to easily integrate the data to the other data and easily translate these data into information.
- The effective transformation of data can be integrated to the other processes to transform it into knowledge.
- The ambulatory care nurse and other health care provider should be capable enough to implement the process effectively.
Daisy Jane Antipuesto RN MN
Currently a Nursing Local Board Examination Reviewer. Subjects handled are Pediatric, Obstetric and Psychiatric Nursing. Previous work experiences include: Clinical instructor/lecturer, clinical coordinator (Level II), caregiver instructor/lecturer, NC2 examination reviewer and staff/clinic nurse. Areas of specialization: Emergency room, Orthopedic Ward and Delivery Room. Also an IELTS passer.
