Developing A Vision Document For New Access – Benefits And Capabilities

Problems

The report aims in developing a vision document for the new mental health invention which is known as New Access. It is a mental health intervention that targeted the young and aged people within the age group of 17 to 25. Headspace is an organization that works with the new system. The NewAccess mental health service is proposed to be expanded to young people of age group 12 along with the indigenous youth. The New Access intervention particularly targets the conditions of depression and anxiety. One significant problem that the mental health patients often face is the problem of re telling their story each time they visit a new doctor and eventually end of in telling very little about their problem to the professionals (Coorevits et al., 2013). To deal with the problem, a software will be developed that will record and store the story of mental health patients when it is told for the first time. The problems, capabilities along with the benefits of this project are evaluated in the following paragraphs.

The problem that is identified in the case is related to the mental health patients. It is observed that a young professional who is suffering from mental illness might have to visit a number of professional before getting the help. These patients need to re tell their problems each and every time they visit a new doctor for help (DesRoches et al., 2013). On an average a person suffering with mental illness visits a caseworker of Headspace, a medical staff of a hospital, a general practitioner, psychologist, psychiatrist and other doctors. While retelling their story every time, the patients clam up and tend to say very little that makes it harder for the professionals (Rodrigues et al., 2013). This is one of the significant reasons behind the patients not getting the needed medical help. The psychiatrist or the psychologist may not have an access to all the information needed for producing an accurate help to the patients (Luchenski et al., 2013). Since the patients suffer from the problems of mental illness and anxiety, the process of retelling the story may not be easy for them.

In order to deal with all these problems, a project has been proposed that aims in capturing the story of the patients when it is narrated for the first time.  This will eliminate the requirement of re telling the story each and every time they visits a new medical practitioner (Fernández-Alemán et al., 2013). Furthermore, the recorded data can be easily transferred to the different doctors and thus ensuring that the patient gets the much needed medical help. The capabilities and the benefits of the new system are discussed in the following paragraphs.  

The system is capable of eliminating the issues and the problems that is faced by the mental ill health patients. The system is capable of eliminating the need of retelling their story and problems while visiting a new doctor. Furthermore, it becomes easier for the doctors to understand the problems of the patients.

Capabilities

The story will be recorded in the very first time it is told and will be stored and transferred digitally. The digital storage and transfer of data makes it easily accessible for the doctors and the patients as well. However, it is essential to ensure security of the clinical documents that is being shared with the healthcare professionals (Leventhal et al., 2015). The successful execution of the project will ensure a better service delivery to the mental ill health patients and will be able to treat more patients. It is easier to use and manage as it removes the need of paper work.

This system can further store the data and health records of the patients in a digital form which will in turn eliminate the need for carrying the healthcare records while visiting a doctor. The applications can easily be controlled by the patients and he/she can choose who will be given an access to the system that is to be developed. A Smartphone application can improve the access of data and it is expected that this application can be easily used and accessed by the doctors and the patients (Krebs & Duncan, 2015). The benefits of the new system that are proposed are discussed in the following section.

There are a number of benefits of making use of a system like NewAccess. One of the significant benefits of this system is that it will eliminate the need for manual storage of the health data. In this case, the mental health patients will be benefitted as they will not have to re tell their story every time they visit a new doctor (Winters et al., 2013). The recorded health record can be in turn forwarded to the doctors thus eliminating the need of re telling the story. With this, the health care professional will also have an easier access to the records of the patients and it will be easier for them to prescribe medication to them which was earlier not possible (Koh et al., 2013).

In this project, a digital healthcare system is proposed which will not only store the story of the medical health condition but will also store the previous health record and the medications that have been prescribed to the patients previously.

The use of a digital health record system will provide a better healthcare by enhancing the different aspects of patient care that includes the safety, effectiveness and benefits of the patients suffering from mental illness (Moja et al., 2014). The data that will be stored in NewAccess system will be secured by proper encryption standard that can be accessed only by the authorized individuals. The patients can choose whom to provide the authorization for accessing their health records so that their records are not misused.

Apart from this, there are a number of other benefits of making use of a system a of digital health care system which are as follows-

1. The use of digital health system will make it easier for the healthcare professionals to have a comprehensive view of the conditions of the medical condition of the patients (Nazi, 2013). The system will store a dynamic and continuous patient centred record that will enable the professional to provide a better diagnosis to the patients.  
2. The system will further improve the coordination between the patients and the doctors (Ajami & Bagheri-Tadi, 2013). This will be possible as the patient’s record can be easily accessed from the system.
3. The information sharing between the doctor and the patient will be easier as the system is expected to increase the efficiency of the services provided.
4. The digital system will eliminate or reduce the chances of erroneous data entry and the doctors will always have an updated data of the patients.

Conclusion 

The report discusses a problem that is generally faced by the mental ill health patients and the doctors that are treating such patients. A mental ill health patient often needs to visit more than one doctor and they have to re narrate their problems every time they visit a new doctor and ends up telling very little about their problem. In order to address the said issue a project has been proposed that aims in developing a digital health record system which will store the story of patients, when it is told for the first time. The report discusses the capabilities and the benefits of the proposed system.

References 

Ajami, S., & Bagheri-Tadi, T. (2013). Barriers for adopting electronic health records (EHRs) by physicians. Acta Informatica Medica, 21(2), 129.

Coorevits, P., Sundgren, M., Klein, G. O., Bahr, A., Claerhout, B., Daniel, C., … & De Moor, G. (2013). Electronic health records: new opportunities for clinical research. Journal of internal medicine, 274(6), 547-560.

DesRoches, C. M., Charles, D., Furukawa, M. F., Joshi, M. S., Kralovec, P., Mostashari, F., … & Jha, A. K. (2013). Adoption of electronic health records grows rapidly, but fewer than half of US hospitals had at least a basic system in 2012. Health Affairs, 32(8), 1478-1485.

Fernández-Alemán, J. L., Señor, I. C., Lozoya, P. Á. O., & Toval, A. (2013). Security and privacy in electronic health records: A systematic literature review. Journal of biomedical informatics, 46(3), 541-562.

Koh, H. K., Brach, C., Harris, L. M., & Parchman, M. L. (2013). A proposed ‘health literate care model’would constitute a systems approach to improving patients’ engagement in care. Health Affairs, 32(2), 357-367.

Krebs, P., & Duncan, D. T. (2015). Health app use among US mobile phone owners: a national survey. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(4).

Leventhal, J. C., Cummins, J. A., Schwartz, P. H., Martin, D. K., & Tierney, W. M. (2015). Designing a system for patients controlling providers’ access to their electronic health records: Organizational and technical challenges. Journal of general internal medicine, 30(1), 17-24.

Luchenski, S. A., Reed, J. E., Marston, C., Papoutsi, C., Majeed, A., & Bell, D. (2013). Patient and public views on electronic health records and their uses in the United Kingdom: cross-sectional survey. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(8).

Moja, L., Kwag, K. H., Lytras, T., Bertizzolo, L., Brandt, L., Pecoraro, V., … & Iorio, A. (2014). Effectiveness of computerized decision support systems linked to electronic health records: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American journal of public health, 104(12), e12-e22.

Nazi, K. M. (2013). The personal health record paradox: health care professionals’ perspectives and the information ecology of personal health record systems in organizational and clinical settings. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(4).

Rodrigues, J. J., De La Torre, I., Fernández, G., & López-Coronado, M. (2013). Analysis of the security and privacy requirements of cloud-based electronic health records systems. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(8).

Winters, B. D., Weaver, S. J., Pfoh, E. R., Yang, T., Pham, J. C., & Dy, S. M. (2013). Rapid-response systems as a patient safety strategy: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine, 158(5_Part_2), 417-425.