RUNNING HEAD: e-Health, Negotiations and Change
e-Health, Negotiations and Change
Introduction
The advent of the internet has had a major impact on the healthcare industry in the last four decades. While the sophistication of PDAs, wireless systems and browser based technology is at the forefront of all healthcare entities considering implementation and/or expansion of their technology, there are no limits as to how far these will go. With all major financial decisions comes benchmarking for best practices, conflicts and negotiations.
Internet Health, Conflict and Negotiation
The twenty-first century continues to see a rise in the number of mergers in most industries including healthcare. Similarly, in our communities many smaller hospitals are joining forces and creating the mega-giant healthcare systems we've come to rely on for expert, quality care. These mergers have involved major conflicts and negotiations including the consolidation of electronic data. The magnitude of the patient information that is now shared by these mega-giants can be beyond the consumer's expectations for privacy and confidentiality. Although the HIPAA regulations govern the healthcare industry in protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the patient, such guarantees on websites relies on the ethical principles of those providers of information.
Healthcare facilities rely on e-mail for communication and the internet for everything else. Whether it is a browser-based technology system or a stand alone product, searches, benchmarking and access to vendors and competitors can be easily be found on the internet. Many companies and products take advantage of ...