Intranets and Health Care

Intranets and extranets are specific variants of Internet technology. Examine intranets / extranets in HCOs, the benefit to health care delivery, implications to patient outcomes/safety, and any impact to health care costs.

“Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.” (Pollard, W., n.d.)

Intranets and extranets are about getting information to the right people. In this writing I will explain what are intranets and extranets, how they are used and how they can benefit health care organizations (HCOs).

An intranet is a local network available to a certain set of people that have the rights to view it. These are usually within one organization. Bradley Mitchell states that these networks are used to facilitate communication between people or work groups and are accessed over technologies such as Ethernets or WiFi and use common protocols such as TCP/IP (Mitchell, B., n.d.). He goes on to explain that extranets are extensions of the intranet that allows “outsiders” access, through the use of special firewall rules (Mitchell, B., n.d.). Some people are not aware that they are using their company’s intranet as they are accessed through web browsers. SharePoint is one of Microsoft’s fastest growing intranet applications.

Just like in the business world the intranet is being used by HCOs to get the right information to the right people. It allows collaboration, fast and efficient communication and reliable availability. Ong, K. R., Polkowski, M., McLemore, G., Greaker, M. & Murray, M. (2001) did an case study on how an intranet was being used at Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers (SVCMC). They found that SVCMC was using their intranet for “. medical knowledge resources, clinical practice guidelines, directions, patient education, online forms, phone directory, and discussion forums” (Ong, K. R. et al, 2001). As you can see this was a vital way to exchange pertinent information for their staff, administrators, executives and even patients. They also found out that the intranet was getting over 3,000 hits per day, with over 800 of those hits coming from unique visitors and 74% of those visitors visited more than once (Ong, K. R. et al, 2001). As you can see that once an intranet is up and running it becomes a vital part of a HCO.

One of the main benefits of an intranet/extranet is getting information to those who need it to make key decisions.This will definitely affect patient outcomes and safety, as information is readily available, easy to access and up-to-date. Another benefit is lowered costs. Harno, K., Paavola, T., Carlson, C. & Viikinkoski, P. (2000) did a study on the effectiveness of intranets in telemedicine. The found that by use of intranets, cost were lowered due to less spent on personnel costs, internal and external service charges, material expenses, travel costs and rentals (Harno, K., et al, 2000).

In conclusion we see that intranets/extranets get the information to the right people at the right time. This can improve patient outcomes, deliver information quickly and efficiently, and reduce certain costs.

References:
Harno, K., Paavola, T., Carlson, C. & Viikinkoski, P. (2000 Dec 1). Patient referral by telemedicine: effectiveness and cost analysis of an intranet system. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 6(6), 320-329. DOI:10.1258/1357633001935996

Mitchell, B. (n.d.). intranet. Retrieved from http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/intranets/g/bldef_intranet.htm

Ong, K. R., Polkowski, M., McLemore, G., Greaker, M. & Murray, M. (2001 Jan-Mar). Building and growing a hospital intranet: a case study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 3(1), E10. DOI: 10.2196/jmir.3.1.e10

ThinkExist.com. (n.d.). William Pollard Quotes. Retrieved from http://thinkexist.com/quotation/information_is_a_source_of_learning-but_unless_it/226524.html