Healthcare systems aim to provide healthcare services that at least meet or exceed the standards expected by stakeholders: regulatory and accreditation bodies, healthcare payers, patients, and families. Healthcare quality is a multi-dimensional term and is achieved when patients receive safe, timely, effective, and person-centred care. Further, healthcare quality is achieved when resources are not wasted and are fairly distributed among diverse population cohorts.
Published in Chapter:
The Digitisation of Healthcare in a Global Pandemic: Implications for Healthcare Quality From Patient, Clinician, and Provider Perspectives
Siobhan Eithne McCarthy (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8630-3.ch004
Abstract
The chapter discusses the rapid digitisation of healthcare during the COVID-19 global crisis and its implications for healthcare quality from patient, clinician, and provider perspectives. Using the example of patient portals, online interfaces that provide patients with real-time access to their health records, the chapter explores how this large-scale shift to digital healthcare has influenced key elements of healthcare quality. These elements include the safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, eco-friendliness, and person-centeredness of care delivery, as well as patient and staff well-being. The discussion addresses health anxiety exacerbated by remote service delivery and potential associations with cyberchondria and online search behaviours. Additionally, concerns about digital health literacy, equality of access, patient data privacy, and cybersecurity are discussed in the context of increasing health system shocks. Recommendations are made about how the future adaptation of digital healthcare can support healthcare quality in a post-pandemic era.