The Use of Information Technology among Rural and Urban Physicians In Florida
Introduction
Information technology is vital in the achievement of health care quality and has several advantages to the health care center. Rural areas, however, lag behind in IT development while the urban areas are in the fore front. IT use has been seen in both the hospital and ambulatory settings. Technologies associated with these health care settings include doctor- patient e- mailing, electronic health records (EHR) and personal digital assistants (PDA). The major objectives of implementing these information technologies are to reduce errors in health care facilities, to improve efficiencies of the facilities, to boost patient use of the facilities and to save and cut on the overall cost. Adoption of IT by physicians is, therefore, vital for patients and the doctors themselves.
The article is addressing an issue of importance to the health sector today. The evolving world of technology makes use of IT a number one matter to consider in most sectors. IT is beneficial to most fields of work since it is time saving and fast. Numerous customers can be served within a short time with the use of IT; therefore, adopting its use in the health care sector is crucial. The article concentrates on the rural and urban usage of IT applications like PDA, EHR and e- mail by physicians in Florida. The survey determined the extent of and differences in IT use by the rural and urban physicians. Survey involved an instrument that asked doctors in Florida whether or not they utilized an array of IT applications in their daily office work. Questionnaires were also used to track the physicians who were active and non-active in the health care field. This facilitated the decision on which doctors to include in the study [ ]. To determine the observable differences between the rural and urban physicians with concern to their IT adoption factors like medical training, the size of practice, the race and gender of the physician were considered.
The results showed a significant response from the physicians from both the rural and urban areas. Rural physician respondents were higher than the urban physician respondents. Majority of the respondents were male, Caucasians and worked in a single specialty practice. The use of computer and internet availability had no much difference between the urban and rural physicians. The method of internet connection between the two areas was also the same, either broadband, wireless and dial- up. Email- Mail use was also seen in both settings, but the use of e- mail with patients was most prominent among the urban physicians. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) were more possessed by the urban Florida physicians than the urban practitioners. However, the use of the PDAs was quite similar in both settings. The use and adoption of EHR was more frequent in urban settings than rural settings [ ]. Barriers to the use of these IT applications were financial, technological and productivity barriers.
The article mainly focuses on the distinguishing IT factors adopted by the rural and urban physicians in Florida. The urban physicians get access to IT application because of the numerous resources available in their settings. From the survey, it was clear that the rural health physicians were less likely to utilize essential information technology in health care services[ ]. It is, therefore, beneficial to the rural health care sector to alleviate their IT applications barriers to help reduce the digital divide between the physicians.
The meaningful statements of the article are, there is no difference in the use of computer and internet applications by the rural and urban physicians in Florida however, the use and adoption of some applications are quite different between the two groups. The low use of IT applications in the rural areas is due to the barriers like productivity, finance and technology. The two statements are meaningful in the sense that they provide the different IT applications and adoptions of the two settings and the reasons for slow adoption of the application by the rural physicians.
Conclusion
Information technology has enhanced the activities of the health sector in Florida. The urban settings have enjoyed the principal part of the IT benefits because the physicians have adopted a wide range of IT use, unlike the rural settings physicians. The use of various techniques in the study made the responses unbiased and useful in the final analysis.
Bibliography
Nir M, Adam L, Robert GB. The Use of Information Technologies among Rural and Urban Physicians in Florida.J Med Syst 2007; 31:483–488
