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Introduction

There are numerous technologies that are used on day to day bases in the health and social care sector. It ranges from homecare technologies where you may not need as much skill such as thermometers; to secondary care technologies such as MRI scans where there are more specialized skills are used. Information Communication Technology (ICT) is used for numerous different reasons in the health and social care sector but in order for these technologies to be efficiently used the service providers must have the skill and knowledge to use them. Often there have been cases where a service provider may not of had the knowledge to access data and this has cost someone?s life, for example, Baby Ps paediatrician could not access any of his records so could not see that he was a vulnerable child. This meant that she could not see that the bruises on Baby P should have raised alarm (Mail Online, 2010). Some technologies are easier to use so that care in the community can be achieved. Without care in the community hospitals would be overrun so it is essential that these technologies require less skill such as a glucometer. Service users being able to use such technology saves them the time of going in and out to the doctor and that they can collect data on themselves ensuring they keep their blood sugar regulated. ...read more.

Middle

Data Protection Act 1998, the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality also ensures the confidentiality of your personal information. There have been numerous cases where the data shared was not filtered to ensure that no sensitive information was on it. The Trust’s website was fined £174,000 for publishing sensitive information of 1,000 service users (Hooper,2012). Accessing data is vital in all areas of the health and social care sector. Some service users may come to a different hospital with a recurrent illness and this needs to be seen by the service provider as this may suggest a long term illness such as a service user complaining about a pain in their abdomen. This may be colon cancer or other chronic illnesses (MSD Manual Professional Edition, 2015) and because the data was easy to access by a member of staff this was noted and a further investigation can start to take place. The service provider must be able to access this information and it won’t be as simple as it is accessing a word document. The service provider must be discreet in accessing the information as it could be sensitive. They must not access it in a public area where members of the public in a waiting room could easily see it. ...read more.

Conclusion

This means that service providers such as GPs must ensure that they know how this operates in case the service user wishes to edit their summary record. Saving data correctly ensures that it can be accessed by all service providers if necessary e.g if a service user came in unconscious the doctors would be able to see on his/her records if he/she had any allergies. If the records weren?t there then the service provider may not know the service user is highly allergic to penicillin. Although technology grows quite rapidly it is also important to realise the impact it has on an individual or organisation if data is not handled with care at all times. I have shown numerous examples in this piece and there is many more. Data has been found to be leaked on apps on service user?s phones. One of the apps being NHS England's Health Apps Library. (BBC news 2015) The makers of this app had not encrypted it properly. It is so easy to get carried away with technology and forget the consequences of not securing it properly. It is important to remember that it is a person?s life and not just another number. They have a family, they have friends and data leaked potentially could lead to them ending their lives. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Information Systems and Communication section.