Which Clinic Management Software can increase productivity in Pakistan? Running a clinic is a stressful job and managing all the tasks smoothly takes a lot of time and energy. The clinic management software helps you in administrative, financial, scheduling, and many other tasks. By using it, you can reduce a lot of stress from your head and things can move smoothly. While living in Pakistan, you can use InstaCare’s clinic management software. It contains different features that help increase overall clinical productivity. In this article, we are going to discuss why should you use clinic management software and how it helps you in daily work. Record keeping for better clinic management The clinic management system records every detail about the patient. It would store the patient’s name, age, gender, medication history, disease history, lab reports, and a visit to the doctor. The physician would put all the notes on it, making it easier to recall it later. This software helps you to keep the record safe and secure. The record-keeping feature helps in moving things smoothly and peacefully. Since the patient’s data is one of the important parts of clinical practice, proper record keeping is necessary. Also, the staff members can access the record easily, without any hassle, anywhere, anytime. They do not need to invest plenty of time in searching for the hard copy record. Complete business insight By using the clinic management software, you would get a complete insight into your business. You can review the financial and operational reports at a glance. It would also help you in managing inventory control, which is an important part of a business. Since improper inventory management can lead to overstocking or understocking and can cause damage to your business. You can avoid all the errors related to inventory control and protect your business by using a clinic management system. It will also show the number of patients who have attended the appointments and who have not. This will give an idea of how many people are approaching to your clinic daily. You can also keep an eye on sales and purchases, and for that, you do not need to wait for a person to complete the whole record. Reduces error Clinic management software generates computerized prescriptions, that reduce the chance of medication errors. Also, it shows suggestions about diseases and medication, making it easier for physicians to make a final diagnosis and prescription. If a physician mistakenly prescribes a medication that is not related to the diagnosis/diseases, or in improper dose, it would automatically alarm them. This feature of clinical management software helps in reducing medication errors. Also, when billing is done manually, it creates a lot of hassle and ambiguity. The clinic management system creates bills quickly and accurately. The clients do not need to wait for a long time waiting in the queue to check out. This saves time for everyone, the staff member, the patient, and the attendant. In this way, you can avoid people’s rush and work smoothly, without overcrowding. Easy appointment scheduling The clients can book appointments on their own, online by using the clinic management software. They can access their portal anytime from anywhere. All they need to book their appointments is an electronic device and an internet connection. The clinic management system sends automated reminders to the patient in the form of text messages, emails, and calls so that they do not miss their appointments. In this way, the software helps in reducing no show visits from the patient’s side. By implementing an online appointment system, the staff members can focus on working on other things that are more important than booking appointments. You can also save money by reducing the staff members or by reducing their working duration. Good coordination and time saving All healthcare providers can review and work on the same patient’s file simultaneously, which is not possible with a paper record system. When everyone would work separately on the file, it would take a lot of time. They would have to wait for long hours to review the file. By using software, it would save a lot of health care providers’ time because all the information would be saved in it and they can review it. This would also give a proper insight to each healthcare professional about the patient’s detail. They can study the file in as much time as they want, which they cannot do with a hard copy record. Conclusion InstaCare is providing accurate and easy to use clinic management software. It would help your clinic to work smoothly and without any hassle. You can save a huge amount of money that you would invest in paying the IT professionals to work for your clinic. Instead, use a clinic management software that would ease the tasks and would save your staff member’s time as well, hence increasing clinical productivity.
Is appointment management system worth using? When running a business, it is important to know your goals so that you can make a road to achieve them. Since people nowadays prefer to perform all the tasks online, therefore online appointment management software has gained popularity. With its help, your businesses can run smoothly without any obstacles. It lets people book their appointment by themselves, online, according to their convenience. The answer to the question that is an appointment management system worth using is, YES. Absolutely yes. In this article, we are going to discuss why using an appointment management system is worthy and what are its benefits. Why is an appointment management system worthy? Convenient The appointment management system makes it easier and convenient to book your appointment. People who are reluctant to talk to someone can easily book their appointments online. Also, people can book their appointments late at night or whenever they are free. They do not need to wait for office hours to book their appointments. You can think and plan about your schedule and then book your appointment, according to the time that suits you the best. Saves time The online appointment management software saves a lot of your time. The patient or their attendant do not need to visit the hospital to get their appointment booked. People also do not need to waste their time on the phone, holding on to get their turn to talk to staff for booking an appointment. It also saves the staff’s time, they do not need to spend time on taking calls or working on computers for booking appointments all day long. When the patient is booking their appointment on their own, a lot of time is saved and the workload is reduced for the staff members. In this way, they can focus on other tasks that need their attention and this increases the overall clinical productivity. Organizes your work Appointment management system sends reminders to the patients to make sure they do not forget their appointment and will be there on time. This reduces no show visits, which helps in organizing things in a better way. When a doctor is present at the clinic and the patients are absent, it makes them frustrated. With the help of this software, you can make sure up to some extent that the patient would be present at the doctor’s office on time. Business growth An online appointment management software helps your business to increase in growth. This is because many people prefer to work digitally nowadays. People can book appointments from anywhere through this feature. No matter from which country, which place, or what time is it. All they need to book an appointment is an electronic device. It is better if you would provide both kinds of services to your clients. Try to make the bookings on phone as well as online through software. This would help some people who do not know how to use electronic devices. If you would restrict to online booking, you would lose people who prefer to book an appointment on the phone and if you would restrict your business to bookings by phone, you would miss the perks of online appointment management systems. Easy money collection Many of your patients can prepay online when booking their appointment through an appointment management system. In this way, your staff members would not need to collect money from all of them since cash handling at the counters is also a hectic and tough job. You can also save the money of the cashier job by completely switching to online payments. However, it is better to have both the modes of payment for your clients that are cash payment and online money transfer. In this way, you can cater to both types of people. The ones who want to pay online and also the ones who want to pay by cash. Complete report The online appointment management system gives you a complete detailed report about your business. It is so hard and time-consuming to keep a record of all the appointments and no show visits manually. You can review all the activities regarding your patient’s influx just in one click. The appointment management software enables you to view the number of no show visits of the patient and the total number of booked appointments, all in a day, week, month or so. With it, you can also access the complete appointment record of every patient. You can get an insight into which patient has attended the most and which patient has the least of their appointments. Conclusion The appointment management system is absolutely worth for your business. With its help, you can grow your business, make new clients, and accomplish your goals. It would help you in reducing staff members and increasing the number of patients as well. It saves your time, your client’s time is valuable and easy to use. InstaCare software has an appointment management system that would help your clients to book their appointment online. Through it, you can track the progress of your business. For more information, please visit Instacare.
How Can Dental Charting Help in Dental Clinical Management? Record keeping is a very important part of any medical procedure. If there is no record, of what the healthcare worker has done, there would be a lot of confusion and errors. If the record is kept, it would make it clear and easy for health care workers to understand and perform the tasks. Previously dental charting was done on paper and by radiographic films, but now it has been transformed into full digital means. What is dental charting? Dental charting is the activity of recording data regarding your oral cavity in the form of a chart, graph or pictorial data. It is a means of communication between different practitioners through which they can get the insight of what has been done previously. With it, the hygienist can record the condition and progress of your oral cavity. In this article, we are going to discuss how dental charting helps in maintaining dental clinical management. How it increases efficiency and clinical productivity? Complete information The dental chart contains a detailed history of the presenting complaint, diagnosis, medication history, prescription, physical examination, what procedure is done and management of the patient. With its help, the hygienist need not take history again and again. They can easily get complete information by reading the dental chart. Dental charting saves time Since the dental chart contains complete information about the patient’s oral cavity, it helps in saving time. The healthcare professionals need not put notes and history on each visit from the initial stage. They can carry on the activity as per the present visit. The hygienists can easily review the previous orders and medications as well. Detection of oral diseases The hygienists take full measurements of your gum tissue around each tooth and put it in the dental chart. If these measurements are not normal, then it indicates any problem going on in the oral cavity. Through dental charting, it is easy to detect and treat any periodontal cavity disease at an initial stage. It is important because it helps in the early detection of diseases of gums that usually show no symptoms. Dental charting monitors the progress Dental charts make it easier for dentists to monitor their patient’s progress. By evaluating it they can get a complete insight into how well is the treatment working. They can also get an idea of either the patient is following their instructions or not. By plotting on a dental chart, the hygienists can rule out what the problem is and from where they should start working. Organized information Dental charts organize the patient’s complete information in one place. Since the software is easy to use and interpret you can access every little information at one click. It also enables many practitioners to work at the same patient. If one of the healthcare workers has treated the patient once, then a second one can treat the patient by looking at the dental chart. Every hygienist can get an idea of what has been done in the last visit. No need for paperwork The old system of formulating the dental charts are now replaced by software. With the help of different software, you do not need to write the bulk of pages and store them. Often keeping the paper record properly is a problematic task and takes a lot of space. The software helps you to store all the information without the need for paperwork. Forensic human identification Dental charting helps in forensic human identification in many circumstances. Let it be an accident, missing person, fire, any criminal activity, flood or any other causality. Teeth are the part of the human body that can bear every kind of shock, even fire. When a whole body decomposes, teeth are there. Since everyone has a bit different structure of teeth. The teeth can be differentiated according to their age, colour, size and shape. Dental charting contains a piece of detailed information about one’s teeth, so they serve as a tool in human body detection in forensic cases. Conclusion Dental charting is an important part when evaluating the oral cavity. It is an essential part to know what is going on inside someone’s dental cavity. It helps in early detection of diseases, helps the healthcare workers by saving their time. The patient can ask their dentist to provide a copy of their dental charting if they want to consult with any other dentist. Or even if they want to keep it for their own record since it has a role in forensic human identification. For more information visit InstaCare.
How inventory management system increases clinical productivity? While running any business, marketing, advertising, sales, and accounts management is important. But along with it, one of the most important things to manage is supply and demand. It could be managed if you maintain a proper inventory with the inventory management system. Since it runs in the background of your business but plays a huge role, so should be given importance. Think if you have customers on the window, but you do not have enough stock to fulfill their needs. It would eventually cause damage to your business and would not eventually leave a good impact on the customer’s mind. Or if you have overstocked goods which have reached their expiry date, this would also badly impact your business. To overcome these kinds of blunders, you should have inventory management, that could prevent these kinds of errors and help increase in clinical productivity. Be it an outpatient clinic, pharmacy, laboratory or a hospital admission cell, proper inventory management system is very important and a critical part to ponder upon. In this article, we are going to discuss, how can clinical productivity be increased by using an inventory management system? Benefits of Using Inventory Management System Customer retention If you would maintain a proper inventory with an efficient inventory management system, you would not go out of stock. Since the software would indicate that you need to stock on the goods before you completely run out of them. This feature will eventually help you in creating loyal customers for your place because they would not go empty-handed. Also, they would not have to roam at different places, to get their desired product. Money-saving An inventory management system helps you in saving money because it protects you from overstocking. Many businesses fail just because of overstocking since it is lethal for a business. Overstocking would lead you to severe financial crises and business loss. You would be spending all the money on buying and just storing it for no use if the product is not in demand. By maintaining inventory properly with a management system, you can save your money and business as well. Organized warehouse By maintaining inventory with inventory management software, you can keep your warehouse clean and tidy. It would help you in determining what is in demand and should be kept first and what is not in rolling, so it can be kept beside. It would also reduce the time of labor to pick things from the warehouse and supply. Time-saving You could save enough time by maintaining inventory properly. Imagine if you have to count and keep the record of each and every product manually. How time-consuming and tiring it would be? An inventory management system helps you in getting the knowledge of which item has to be ordered, or which item should be brought at the sales counter just by seeing the record. It would save time for you so that you can counter check the stock and process other tasks. Business stability Maintaining inventory with an inventory management system would help you to achieve business stability by improving cash flow. If you would have a properly managed inventory, you would not need to spend a large sum of money on buying the stock. By cash rolling, you can buy the stock from the sales and can perform other tasks too. Stock balance Since inventory is a balance between goods input and output, it helps in maintaining the delicate line of maintaining the balance between its sale and stock. Overstocking can damage your business by storing things that are not in demand. While understocking would cause you to lose customers. So, both are damaging for your business, you should try to maintain this balance of neither overstocking nor understocking by using the inventory management system. Data visibility By using an inventory management system, you could easily review the data. It enables you to view sales, purchase, what is left in the stock, and what has to be ordered. These things are so important in running a business. By analyzing the need and demand, you can order products that have high sales and manage supply and demand in a better way. Expiry date reminder If you are using inventory management software for a pharmacy, superstore, or laboratory, it is highly valuable. Since the products after their expiry dates are of no use, an inventory management system would keep you updated and informed about which product has a near expiry date. This would save your products to get expired in store, which would lead them to the garbage, eventually damaging your business badly. Conclusion The inventory management system has many benefits since every business needs the right inventory management system to prosper. You should choose the one which suits the best for your business and works without any interruptions. Instacare provides all in one package for clinics and hospitals to manage their inventory and all clinical tasks. For more information visit us at Instacare.com.pk.
How to increase clinical productivity by using Appointment Scheduling System? Patients influx is increasing day by day, making it harder for the healthcare providers and staff to manage the load. One of the most common and important tasks to manage in a clinical or a hospital setting is appointment scheduling. Calling people over the phone for their appointments is tiring and time-consuming for the staff members. Also, it is not feasible for everyone to pick up the call on time when they are being called, which can cause them to miss the appointment. It is much better to schedule your appointments with the online appointment scheduling system. The online appointment scheduling system is a software or an application by which people can schedule appointments by themselves and it reminds them automatically to attend the appointment. In this article, we are going to discuss how to increase clinical productivity by using an appointment scheduling system? How it helps in reducing missed appointments and how can it save your time and reduce workload as well? What is an online appointment scheduling system? To start with the benefits of the appointment scheduling system, we should know what it is and how does it work? It is also known as an online scheduler or an online booking application. With it, the patient opens the web page or application of a particular clinic or hospital, enters the whole detail and click on the option of “book now”. In this way, they can book their appointments with ease of their schedule, without the need of any staff member. Moreover, the patient can book the appointment from anywhere with the help of a tablet, computer, laptop, or even mobile. What are the benefits of an online appointment scheduling system? Automated reminder The appointment scheduling system sends reminders to the patient in the form of text messages or emails before their appointment. It helps in keeping it in their mind and reduces missed appointments. It is extremely beneficial for those who are so busy or those who forget things easily. The appointment scheduling system acts like your personal assistant, who keeps you updated and reminds you of your appointments. Reduces the cost It reduces the need for staff members who work manually, thereby reduces the cost spent on scheduling appointments. Since appointment scheduling manually creates a lot of pressure, many times the administrator has to hire extra staff for that or the staff needs to do overtime. Due to this reason, the budget spent on the whole project is increased and can be saved way more by the help of the appointment scheduling system. It also helps in saving the money by reducing “no shows” at the appointment time. Since it sends automated reminders, to make sure that the patient would be present on time. Available 24/7 People, when booking their appointment through a phone call, have to contact the office within a designated time. With the help of online appointment scheduling, they can book their appointments anywhere, at any time. It eases the patient to schedule their appointment according to their routine or even in a busy schedule. Easier to update details Many appointment scheduling software offer to save the patient’s full history. It could include all the lab reports, medication history, ongoing medications, diagnosis, comorbidities, and other details. This makes it much easier for the staff to manage all the data, rather than maintaining and searching for files manually. It also makes it easier for the healthcare provider to review the case and diagnose or prescribe. It is so beneficial when the patient is in follow up at a dermatologist’s clinic or a dentist’s clinic since they need to review what has been done in the previous visit. Conclusion The appointment scheduling system should be selected after proper research and analysis. You should opt for one which would be the best choice for your setting because nowadays there is much software with different features in it. Also, keep in mind that it is difficult for the elderly to book their appointment online, so you should also have a facility to book the appointments via phone call. Many people prefer to talk and confirm, rather than online dealing, so it would help them as well. But after all, the online appointment system is a new future because it has many benefits. It would help you in saving money, time, and energy. It would help in processing things smoothly, without any errors and disturbances. People would not easily forget their appointments and will be there to see their doctor on time. With it, people can book their appointments from anywhere, anytime. For more information, visit Instacare.
How Doctors Can Increase The Clinical Productivity? The clinical management software has now become a revolutionary tool that can ease the doctors and the other staff as well. This software helps in storing all the information about patients in one place. In this article, we are going to discuss how clinical management software helps in increasing clinical productivity during the corona pandemic. Appointment Reminder The clinical management software reminds automatically us about the patient’s appointment. This feature helps in saving time and reduces the error. Otherwise, there are fair chances that a person can miss or forget the appointment. Inventory Maintenance This software helps to increase clinical productivity by maintaining the inventory. They give a reminder either the stock is less or has to be ordered. Along with that it also keeps reminding you about the expiry dates hence preventing material wastage. It also manages the purchase of goods by predictive reordering. Time-saving The clinical management software helps the doctors and their assistants in saving time. They need not search again and again for the patient’s previous records, or to enter the manually written prescription on computers. Also, they do not need to write the medication and disease history on every visit, this enhances clinical productivity. Complete Detail The software contains a full detailed record of patients to serve which increases clinical productivity. The doctor can save all the medication history, hypersensitivity records, previous tests done and all the disease history. The complete detail will help the doctor to analyze the case and make the diagnosis. All the records in one click make it easier and time-saving for the doctors. Easy To Access The health care providers can reach the patient’s profile from anywhere. This helps a lot in online consultation. The doctors can revise all the previous treatments and diagnoses, which helps in making a decision about further treatment. No matter where the doctors are, they can reach their patients easily. Prevents Errors The clinical management software alarms, if the wrong medications are being given according to the diagnosis, or the patient is hypersensitive to the drug. They also make sure that there is no drug-drug interaction or drug-disease interaction. Therefore, it is a valuable tool to reduce errors that occur either due to heavy workload or negligence. Legible Handwriting Bad handwriting causes many medication errors that can lead to death. This happens because the prescription is not clear, neatly written and cannot be read properly. If the pharmacist perceives it as some other drug and dispenses that, it could be fatal. Sometimes, the nurses cannot understand the notes that the doctors put. Even an error related to the administration and dilution of a drug could result in death. So, with the help of clinical management software, healthcare professionals can reduce errors, eventually resulting in improved clinical productivity. Everyone Can Reach In hospitals, many people are working together. If someone is working on the file, the other person cannot. The doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist, and even the billing department need the patient’s file to process any task. The healthcare workers and the patient has to wait plenty of time to get the file and work done. With the help of clinical management software, all the healthcare professionals can work simultaneously, on the same file. This reduces a lot of hassle and time. Easy Billing Clinical management software makes billing easier for accountants. Since it has a complete detail of the services, the billing department can easily make the bill in a short time. It is also beneficial for those who need to get reimbursement of their bills from insurance companies. The detailed record can be reached anytime, anywhere. Patient Satisfaction Every doctor wants their patient to be fully satisfied with their services. Since this software will lead to error reduction and time-saving, eventually it will increase the clinical productivity of healthcare professionals. Patients are moved to see that their doctor has a piece of complete knowledge regarding their history and progress. This makes it beneficial for both, the patients and the doctors. Conclusion Clinical management software can make life a lot easier, but it will take some time to implement it completely. The healthcare providers are so used to writing manually that it has become their habit. To implement this software use, they will also have to learn all the basics of using the software and technology, and they should be fast enough too in doing that. Proper training will be needed to work on clinical management software, but it is not hard to achieve. This software will help a lot in reducing errors and time investment. The authorities should implement this software system soon, to increase clinical productivity and patient satisfaction. For more information, contact us.
Regarding, the government’s response to coronavirus, on March 13, the first meeting of the National Security Council (NHC) took place. The Prime Minister of Pakistan chaired the NHC meeting which includes top military and civil leadership. The purpose of the meeting was to look at the alarming threat to the health system. So he asked the relevant persons to lay out a plan and likewise inform him on this matter. On the other hand, the first case of coronavirus registered on February 26th. The person visited Iran recently. His contacts traced and isolated quickly. In short, until March 12, the total number of cases was 21 in Pakistan. For live stats, visit here. But there is a need for a strict action plan. Imran Khan on his speech on March 17, asked,” While there is a need for caution but no need to panic (Ghabrana Nahi hai).” He said that we can not completely lock down the country. Because of doing this, daily wagers can die out of hunger instead of coronavirus. For instance, India completely locked down the country without taking the view of the people who are below the poverty line. But Pakistan has the largest number of cases in South Asia, far more than its neighbor, India. Before any registered case, Pakistan decided not to strand the 800 students in Wuhan, Chian returned to the country. 18th Amendment According to the 18th Amendment to the constitution of Pakistan, it gives semi-autonomous status to provinces to adopt a different course of action from the central government. As a result, we saw varying lockdowns intensity in Sindh, Pakistan’s largest province hit by Taftan visitors. The government kept the visitors in camps for 14 days and let them go after screening. After that, they were allowed to return back to their homes and villages. But a large number of people got positive in their reports when tested by local health care workers. However, health experts alleged that people were badly mishandled by authorities. This provides the place to call military aid “act in aid of civil powers” but not until formally invited. PM and President Steps The Prime Minister of Pakistan has approved an economic fund of 1 Trillion rupees for people to help them in crisis. Meanwhile, the President of Pakistan visited China to learn from them as they have declined the number of cases now. Beijing pledged to help Pakistan as they now dealt with reducing the number of cases. The team from China has also come to help out. Ministry of Health Services As a result of this pandemic, the Ministry of Health Service has laid out a plan which shows the intention go government to respond to this outbreak. Vision A national effort to respond to COIVD-19 emergency in Pakistan Minimal National Morbidity and Mortality Long term Developing a structure ensuring timely response and plan for all pandemics. Problems to Government Above all, the government is doing all its efforts to stop this pandemic. But people are not serious about taking precautions. They allow their kids to play on grounds. Upon closing the grounds, they go to the open area for playing. Their parents are unwilling to quarantine them to crowded homes. Pakistan is the world’s fifth populous country. Similarly, the clerical community is refusing to help the government. They have not stopped large gatherings and offering prayers. About 150,000 clerics from around the world helped spread the virus in a religious gathering. Pakistan’s cases have risen from 250, a few weeks before to 1098 after that. The officials canceled it but participants already scale, eating, sleeping and living in close quarters. Steps announced by Government Ten steps announced by the government to prevent this pandemic in Pakistan which are: National Coordination Committee for coronavirus (COVID-19) will make decisions on a daily basis. All educational institutions, both public and private, are closed till 31st May. Pakistan will completely seal its border with Afghanistan and Iran for travelers and trades. Katarpur will be closed for Pakistani but Indians pilgrims will keep visiting. Pakistan will departure international flights from Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad for effective screens travelers. The government put a ban on all public gatherings and conferences. To prevent coronavirus, no visiting allowed in prisoners. The government will reach to religious leaders to work out the modalities for effective management of religious services. The government will devise a plan to avoid food supply shortcomings. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will cooperate with the district and provincial for necessary implementations. A corona relief tiger force will be working with government and security agencies. The force will provide food to people if we forced to lockdown. In short, the government has taken many steps on its behalf to avoid the separation of the pandemic. It will be achieved by the mutual corporation of people and the government. Because if we forced to lockdown, many peoples will die out to hunger. It is only possible by the individual and collective efforts. We should not be a hurdle in the way of prevention. Instead, we should play our role in this. For instance, Instacre is providing free consultation for coronavirus.
How Can Doctors Keep Going During Corona Outbreak Through Telemedicine In today’s time of coronavirus outbreak, which has now become a pandemic, there is a heavy workload on healthcare professionals. They are at great risk of catching the infection. In Italy, out of 67,814 reported cases of coronavirus, 6205 cases are of health care workers according to the 25th march report. These statistics show that even after the lock-down of the whole country, our health care professionals are at a huge risk of getting the coronavirus infection. This risk can be minimized if the patients consult the doctors via telemedicine. This would save them from getting the infection. In this article, we will talk about how the telemedicine applications are helping the doctors in this coronavirus outbreak and how can they cope with it? What Is Telemedicine? Telemedicine is becoming the first line of defense and the most useful tool for doctors nowadays. This helps them to consult with the patient over the phone or computer and let them prescribe the medicines as well. It is the platform where doctors can interact with their patients through a video-conference. Telemedicine helps the doctors to prescribe, diagnose, educate and monitor the patient remotely, with no physical interaction. Telemedicine lets the doctor ask relevant questions to the patient about the disease, they can discuss the signs, symptoms, and history through a virtual visit. If the patient’s health concerns the doctor, they first send them to get their chest x-ray and blood tests done. After that, they can rule out the final diagnosis. They can then make a further decision of either letting them stay at home or to get them admitted to the hospital. How Is Telemedicine Beneficial? If health care workers like the doctors and the nurses would get sick, there would be a rapid, unbearable impact that will affect everybody. Health care workers who keep working at hospitals while infected from coronavirus can transmit it to more people. If these workers go home to recover, they would eventually infect their family members. This would also put an immense load on their coworkers. If they are critically ill and need to get hospitalized, then there will be fewer resources available to treat the public. Eventually, if this keeps going on, we will have to face a shortage of doctors after this coronavirus pandemic. So to save the doctors it is necessary to shift on telemedicine. The hospitals can not manage the heavy volume of patients in this state of panic. They can manage it with the help of telemedicine applications. The telemedicine can protect the doctors because it will reduce their exposure to the patients. No physical contact would be there, by which there would be no chance of catching the infection. Hospitals’ waiting areas are already busy and so overloaded with people that anyone can catch an infection. The doctors are also at high risk when examining the patient suffering from COVID-19. Remote consultation by the doctor, therefore, reduces the risk of getting exposure and infection. Telemedicine applications like InstaCare help in keeping the patient and the doctor isolated. How Does Telemedicine Works? The telemedicine works by assessing the person remotely who is facing the symptoms of coronavirus and monitoring their progress. If deteriorated, the doctors advise them to shift to the hospitals. This technique helps in only shifting the patients who are having any complications. This also decreases the high volume of patients coming to the hospital’s emergency. The doctors and nurses also feel less stressed and can cope easily with the situation. Drawbacks It can be a solution for many, specially coronavirus, a highly contagious disease. But doctors need to examine the patient properly. Telemedicine can only help when the patient can tell the symptoms bothering them. They can discuss those symptoms with the doctors to have an expert opinion. The doctors can then make a further decision about what to do next. The doctors can replace some of their patients to telemedicine who are not critically ill. Still, they have to work day in and day out at the intensive care units and emergencies of the hospital where they can oversee the critically ill patients.
Disasters Due To Medication Errors And How To Avoid These? Everyone has to take medicines at different stages of their life. They take the medicine or receive it to recover soon, but sometimes these medications can cause them serious damage or even cause death. In this article, we are going to discuss the causes, case studies, and prevention of medication errors. According to an estimate, a medication error is the third leading cause of people’s death, after heart disease and cancer. Over 250,000 people in the United States die annually because of medication errors. The consequences of medical error include 2.4 million extra hospital days and increased costs of approximately $17 to $29 billion per year. The United States National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention defines a medication error as: “Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing, order communication, product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature, compounding, dispensing, distribution, administration, education, monitoring, and use” Causes Of Medication Errors The causes that result in medication errors occur at different sites. It can occur due to accidents by the pharmacist, doctor, nurse or consumer. Some errors that eventually result in medication errors are; Error in prescribing the dose, route, patient, time, frequency and drug. Ambiguous prescription by the doctor. Prescribing drugs to which the patient is allergic or any drug interaction is there. Not reading the prescription properly. Dispensing the wrong preparation or an expired drug. Labeling errors. Administration errors in route, dose, time, drug, frequency and patient. The drug is not administered or double-checking omission. Wrong setting of the infusion pump. Lookalike sound-alike drugs. The patient not seeking proper counseling by the doctor or pharmacist. Case Studies Regarding Medication Errors CASE #01. A case study reveals a medication error when a 71-year-old recently widowed female was hospitalized for uncontrolled hypertension and acute kidney injury. She improved clinically and upon discharge, her prescription included Norvasc 10mg twice daily, metoprolol 50mg twice daily, doxazosin 2mg daily and torsemide 30mg daily. After that, they readmitted her in the hospital because she began experiencing worsening fatigue, slow movements, personality changes, and uncontrolled blood pressure. This time they admitted her due to chest pain, and the doctor diagnosed her with anxiety and depression. The doctors prescribed her citalopram and alprazolam for anxiety and depression. She was then re-hospitalized following a fall due to lightheadedness. An admission medication reconciliation revealed that the patient was taking Navane (thiothixene), an anti-psychotic drug, instead of the Norvasc. After further investigation, they came to know that the pharmacy has accidentally dispensed the wrong medication upon the prescription that was clear enough to be read. CASE #02. Another case study reveals the accident likely of ‘confirmation bias’. This medication error case happened at a public school clinic in Missouri and was discovered from an investigation from the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health. The nurse administered Humalog U-100 insulin to the people instead of an influenza vaccine. After administration, the first two patients complained about sweating and lightheadedness. The other two patients required hospitalization for their symptoms. One of them had a blood glucose level of 23mg/dl. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the influenza vaccine vial and the 10ml vial of Humalog U-100 insulin were kept together in the nurse’s office refrigerator. They were not stored in separated, labeled containers or bins. The influenza vaccine manufacturer conducted a detailed analysis of their product. They tried to rule out the error that could have occurred due to the quality control problem. CASE #03. Another case study showing administration error is discussed. This medication error occurred when a 40-year-old female was rushed to the emergency room after eating seafood. She was complaining about shortness of breath and had rashes on the body. Upon examination by the doctors, they found that she was having edema on the throat with mild stridor upon inspiration. Her body temperature was 98.7 F, blood pressure was 100/69 mm Hg, and pulse was 70 bpm. The doctors placed her on supplemental oxygen and ordered the nurse to administer a 0.5mg (1:1000) dose of epinephrine. After receiving IV epinephrine, she started complaining about chest pains on her left side along with tingling fingertips. The ECG showed ST elevation and serum creatine kinase levels were increased consistent with myocardial infarction. The doctors gave her two doses of 0.4mg sub-lingual nitroglycerin over the next ten minutes until her heart rate and blood pressure became normal. Her ECG then showed that the ST levels have returned to baseline. Upon investigation, they concluded it, while the doctor ordered 0.5mg (1:1000) dose of epinephrine, the route of administration was unspecified. The nurse administered the epinephrine intravenously instead of intramuscular route. The patient should have received intramuscular epinephrine as she was suffering from anaphylaxis. The doctors reserve intravenous epinephrine normally for the patients with myocardial infarction. How Can The Consumers Prevent The Medication Errors? AT HOME: Maintain a list of all the medications you are taking. Keep that list with you when you are going for a review to the doctor. Read the educational material from a reliable internet source. AT CLINIC/ OUTPATIENT CARE: Ask the prescriber about the drug, its effect and side effects. Recheck the drug’s name and also the indications after the doctor has prescribed it. AT PHARMACY: Re-check the name (brand or generic) on the container. Seek pharmacist’s counseling, even if you already know about it. Ask for written literature of the drug. Recheck the drug’s name and indications after the pharmacist has dispensed. AT HOSPITAL/ INPATIENT CARE: Ask the doctor or nurse about the drug and its reason for administration. Give a proper history regarding every medication you have been taking. Also, tell them about your prior health conditions. Before the discharge from the hospital, make sure to ask
How To Start Telemedicine In Pakistan In the domain of healthcare, telemedicine is the hottest topic these days after realizing its significance due to Coronavirus Pandemic. With the advancement in internet technologies and with the evolution of 3G,4G and 5G it is developing with lightning speed. While living in the 5th most populated country we can embrace telemedicine in Pakistan to increase the accessibility of Healthcare Services for both patients as well as doctors. What is Telemedicine The remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by the means of the internet is called Telemedicine. This technology can be very simple to implement and start however it can be customized, updated and tailored according to the need. How to setup telemedicine in Pakistan Setting up a telemedicine system at your practice is not a difficult task. All you need is: Computer (Laptop/PC) HD Camera that can get connected with computers. Quality Microphone and headsets. Telemedicine Software Cost of Telemedicine Setup The telemedicine setup does not require a lot of money to spend. You can even start with your existing infrastructure however if you are going to buy everything new then the minimum cost can range between PKR 30,000 – PKR 50,000 thousand rupees however it can go beyond PKR 100,000 depending on the type and quality of infrastructure. Telemedicine Software in Pakistan Without implementing quality telemedicine software, it’s very difficult to provide quality services to patients. We found a few doctors using video calling software to perform the task however the management, quality, and trust was the issue faced by patients as well as doctors. InstaCare offers a wide range of telemedicine software in Pakistan for individuals, clinics, and hospitals. You can call us at +92-335-4832273 or drop a mail at business@insta-care.net for free trials, training, and demonstrations. Benefits of Telemedicine Software While the significance of using telemedicine software is inevitable and the number of benefits are many, so lets discuss a few of them: Convenient, Accessible care for patients. Save cost. Increase patient engagement. Better patient care quality. Role of InstaCare to start telemedicine in Pakistan If you need more information on implementing telemedicine in Pakistan then InstaCare will be the right partner for you. With years of experience, top-quality engineers, best trainers and support staff, InstaCare makes it easy for any medical professional to start TeleHealth Services anytime anywhere.
