Patient Satisfaction Report: Impact of Technology on Patient Care

This report examines patient satisfaction in a healthcare setting, using a case study of a patient named Mabel who experienced several issues during her hospital stay due to technological failures. The report highlights the impact of these failures on the quality of care and patient experience. It then proposes two innovative technologies: mobile technology and telehealth, as solutions to improve patient care. Mobile technology, including mobile health apps and mobile-enabled electronic health records, is recommended to provide patients with easy access to their health records and improve patient safety. Telehealth is suggested as a means to remotely access healthcare services, order supplies, and enable doctors to monitor patients remotely. The report also discusses how to evaluate the impact of these technologies, including assessing usability, privacy concerns, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. Evidence from the literature is provided to support the positive impact of these technologies on client safety and overall healthcare outcomes.

Running head: PATIENT SATISFACTION 1
Patient Satisfaction
Name
Institution

PATIENT SATISFACTION 2
Mabel’s Concerns
Mabel experiences a lot of challenges at the hospital that leaves her unsatisfied with the services
offered. Firstly, she spends an additional night at the hospital due to the doctor’s failure to show
up and sign discharge forms. She was also supposed to receive her prescriptions for her condition
but that never happened because the pharmacy was closed overnight. Her bill could not be
provided to her because the computer which was to be used to mail the bill was shut down for
maintenance. The link that she was given to help her view her records online also did not work
and the user name and password that were to be on the discharge paperwork were missing.
These concerns are a clear indication of a failure in technology that can affect a patient’s
healthcare delivery. Like in the case of Mabel, she did not receive quality care due to a failure in
technology. With proper working technology, the discharge forms could have sent to the doctor
to sign and then sent back to Mabel. Additionally, poor technology meant that she could not
receive her bill in time nor access her records online. Therefore the quality of care delivered was
very poor. She was therefore unsatisfied with the services offered unlike 15 years ago when she
was pleased and satisfied with her stay.
Innovative Technologies
Mobile Technology
Mobile technologies allow clients to access their health records at the comfort of their phones or
tablets. In other words, this is a medical health practice that is supported by mobile devices. The
technology is made up of things like mobile health apps and mobile-enabled electronic health
records that enables both providers and consumers to access clinical information. Therefore,
instead of Mabel using a link to check her records, she could just use a mobile health app to track

PATIENT SATISFACTION 3
her health data and access her clinical records because these apps are enabled patient portals. The
technology can be appropriately evaluated by assessing its usability and privacy concerns. It has
to protect the privacy of the patient and must be easy to use to improve user experience (Kumar
et al., 2013).
This technology has significantly improved client safety in healthcare. According to reports, the
use of mobile health apps has more than tripled since 2014 from approximately 13% to 48%
currently (Sturman, 2019). This is a clear indication that more people are embracing the use of
this technology to check their records. As a result, they may know their health progress and make
early health interventions in case of any developing health condition thus improving patient
safety.
Telehealth
Telehealth is almost similar to mobile technology in that it also uses devices like computers and
mobile phones to remotely access healthcare services. This technology can be used to order
supplies and prescriptions thus eliminating the delay that Mabel experienced due to the
pharmacy being closed. It enables the doctor to remotely monitor the patient thus avoiding the
problem of spending extra nights in the hospital (Nagel, Pomerleau & Penner, 2013). This
technology can be evaluated by assessing its efficacy and the cost of healthcare. The evaluation
should aim to determine whether the technology is doing what it was designed to do and if it
helps in saving patients’ money.
It is believed that this technology improves health outcome because patients are diagnosed and
treated earlier thus having better health outcomes while at the same time saving on the cost of

PATIENT SATISFACTION 4
healthcare. According to studies, approximately 60% of millennials have embraced the use of
telehealth (Guttman, 2019).
References
Guttman, D. (2019). 29 Statistics You Need To Know About Healthcare & Telemedicine.
Retrieved 18 September 2019, from https://www.fshealth.com/blog/29-statistics-about-
telemedicine-healthcare
Kumar, S., Nilsen, W.J., Abernethy, A., Atienza, A., Patrick, K., Pavel, M., Riley, W.T., Shar,
A., Spring, B., Spruijt-Metz, D. and Hedeker, D., 2013. Mobile health technology
evaluation: the mHealth evidence workshop. American journal of preventive
medicine, 45(2), pp.228-236.
Nagel, D. A., Pomerleau, S. G., & Penner, J. L. (2013). Knowing, Caring, and Telehealth
Technology: “Going the Distance” in Nursing Practice. Journal of Holistic
Nursing, 31(2), 104-112.
Sturman, C. (2019). Top 10 healthcare innovations for 2019. Retrieved 18 September 2019, from
https://www.healthcareglobal.com/top-10/top-10-healthcare-innovations-2019