Incorporating technology within the healthcare system has many beneficial outcomes that contributed positively to improve healthcare settings. The medical insurance coding involves the integration of information science and medical science to employ healthcare professional’s knowledge in an efficient manner. The use of medical insurance coding has been widely used due to the advanced development of communication and information technologies. Thereby, the advent of IT technology has significantly increased the ability of nurses to handle large amount of data and use it effectively to conduct research and transfer it to various medical settings1.
The use of technological tools has contributed to improving the quality practice of healthcare professionals by ensuring a safe and informed environment. The use of informatics within the healthcare system has been extensively employed in the US due to the increase rate of chronic diseases in the US 2. Indeed, this has triggered the need of merging clinical research findings with the advent of computerized programs to effectively help citizens to safely manage their own health wellness. Moreover, the integration of IT system has significantly contributed to reducing the time being spent on collecting data by having an easy access and retrieval of information and translate it into a useful language.
This has helped healthcare providers in finding more time for direct client care settings, rather than spending significant amount of their time working on data collection and retrieval. In addition, the use of new technologies such as photography, voice and video recordings have helped in adding new dimensions to illness assessment and the treatment process in order to maintain a safe clinical environment. Furthermore, the use of computer-based systems has allowed healthcare providers to set reminders and alerts to monitor patients’ wellness 2. Therefore, the use of informatics within healthcare settings has promising insights in terms of improving the quality of healthcare being provided.
According to a study that has been conducted by Piscotty et al., 2015, the use of clinical decision support systems (CDSS) has been integrated within the healthcare system. This technology has been previously used by physicians and nowadays by other healthcare professionals in order to enhance patients’ outcomes and help healthcare professionals to deliver an adequate healthcare system. The use of electronic nursing care reminder is one type of CDSS and which has been demonstrated to reduce reported cases of missed care 3. However, it is worth mentioning that medical insurance coding aims at improving clinical reasoning rather than replacing it by technology. Thereby, a combination of technology and clinical reasoning could help in decreasing medical errors and improving the quality of care by following certain safety measures. The results of the study revealed that healthcare providers who have good perceptions towards the use of healthcare technology are more likely to use this type of technology in their clinical practice, and this will indeed help in decreasing the rate of missing care. Indeed, this could help in setting the most appropriate medical strategies that would enable the increased use of information technology within the medical domain 3.
To facilitate the use of technology within healthcare settings, the Health Information Technology Act (2009) revealed that Electronic Healthcare Records should be integrated within the healthcare system of America by 2014. Thereby, this has put an emphasis on healthcare educational institutions to adopt new curriculum that would prepare healthcare professionals to use electronic healthcare records effectively.