Types of Knowledge in Healthcare
Explicit, non-propositional, priori, poteriori, propositional, and tacit are the six generally agreed-upon types of knowledge. The healthcare sector focuses on two of them: tacit and explicit knowledge.
- Explicit knowledge can be quickly and easily transmitted from one individual to another and is organized systematically. It’s recorded and communicated through different mediums, including printed documents, audio recordings, and other records. What it contains is less important than how it’s contained.
- Because it involves a person’s abilities or specialized inherent knowledge (gained wisdom), tacit knowledge is more challenging to communicate and transfer. For instance, professional musicians can’t quickly transfer their years of experience and practice in a way that another person could immediately begin to play at their level.
Along with the two types of knowledge, there are three categories of healthcare knowledge:
- Provider knowledge contains both tacit and explicit knowledge and taps into a healthcare provider’s years of practice and experience.
- Patient knowledge is typically tacit and includes everything a patient knows about their health history, including current and past medical conditions, treatments, and prescriptions.
- Organizational knowledge is the data that providers and patients can tap into to view all the information collected from diagnostic systems, other medical providers, and text-based materials.
A healthcare information management system aims to provide decision-makers with the tools they need to turn data into knowledge. Doing so can transform any healthcare organization or facility into a learning one where new knowledge is continually generated and shared.
Reasons Healthcare Information Management is Crucial
Knowledge management systems in healthcare are essential to aligning people, data, and technologies. They help providers make more accurate clinical and medical decisions, tap into collaborative data sharing, and stimulate innovation.
Technological advancements in the healthcare sector help improve the quality of patient care, reduce operational costs, and shape the entire internal management process.
Health information systems (HIS) can make your business activities smooth and profitable. From more efficient patient scheduling and medical billing to remote patient monitoring, here are just five of the reasons an information management system is critical for your organization.
1. Improved Patient Care and Safety
Medical errors are a serious public health problem and a leading cause of death in the United States. It’s challenging for healthcare providers to identify consistent causes of errors. And even when they do, it’s equally challenging to provide consistent, viable solutions that minimize the chances of recurrent events.
Faster and easier access to accurate patient data lets health-related organizations collect and share information across multiple databases to improve patient safety. By collecting and saving patient information, including medical history, diagnosis reports, vaccinations, treatment plans, and more, healthcare providers can make interacting with patients more personalized, which eventually makes it possible to deliver care in a more efficient way.
2. Performance Analysis
An HIS provides multiple avenues through which your organization can access staff performance, analyze patient care, and check the stability of your organization’s services. A healthcare information management system also reduces the amount of paperwork staff deals with and makes staying aware of employee performance far less complicated.
3. Mitigation of Medical Errors
Because data is collected automatically and stored in a centralized location, reports are less prone to errors. That can mean fewer misdiagnoses and improved providing of medications and treatments.
4. Improved Patient Satisfaction
Knowledge management in healthcare adds value to the clinical process and improves patient satisfaction levels. It eases staff’s daily workload demands and gives them more time to respond to patients’ needs. And when patients know they can expect personalized attention and service, it enhances your organization’s reputation for quality care.
Patients also benefit from a patient portal that gives them easier and more secure access to their medical records. It also facilitates quicker appointment scheduling, doctor communications, and payment processing. All a patient needs is access to a mobile device to avail themselves of the system’s benefits.
5. Remote Patient Monitoring
Healthcare providers can use a healthcare information management system to more easily access patient information, which, in turn, helps them provide better healthcare. Remote patient monitoring is particularly useful for patients who suffer from chronic health issues that make frequent doctor visits strenuous or difficult. Physicians and supporting staff can use the information collected by an HIS to predict or prevent serious health conditions and follow-up with patients once they’re discharged.
Healthcare information management systems are revolutionizing the healthcare sector, increasing efficiency, and making daily tasks easier and more organized. They offer a win-win solution for both patients and healthcare providers unlike anything that’s come before them.
Better Data, Better Healthcare
In a recent podcast, Jeanne Bliss, President of CustomerBliss, spoke with Corrie Quaranto, VP of Northwell Health, about the value of improving the patient experience through data analysis. Quaranto shared her view that “You need to get leadership to buy in to customer experience efforts” so they see it as an investment in their organization’s future.
An information management system in healthcare creates a more efficient flow of information between providers and staff, which can ultimately lead to increased productivity and efficiency. By promoting a culture of knowledge sharing in your facility, you can leverage employee knowledge and skills to achieve remarkable advancements in patient care.
If you want a streamlined way to bring together the collective expertise of researchers, policymakers, and healthcare providers, a healthcare information management system provides the solution you’re looking for.
