Changes for Computers in Healthcare

Technology Defined Daily For Me!

My understanding of information technology is that it is the bridge to connect the digital footprints left behind by the hierarchical society, like reading a map. In my current HIPAA-related job industry, I follow the footprints left by other agents to find answers to the issues patients are experiencing between the pharmacy, the medical doctor's offices, and insurance companies that may block a prescription from being shipped.

While I am employed by one primary business using one computer, I assist the business client in servicing their clientele using Citrix computer desktops within another desktop capability, working from home on a Cisco VPN. The VPN allows me to create a firewall on my internet service provider (ISP) to access confidential, proprietary information at different 'need to know' levels to do my job using voice over internet protocol (VOIP) receiving phone calls. Patients call from their mobile devices using carrier towers or landline phones, and sometimes, I need to send an electronic fax or email to different parties and clear rejections or error codes.

I even transfer phone calls internally and externally to other third parties using technology applications.  

The Computer Device

The computers in the healthcare industry I work with are on an internet network bound by government internet protocols to ensure the privacy and protection of the general public interacting with it. The privacy and protection of the general public are only limited to what is wrongfully shared and abused by those who interact with the World Wide Web (web) or public-based websites without regulations. 

For example, on the web, I would use the Google search engine to locate a business phone number for the customer, and I had no way of transferring them and instructing how the client could choose an accurate internet website. According to the Department of Defense, the public is defined as persons with limited access to certain types of domains and IP addresses, and businesses like my employer who use sublet internet networking and have registered the domain or IP address are regulated to follow Civil Rights laws. Using Cisco VPN and Citrix, I must use a password and user name to identify myself and access protected information within the scope of my job. 

Although my employers put us through six weeks of training on how to access information and the successful functions of their system, some people missed the mark. When listening to patients' concerns, the employee must decipher what is wrong and know exactly where to look. If they do not know where to go or how to look up resources to assist the caller, there are times when the phone call can extend over an hour. This long call time frustrates the caller and creates an image that the business is not good or in their best interest. Patients also begin to voice how they hate the insurance their job provides, which requires them to work only with our pharmacy to help maintain lifelong therapies. This creates a snowball effect when one person is not adequately skilled, which can affect other businesses that network.

10 Years Into the Future of Healthcare

Considering how internet security has changed and the importance of creating more internet protocols to protect the privacy of the American people's Constitutional Rights, in the next 10 years, I foresee more Civil Rights issues happening within healthcare.

Humans (American citizens) will always lack some responsibility because the government created the Internet and security for the people based on what they felt they deserved. This irresponsibility will create a firewall instead of a filter, making it harder for businesses registered with the government as Internet businesses to do what citizens deem as accurate and reliable, causing more Federal Trade Commission cases. Every day, I hear patients complain about needing to call the doctor to have them send the required information requested to service their pharmaceutical needs. Yet, when they complain, there is a lack of understanding that they must give verbal authorization according to laws and regulations.

Information technology can accomplish things for humans when looking at artificial intelligence and the algorithms in place to act in the best interest of humans. Humans desire to control everything, failing to understand "Hurry up and wait" statements, which encourage patience as a virtue by Benjamin Franklin.  I don't see peace in healthcare in the next 10 years, even with the use of technology, because death gives zero care. My hope for healthcare using technology to assist humans is to remove if-then statements, smack people with do it right the first time, and be accountable for your actions statements in the next 10 years. Information technology through the healthcare faraway can foster integrity or be a hierarchical division that will never become nonexistent.

What are your thoughts about the future of computers in your workplace?

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