Interactive Order System to Health - Report Example

Health Care Analysis Choose one of the computer applications recently implemented in a health agency, clinic, residential treatment facility, privatepractice, or other non-hospital entity and compose a 1400-1750-word analysis of that application Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Interactive Order System in East London Clinic – overview 3 3. Introduction and Implementation of Interactive Order System – description of the phases 4 4. Needs addressed by the Interactive Order System 5 5. Modifications on Interactive Order System prior to its implementation 6 6. Contribution of the Interactive Order System to health care knowledge management 7 References 8 Appendix 8 Figure 1 8 Figure 2 9 (1482 words) 1. Introduction This report refers to the Interactive Order System, a computer application that has been recently implemented in East London Clinic. In order to understand the role of this application to the development of the daily services provided to the customers of this clinic it would be helpful to refer primarily to the specific organizational environment; apart from this issue, the various stages of the implementation of the specific computer application will be also presented in this report (as analytically as possible). At the same time the advantages of this system and its overall impact on the performance of the East London Clinic but also on the development of the knowledge management of the health care sector will be explained. Any necessary modification made to the system prior to its implementation in the specific organization is identified and evaluated taking into account the characteristics of the particular industrial sector and the position of the firm within its industry. 2. Interactive Order System in East London Clinic – overview The Interactive Order System is among the computer applications that were implemented in the East London Clinic the last 2 years aiming to support the improvement of the services provided to clients and contribute to the limitation of the time required for the completion of various tasks. The implementation of the specific computer application was completed a month ago. Since then, despite the relatively short term, a significant improvement has been observed in the delivery of orders and the assignment of tasks to the doctors/ nurses across the Clinic. The specific system offers to the employees of the administrative department of the Clinic the ability to accept the orders quickly (by choosing among existed forms) and save the data received into easy to identify folders – the system provides a set of pre-structured choices (tasks/ categories) being adapted to the needs of each particular healthcare organization. One of the most important characteristics of this system is its interactive feature – i.e. the ability offered to customers/ patients to communicate directly with the administrators in the Clinic placing their order for specific healthcare services. It is the specific feature that has helped towards the improvement of the performance of the East London Clinic (increase of the number of orders received, more effective and quicker acceptance and process of orders and so on). The various phases of the implementation of this system are going to be explained and evaluated in the section that follows. 3. Introduction and Implementation of Interactive Order System – description of the phases Before the implementation of the Interactive Order System, the IT staff in the East London Clinic made a thorough examination of the existing IT system; the new computer application – which was one of the 5 computer applications being implemented in the specific organization the last 2 years – has to be aligned with the existing system in order to avoid any risk of failure – either in the short or the long term. Since the characteristics of the existing system were identified and evaluated (always in relation with the needs of the specific computer application) then the implementation of the specific application started. In the second phase, the implementation was completed in accordance with the provider’s guidelines; however the system was not put into action. In fact the phase 3 followed; in this phase the Interactive Order System was tested in practice – it was operating simultaneously with the existing order system – making sure that all its functions run smoothly. After the successful testing of the above system, in the phase 4, the old order system was deleted and the Interactive Order System was activated. In accordance with the specific system, the administrators of the computer in the East London Clinic (members of the Clinic’s secretarial team) receive the orders by the clients through an interactive function (in real-time terms) and send all relevant details to the system’s central database. From there – the specific database has been configured appropriately – the orders that are characterized as pending (the specific option is available to the administrators of the Clinic’s computers) are being sent immediately to another database in which only pending orders are saved. Any change in the status of these orders is made through the central database and the secondary database is update immediately by the system. It should be noticed that the existing IT system of the clinic has been configured appropriately so that all data are kept in just one database and any other computer applications are directly connected to the specific database from which all necessary data are retrieved. For security reasons, any update of the existing data requires specific codes. 4. Needs addressed by the Interactive Order System One of the major weaknesses of the East London Clinic was the failure of the organization’s administration (employees working in the secretarial department) to accept and process all orders of the clients. Since the implementation of the Interactive Order System, the Clinic’s clients have been able to place their order directly (they can choose among the services described in the relevant list) being informed at the same time for the potential date of the delivery of these services to them (as already described in the previous section). In this context, the number of orders received and processed daily has been increased – so have the Clinic’s profits. Moreover, before the implementation of the system all the client’s orders were handled through different databases – different storage area was provided by the previous IT system for the orders related with different medical services; under the new system the administration of the Clinic can have a clear view on existing orders – they are all stored in a single database; the data of clients are also easier to be retrieved and updated. The implementation of the Interactive Order System has helped to the promotion and the improvement of various operational sectors of the specific organization. 5. Modifications on Interactive Order System prior to its implementation As explained above, up to the implementation of the Interactive Order System the orders related with different medical services were saved in different storage areas. However, this fact led to the delay in the process of these orders while failures were also noticed in the delivery of the relevant services due to lack of effective control over the pending orders. Under the influence of the new system, a new methodology in processing and keeping data had to be introduced in the specific organization; in order for the existing IT system to co-operate successfully with the new computer application it was necessary that the former (existing IT system) to be configured appropriately – so that the new computer application to be developed up to all its potentials. These configurations have not been extensive; they were limited as possible in order to keep the consistency of the system and avoid the risk of a possible break-down. The most important configuration of the existing system is the development of a central database to its all other organizational computer applications are connected. 6. Contribution of the Interactive Order System to health care knowledge management The implementation of computer applications in healthcare organizations can offer a series of advantages. In a study made by researchers for the Business Computer Applications, Inc (USA) it was proved that the implementation of computer applications in healthcare organizations can help to the improvement of the standards of services provided to the public. The above research referred especially to the implementation of a computer application – database that can effectively and safely process and keep medical data (see Virtual Medical Words, 2008). From a different point of view Baker (2006) refers to a computer application that can help towards the decrease of drinking in its users. However, it has been proved in practice (see iHealthBeat organization’s survey, 2007) that the process of orders through a computer application can be regarded as one of the most effective samples of the importance of IT in the healthcare sectors. In the above category belongs the Interactive Order System, the computer application that was implemented in the East London Clinic (London). The implementation of this application in the specific organization is related with the increase of the organization’s performance – an assumption derived by the fact that the time for delivery and process of the order has been minimized (almost reduced to its half) supporting the quicker distribution of cases among the practitioners in the specific organization. The role of this application to the development of knowledge management in the healthcare sector is important; the process and the storage of data in this sector is crucial for the successful delivery of services to the clients/ patients; failure in the process/ storage of data could put into risk the life of the patient. In this context, any computer application supporting the process, the storage and the transmission of data (knowledge management) in the healthcare sector is considered to be of significant importance. References iHealthbeat Organization (2007), online report, available at http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2007/10/5/Which-Health-IT-Application-Do-You-Think-Has-Had-the-Greatest-Effect-on-Boosting-Patient-Care.aspx?dp=1 Baker, M. (2001) Computer Program Helps Reduce Drinking, online article, http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Health-Care-IT/Computer-Program-Helps-Reduce-Drinking/ Virtual medical worlds, 2008 http://www.hoise.com/vmw/06/articles/vmw/LV-VM-02-06-13.html Appendix Figure 1 – ‘Which Health IT Application Do You Think Has Had the Greatest Effect on Boosting Patient Care?’ (source: iHealthbeat organization, 2007 - Results of a survey made across 281 IT professionals, 2007 - in the health care sector) Figure 2 – Graphic representation of the Interactive Order System implemented in the East London Clinic Read More