Computers in the Workplace

For week four of INT100, the first discussion touches on computers in the workplace. We were to choose an industry and talk about the functions of computers within them. I thought the best industry to speak on would be the health care industry.

From its inception, the health care industry has been recording patient data to keep records about their health, historical visits, and personal information. Record-keeping was primarily done on paper and filed in large cabinets for future access upon a patient's next visit. As the years go by, doctors, dentist, and other health care professionals had to create archives which either took up office space or required them to rent space to store patient data. The need to archive data then becomes expensive and can pose a threat to personal information should the archived data be lost or stolen. With the increase of technological power and processing, the health care industry is now moving slowly towards logging patient information into a digital format.

I have been seeing the same dentist for over 13 years, and she continues to improve her customer relations using technology. Her patient data is now registered in a proprietary application on a local network and backed up to cloud storage, eliminating the need to have physical archives and added security. She has also incorporated an email and text-based messaging system that sends alerts to patients on when their next scheduled appointment is, which is great because myself and others tend to forget about the appointment, especially since they are typically scheduled every six months. With all the new technologies that have been implemented to her business, her employees must have a fair amount of computer literacy to enter patient data, create future scheduled visits, and process payments. Procedures that my dentist took can be applied by primary physicians, chiropractors, and other professionals as well.

The technology that the health care industry will need to assist with patient care will continue to expand and make patient interaction more streamline. The technology over the next ten years will see health care professionals move all processes to cloud-based servers that will eventually make schedules, send alerts to patients via call, email, or text messages, and automate billing processes. Patients may also interact with computer interfaces to make scheduling fast and more accessible. There is no doubt that new technology will have a lasting impact on the health care industry, and in the end, both health care professionals and their patients stand to benefit immensely.