NURS FPX 4900 Assessment 3 Assessing the Problem Technology Care Coordination and Community Resources Considerations  Assessing Problem

Advantages of Healthcare Technologies

Several healthcare technologies can be used to promote safety, quality, and efficiency in the care given to patients with stroke. Over the past years, the use of digital technologies has gained considerable popularity due to their effectiveness in use with patients suffering from chronic conditions. Digital technologies are categorized into groups such as mobile health, wearable devices, telemedicine, telehealth, personalized medicine, and health information technology (Blek et al., 2018). Robotics technology has also been proposed for use in providing stroke patients with home-based rehabilitation services (Willems et al., 2021). Besides rehabilitation, robotics promises to play a vital role in helping patients to undertake their daily activities and solve problems efficiently.

The use of different healthcare technologies in stroke management is associated with a number of benefits. One of them is the reduction in costs incurred by patients and healthcare systems in managing stroke. Healthcare technologies such as telehealth and telemedicine enable timely and remote interaction between stroke patients and healthcare providers. Healthcare providers use the systems to address the concerns of their patients. As a result, telehealth and telemedicine eliminate the need for unnecessary hospital visits by stroke patients. It also prevents complications, leading to reduction in the rates of unnecessary hospitalization, hence, cost effectiveness. The provision of timely and efficient care through telehealth and telemedicine promotes patient satisfaction and quality of care. Healthcare technologies such as mobile health also promote improved adherence, lifestyle and behavioral modification by patients. The technologies provide patients and their significant others with vital information on self-care management of their health problems (Blek et al., 2018). Consequently, there is the reduction in the risk of adverse events due to improved treatment adherence and lifestyle and behavioral modification by patients.

Disadvantages of Healthcare Technologies

Despite the above benefits, healthcare technologies use in stroke management is however associated with a number of disadvantages. One of the leading disadvantages of healthcare technologies used in stroke management is data privacy and security issues. Health information technologies such as telehealth are prone to cyber-attack incidences. Unauthorized parties can access the systems, leading to the loss of data privacy and confidentiality (Schuster et al., 2018). The other disadvantage associated with healthcare technologies used in stroke management and other chronic diseases is costs incurred in their adoption. Often, healthcare organizations incur high costs in acquiring, maintaining, and training their healthcare providers on the use of the healthcare technologies. The high costs make it difficult for healthcare organizations to prioritize the implementation of use of health information technologies in patient care (Kerure et al., 2020).

The other disadvantage of healthcare technologies is the disruption of workflow. Accordingly, the implementation of new healthcare technologies requires healthcare providers to change their routines of patient care. Healthcare providers have to be trained and assisted on the efficient use of the systems to address the care needs of the patients. The result is that the normal processes will be interrupted, leading to potential decline in productivity of healthcare organizations (Schuster et al., 2018). There is also the evidence that the use of health information technologies such as electronic health records in patient care may lead to unintended consequences. For example, the technologies may increase the rate of medical errors, overdependence on technologies, alteration in the organizational power structure, and negative emotions (Kerure et al., 2020). The changes may affect safety, quality, and efficiency of patient care, hence, the disadvantage. The above disadvantages are consistent with the experiences in my healthcare organization.

Barriers and Costs Associated with Technologies

The use of specific technologies such as digital technologies is associated with a number of barriers as well as costs in healthcare. One of the barriers is the lack of competencies for technology use among healthcare providers. The lack of the desired knowledge and skills by healthcare providers limit the use of healthcare technologies in stroke management. The other barrier is institutional support. Adequate institutional support in the form of provision of human, financial, and material resources is important in implementing technology use in stroke manag