Quality Health Care: Strategic Planning-Performance Improvement-Information Systems - Research Proposal Example

The paper "Quality Health Care: Strategic Planning-Performance Improvement-Information Systems" is an excellent example of a research proposal on health sciences and medicine. Delivering quality health care is an imperative cause in the modern world with its ever-increasing standards of living, improving citizen awareness and merging concepts of patient rights. Information systems being the key to bring about quality improvement and the revolutionary changes being demanded by them from management realm, involving areas like strategic planning and performance management, basically it is a matter of identifying the relations among these key elements and keeping them well-balanced.

The thesis Strategic planning and performance management is fundamental inputting information systems in place in a health care scenario. Once the information systems are operational, they take over the task of strategic planning and performance management so that the triad falls into place in a forward and backward flowing process-triangle, where the bases are strategic planning and performance management. Regular updating of information systems demands support for the peak of the triangle from its bases.

Methodology Research method This study will combine quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data sources 1. A qualitative review of five major studies published between the 2005-2010 period selected on a case study selection basis. 2. Email-interview-based data collection using a questionnaire (with 20 questions), the respondents being a sample of 10 top-level managers, each selected by different major health care institutions in the country to represent them from among their managers.

There will only be one respondent from one institution. Data analysis Qualitative data analysis using case study method will be utilized for analyzing qualitative data collected. Statistical data analysis will be employed for analyzing quantitative data collected through questionnaire. Scope of the paper This study will help convince health care managers about the need of establishing and constantly upgrading information systems to improve the quality of health care delivery and remind how they are to be an outcome of and all the same an assistance to proper strategic planning and performance management.

Conclusion This study will not only stress the need for using information systems in health care to enhance quality but also will illustrate how strategic planning and performance improvement is a precondition and also necessary outcome of this process. Thus this paper will establish the triangular quality improvement model in health care with information systems at the peak of the triangle and strategic planning and performance improvement as its bases. There will be an upward and downward flow of processes from the peak to the bases and also horizontal flow between the bases, as far as interrelationships are concerned.

Annotated Bibliography Wager, K.A., Lee, F.W. and Glaser, J.P. (2009) Health care information systems: A practical approach for health care management. London: John Wiley & Sons. Provides a comprehensive study on the importance of information systems in the delivery of quality health care in modern times and illustrates how an effective strategic plan for the establishment of information systems and its proper implementation leads to performance improvement. Includes plenty of examples that illustrate the point and addresses the urgent need of delivering quality health care.

Discusses each of the three elements, namely, strategic planning, performance improvement and information systems, specifically and also stresses the interrelationship among the three. Lighter, D.E. (2010) Advanced performance improvement in health care: Principles and methods: Principles and methods, Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Elaborates on how an efficient strategic plan leads to performance improvement and how information systems could be used as the most effective tool towards this end.

Discusses each of the three factors in detail and tells the relationship between strategic plan and performance management which eventually leads to performance management. Reminds that information and knowledge management has to be embedded into the strategic plan as well as the performance management process. A reverse process is also elaborated upon by which an effective analysis of the strategic plan can be carried out using the information system that has emerged out of the plan itself. Lorenzi, N.M. (2005).

Transforming health care through information volume 772. Berlin: Springer. Focuses on the use and scope of information systems in delivering quality health care. Relates the relevance of information support in any decision-making process including the health care sector. Tells how the conventional strategic planning designs fall short of addressing the information systems demands in the field of health care. Addresses the emerging conflicts surrounding this issue and stresses the urgent need of integration of existing theoretical and application-level approaches and methodologies.

Hastings, G.R. (2008). Our journey to performance excellence, Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press. Depicts the successful history of Saint Luke’s Health System and narrates how information systems played a key role in its success. Addresses the individual challenge that a health institution faces in adopting the modern information system and elaborates upon the decision making and strategic planning that went into the process. Tells how the incorporation of information systems improved performance and also the quality of health care being delivered in this specific institution.

Provides useful information on the practical applications of the strategic planning-performance improvement-information systems trilogy. Chaudhry, B., Wang, J., Wu, S., Maglione, M., Mojica, W., Roth, E., Morton, S.C. and Shekelle, P.G. (2006) Systematic review: Impact of health information technology on quality, efficiency and costs of medical care, Annals of Internal Medicine, 144, 742-752. Provides information on how information systems help improve quality, efficiency and reduce costs in health care delivery.

Gives an extensive analytical review of almost all the major previous and recent works on the topic. Focuses on four major health care institutions and thus provides data that is contemporary and based on practical experiences.