Concerns about e-government within the workplace

In the report below I aim to portray personal concerns within three areas of my work that will be affected by e-government implementation.

As a resident support worker I look after the social needs of 140 residents within the workplace. Each person has a separate life and medical history, which at the moment is documented within various outside agencies or perhaps none at all depending on the attitude of the individual. Individuality and independence are primary to a residents needs to remain in a ‘home for life’ habitat that sheltered accommodation offers. Many of the residents have social workers or carers provided by social services who are individually known to the person concerned and that person knows the complete details of their lives. When e-government is implemented it could mean an end to personal service, as anybody within the relevant depart

As highlighted in the model of the first course module, patients could be at risk or treated wrongly because of misinformation or mistaken identity due to data entry error. Individuality in hospitals is of prime importance to speed the healing process for the client. Same or similar names may also cause problems, whereby medications could become mixed or deleted. Approximately seventy five percent of the residents within my workplace are under hospital care for many differing reasons, and they are within a generation that believes in individuality and personal attention. Once again the e-government NHS number system could lead to Doctors and Nurses passing over cases to equalise the balance of caseload. This would mean that a patient may see many faces and in the case of my residents could be confused on who the different people are. All the Doctor or Nurse would see is collected data which they themselves would have to turn into information to enable them to help the patient, therefore the patient will be treated as a case number rather than an individual.

With regards to keeping details up to date it will be the responsibility of the data entry person to update case files and care plan notes for individuals who they have not met and know nothing about apart from the written data in front of them. Illegible writing on behalf of the social worker or carer could be of great importance as there are son many individuals covered by e-government that a single re-wording could mean another part of the agency not getting involved and the client not receiving the care or treatment that they require.

Data sharing between areas of the same agency could also be cause for concern. In sheltered housing there are residents that are placed there because they are at risk from outside forces. Anyone gaining access to the files legitimately could unfortunately pass on information to where the client is placed without breaking the Data Protection Act. This could cause undue stress or worry on behalf of the client and if serious enough could force the housing association to move the resident to another property. The only way that this could perhaps be overcome is the encryption of sensi

Some topics in this essay:
Housing Association, Services People, Doctor Nurse, Protection Act, Individual Records, , Data Protection, Sainsbury’s Nectar, Psychiatric Nurses, Doctors Nurses, homeless people, housing association, outside agencies, data entry, information available, social services, keeping details date, person concerned, residents workplace, keeping details, electronic information,