1 INFORMATION AND COMMUICATION TECHNOLOGY Legal considerations in the use of ICT impacting on health and social care settings: There are several specific legal considerations in the use of the ICT that can impact on the health and social care. Using of the ICT by the healthcare professionals to certain extent can impact on the physical aspect of the health and social workers. The legal considerations are there for ensuring the proper usage of the ICT as well as reducing the risks of health issues of the care giver. For example, working on the computers for long hours at a stretch can cause severe pain in the upper limbs of the worker. Again, looking at the computer screen for a long time can cause harm in the eyes too. The management of the health and social care organizations must ensure the implementation of the health and safety act by the respective government of the nation, in order to take care of the health of the employees (Antheunis, Tates and Nieboer 2013). On the other hand, protection of the data stored in the information system also needs to be secured by the management of the organization as well as the employees of the same. There are data protection act by the government that is established for the confidentiality and the securityofthedataandinformationprovidedbytheclients.Anotherimportantlegal consideration is referred to the employees for preventing the misuse of the computers. The legal consideration states that the health and social care employees must not use the computers for the personal use (Locatelliet al.,2012). In addition, the laws also protect the unauthorized access to the computers. However, the legal consideration also covers the safety of the employees as well as the clients while using the ICT in the health and social care setting. Therefore, the health and social organizations as well as well as the employees must consider the legal aspect in terms of using the ICT.
2 INFORMATION AND COMMUICATION TECHNOLOGY The benefits of Using ICT: There are several benefits of the usage of the ICT in the context of the health and social care for the health care professionals as well as for the organizations. Undoubtedly the communication and the storing process of the vital data and information are improved and easier with the implementation of the ICT in the health organizations (Sultan and Sultan 2012). The use of ICT is contributed towards the improvements of the provision in the health and social care as well as the outcomes through the practice of the effective monitoring.In some of the cases special initiatives and policies have been developed for addressing the requirements of the healthcare professionals as well as the service users. Some of the benefits are: ď‚·The use of the ICT in the health and social care service not improves the service quality for the clients as well as the healthcare professionals through providing the necessary support to the health and social care workers. The support includes the communication, managements, diagnosis of the clients and others. ď‚·The use of the ICT within the organizations enhances the coordination between the social and health practices which reduces the possibilities of the failures due to the medication error (Gagnonet al.,2012). For example, the electronic health record (EHR) and the integrated information system (IIS) are used for collecting, monitoring and sharing information of the clients medication effectively. ď‚·The new technologies used by the ICT reduce the health and safety risks of the clients and hence improves health of the same. For example, the alarm system, video monitoring system, different types of electronic sensors are the new technological tools that help in reducing the possible risks and ensure the wellbeing of the clients.