Healthcare Information Management System - Coursework Example

Healthcare Information Management System The forces compelling a transformation in health care and how IT can be leveraged in that transformation. Health care has since time immemorial lagged behind on adoption of IT in its activities compared to other industry sectors. The main force that has compelled transformation is the evident growth in other economic sectors, which have adopted IT. This has necessitated the same for health care sector. Other forces include the need to minimize errors in book keeping of health records and the need to improve on patient care with quality of service. Next force is the need to measure correctly the performance of health care providers and practitioners with the use of IT (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). Other forces such as visions by stakeholders on how IT can transform health care while reducing the cost at the same time. These factors have led to a paradigm shift from traditional record keeping systems to a transformed IT centered system. It can be leveraged in various sectors of health care especially in patient data record keeping. Other areas include patient relationship management and use of Electronic laboratories, Tele-consultation and Electronic prescription. This way IT can be used to improve of efficiency in health care. 2. Strategies for achieving interoperability of health care applications Interoperability refers to the ability of various applications used to communicate and transfer information in healthcare management. The main communication channel is between health information systems and the software applications. Strategies should be developed so as to ensure efficient and timely data transmission between health care applications. Also, strategies should be made in order to replace old and incompatible equipment with modern ones and active personnel training on the use of interoperability equipment. Healthcare institutions should also ensure that there is proper coordination and cooperation between the various departments (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). Strategies must also be made to institutionalize healthcare systems, which assist in planning among data transmitting departments while encouraging growth of flexible architectural interoperability structures. The management in healthcare facilities must also fund actively the projects set up to ensure and give solutions to interoperability. 3. Core competencies for IT departments that support health care organizations. Competencies are characteristics of something that make it standout and help achieve set goals and objectives. For a competence to be considered core, it must have a wide breadth of application and be highly relevant to the end user, as well as maintain distinction and difficult to imitate. For the health care sector, IT has five core competences that make it suitable for adoption. One is that IT departments help in business analysis. When data is fed into IT applications, they can process it for success of expected results such as analysis of patient recovery rates. The second core competence for IT department is Innovation. Innovation will come in handy in healthcare departments due to the rapid changes in technology. The third is knowledge management, which can be used to improve the knowledge work systems in other health departments. Fourth competence for IT department in health care is solution web management. This is the ability of IT to provide web based solutions to heath care problems (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). Such include online prescription and consultation. Lastly, IT departments help in change management, especially where new projects are being implemented. This is necessary in health care as in order to ensure efficiency in service delivery, new systems and equipments are being introduced. 4. The benefits of leveraging information technology, such as the EMR, in health care. One of the main benefits of introducing IT is the reduction of costs in health care. This is achieved through reduced costs of regular book keeping with the shift from physical filling to electronic record keeping. The next benefit is the improved flow of data and information with strict adherence to privacy. This will help in significantly reducing the instances of duplicative tests. Another benefit is that patients can reduce their hospital visits through the use of E-consultation and prescription while at the same time ensuring their records are outdated accordingly. Another benefit is the completeness and accuracy of data in the health care systems. This data can also be effectively sorted and analyzed electronically giving rise to efficiency. Another benefit is the ease of access by a physician to patient’s records, and since it is electronic, medical errors due to poor handwriting are minimized. Lastly is that the data can be pooled together in aiding research on various health care issues and analyzed using scientific statistical methods to ensure fast response to health care challenges (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). 5. Challenges to strategy implementation and the process to ensure successful implementation There are many challenges that are faced in the implementation of strategies especially in the health care sector. Chief among them is cost. Some strategies are extremely expensive to implement, and funding may be inadequate. This is magnified by a lack of will by management, to implement the decision hence they withhold funding. Another challenge is the end user resistance to strategies that implement change. IT is especially feared by replacing human resource hence practitioners may resist such a strategy from being implemented. Third challenge is that a new strategy may pose real challenges to patients who might not have IT knowledge. This is one of the biggest challenges in healthcare strategies. In order to ensure successful implantation of a strategy, a comprehensive research and analysis must be carried out to ensure relevance. Second is that all stakeholders must be involved in development of the strategy. This, in turn, reduces the change of end user resistance while training ensures that patients can benefit from the strategy optimally. Therefore, for a successful implantation, all considerations, legal, social, economic, political, and cultural must be put into consideration. 6. Key players for building a strategic plan and the role of IT The key players in implementation of an IT strategy in a health care situation are also the stake brokers. One of them is the patients. Patients are the target group for which solutions are designed for. Next player is the hospitals. These give the setting for implantation of the strategies, as patients, doctors and other stake brokers all meet at the hospital. Another player is the government. The government usually regulates the running of health care institutions while at the same time ensuring that funding is available (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). The government also funds for research and other strategic management processes in the health care sector. Another player is the insurers. In current times, insurance has become a core requirement in health care and any strategy must take into consideration the recommendations by the insurers. Other players are casuals and other employees in healthcare facilities and all other professionals who play a role in health care. 7. Key principles for achieving quality of healthcare and patient safety along with IT solutions that can support the organization in these solutions. In order to achieve quality and reliable health care, the following principles should be considered. One is affordability such that patients can afford to pay for health care. The government should subsidize the cost of health care, as well as set up laws on this course. IT can be used to minimize the cost of health care by reducing costs of book keeping and hospital visits. Next principle is security or privacy of patient information. The doctor-patient confidentiality must be guarded at all cost and IT can be used in the encryption of various files so as to avoid unauthorized access. Another principle is reliability such that no medical errors arise. This is extremely valuable as many patients die due to errors in medication. With IT, the records are clear and maintained in a conventional way such that errors are minimized. Next is accessibility to health care facilities and practitioners. Patients must have ease accessing their physicians, which can be made possible with IT through E-consultation and E-prescription. 8. Steps to take to implement a six sigma project for a given health care scenario A six sigma is a methodology that is used in the design and implementation of a solution design. The first step is to set out goals consistent with the health care scenario or problem to be solved, which should be in line customer’s needs. Second step is to evaluate the “characteristics that are critical to quality” of the health care scenario. At this steps, the risks liked to be faced are analyzed and the capacity of the new project towards the set goals (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). Third step involves the analysis of the available alternatives and then selection of the best design for the health care scenario. Once an alternative is selected, the next step is to develop it and test it on the expected set objectives. If all requirements have been met, the last step involves the implementation of the design in the health care scenario. 9. The role of patient outcomes in the delivery of quality care including the information needed to analyze patient outcomes and the information systems that would be used to analyze those patient outcomes Patient outcomes determine the overall success of quality health care programs. This is so because the programs are mainly designed to address a patient problem; thus, depending on the outcome a health care program can be assessed for quality. Information needed to evaluate and analyze patient outcomes includes gender, age and location. This evaluates the outcome in terms of either female or male, young or old and the geographical distribution (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). Statistical procedures can be used to analyze outcomes in terms of percentages, and this are compared to the objectives to see if the heath care program is successful. Information systems including computer applications such as Microsoft excel can be used to analyze the data. 10. Benefits and challenges of using Electronic Health Records to deliver quality care that is patient-centered. Many benefits accrue for using electronic Health Records, one being that the decision making process in health care is now based on quality, reliable and sufficient information. Next involves the development of better documentation policies and safety in health care without a risk of medical errors. Another benefit is on cost of maintaining and retrieving medical records. The challenges arise due to the complex systems that exist in the health care sector. Fragmentation is a hindrance to electronic health recording. Another challenge is the existence of many regulations in the health care sector that hinder transformation. Also, the expected capital input in investing in an electronic health recording presents a challenge to small enterprises. 11. The advantages, disadvantages and strategy for single-vendor vs. Best of breed systems alternatives. A health care may decide to acquire their IT equipment from one vendor or pick the best of equipment from different vendors. The advantages for a single vendor include the following. One is reliability as all data is transmitted on the same platform. Second is the ease of workflow management and reliability of the vendor to solve problems with the system. On the other hand, best of the breed has the following advantages. One is that the health care can acquire the best systems for each function and that updates can be made of only system without affecting the others. The disadvantages for single vendor systems are that upgrades for one system necessitate the upgrade of other systems. Two is that the over reliability on one vendor can be costly especially where they do not respond in time. As for the best of breed, the main disadvantage is that the systems may not be compatible; hence, creating a workflow problem. Also, problem identification is hard due to multiple different platforms (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). 12. The benefits, barriers and strategy for CPOE implementations. Computerized physician order entry is a system where a physician communicates his prescription over a network to the medical practitioners about a hospitalized patient. The advantages are that the physician orders are standard and to all responsible departments which ensures increased response time. The Second benefit is that the system is patient centered, and all the necessary medical history of a patient is attached. The third benefit is that the system is secured, and only authorized personnel can access it. The disadvantages of CPOE are that it comes with many risks of errors. If the staff is not well conversant with the system, it might feed in wrong information, which is carried down to all departments. CPOE has been identified to be responsible for almost 80% of errors in medical records. The main challenge experienced with CPOE is that it is quite costly and may take several years to implement and manage. CPOE has also experienced stiff resistance by physicians, making its implementation a complex affair (Brailer and Terasawa, 2003). References Brailer, D. J. and Terasawa, E. L. (2003). Use and adoption of computer-based patient records. Oakland, CA: California HealthCare Foundation. Read More