When dealing with databases containing health information about patients treated in a certain facility, the question of data quality is inevitable. The need for the data to meet the set requirements is primarily caused by the fact that the health information generally consists of immerse chalks of sensitive information. Thus, in order to secure one’s privacy, healthcare databases are to be qualified in terms of the following categories:
- Accuracy. This aspect presupposes diligent work of both the patient and provider, as the former is obliged to share information relevant to the treatment, whereas the practitioner shall restrain from distorting the data.
- Consistency and completeness. When paying attention to this category, providers are to make sure that the data is stored in a coherent way and that the information provided is complete enough to make conclusions concerning the intervention plan.
- Relevance. One of the major advantages of storing healthcare data is the ability to edit it once the information is updated in a matter of minutes. However, some practitioners still struggle with updating the information due to the absence of a well-developed habit (Mavrogiorgou et al., 2019).
It is quite common among healthcare providers to postpone the process of filling out the paperwork due to the lack of time or miscomprehension of the purpose for certain types of documentation. Such an attitude frequently results in the poor quality of the data collected about the patients (Shanholtzer, 2015). Some of the factors contributing to this issue include:
- An excessive amount of irrelevant paper forms, which may be redundant.
- Unclear instructions on how to fill out the said forms.
- Irrelevant visual representation of the document, leading to an increased probability of errors.
References
Mavrogiorgou, A., Kiourtis, A., Perakis, K., Miltiadou, D., Pitsios, S., & Kyriazis, D. (2019). Analyzing data and data sources towards a unified approach for ensuring end-to-end data and data sources quality in healthcare 4.0. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 181. Web.
Shanholtzer, M. Beth. (2015). Health information management and technology (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill. Web.