The Issues With Managing Health Information - Essay Example

Management Journal Introduction Managing health information record is a big task and this process needs to be done with great affection & care. In health care centers, information regarding patients is vital and carries immense importance as it depicts the previous and current scenario of the patient. Allocation of medicine and prescription is done according to the record, so a minor misleading or wrong information can be harmful for patient’s health. Health information management cell or department of medical health is hence responsible to take care of the record and categorize patients accordingly. This is not an easy task at all and carries a huge responsibility. This department is liable to have eminent quality information of the medical record, maintaining patients’ profiles, organizational structure maintenance and sustaining a professional environment throughout the organization. Miss management at this end can lead to even casualties of patients (Moghdassi & Sheikhtaheri, 2006). Technological advancements have a huge impact on the transformation of this whole department. Prominent technological changes were applied so that managing data would be an easy and effective task. These changes brought a revolution in this sector and health information professionals have taken place of traditional medical record maintainers. Technological know-how is hence important to manage and asses this task effectively. Transfer of record from previous manual hand written record concept to soft copy computer record is not a piece of cake and still there are many health care institutes who are in this process of transformation (Moghdassi & Sheikhtaheri, 2006). A maintained record is very useful for future operations. The job roles are thus redefined and refined from this phase. Organizational setup and structures are thus being revolving throughout this tenure and massive developmental changes have been witnessed so far. Health Information Management Cell (Moghdassi & Sheikhtaheri, 2006) states that the establishment of a fully functional health information management cell or division is the first task that needs to be taken place. Legitimate authorities and powers should be given to the division for proper data maintenance and storage. It should be equipped with all the necessary technological devices. Integrating all the hospital information with all the concerned departments with proper accessibility should be the primary task of this cell. Health care information and resources should be appropriately managed without any mistake. There should be three mainstream running departments under the broader category of this cell i.e. information technology department, medical library department and healthcare information management department. All the three departments should be under the supervision of Health Information Manager. The tasks of Manager include managing the processes of these three departments, integrating relationships, resource allocation, development, strategic planning, information technology management and policies and structural maintenance. This setup of health information management division is followed in the major developed countries of the world and some of the developing countries are in a phase of making prior adjustments to their previous health data management to smoothly invade this process into their system. The answering body of health information division, Health Information Manager has to be under the direct influence of the governing body of the healthcare institute/hospital. However processes under his nose have to be taken place according to the set standards. Main Functions of Health Care Management Department Defining job role and job description is vital so that the processes would take place according to the defined system; hence the main functions of health care management department are also to be done according to the essential requirements of the cell. Collecting, integrating, analyzing, and estimating, managing, planning and evaluating are the imperative essential jobs that are needed to be carried out in this specific department. The functional processes needed to be taken in such a way that information and data gathering of healthcare is done first- designing of information forms and cooperating with the designing committee is done in this phase. Quality analysis of data is than done so that there would be no ambiguity in the collected data (Terlep, 2012) Data processing comes in as the next step. In this phase organization and classification of the collected data takes place. Aforementioned information is sorted out and organized in a systematic manner. According to the disease and illness, categories of data are made. In addition, statistical data of administration and health activities is also formed. After gathering and classifying the data, comes the step of data storage. Maintaining all sorts of records with accurate registration and listing them in appropriate way so that extraction would be easier should be done at first place. Releasing the information on soft and hard copy also needs to be checked. With respect to all the processes, there should be a backup plan for data retrieval, so whenever data loses, there should be a way to get back. Utilizing resources and managing them, total quality assurance and risk management support should be always there 24/7 for any sort of disturbance or unexpected scenario (Moghdassi & Sheikhtaheri, 2006). Human Resources Approach-Managerial Philosophy The human resources approach/ human relations approach discusses how to manage the administrative, functional and operating activities in an organization. Strategic planning and developmental phase also comes under the umbrella of human resources approach. The approach mentions that how to make employees of an organization productive and beneficial for the organization. Managing people with responsibility, incentives, rewards, motivation are the main goals of human resources so that full utilization of employees would be made. The end result should be beneficiary for both organization and employees. Managing the organization is thus the name of the game (Devanna, Fombrun and Warren, 2006) In context of the health information management department, there are several areas of concern which have to be addressed at the first spot so that there would be a healthy environment at the health care institutes. Managing employees, data management, integration of systems, management philosophy, strategic planning and achievement of goals are the key concern areas which have to be addressed by the human resources approach. This approach has been very productive and worthy for organizations around the globe and the beneficiaries have earned their desired goals. Continuous development is essential for long lasting success. Managerial Perspective Health information manager’s role in this scenario is like the captain of the ship. His planning, management and strategies would either lead the ship to sail successfully or will be lost in the sea. Similarly Manager has to make fundamental planning, adjustment and changes to the processes running. Employee’s intrinsic motivation has to be intact so that the decisions made by the Manager are well running and functional. Skilled professionals with proper knowledge about information technology have to be set as the primary goal and recruitment should be done with respect to it. Creation and demolishing of sub units in the department is the responsibility of Manager. Wherever there is a need of the new management department; there should be one. Putting burden on one department is not the answer to the queries. Systematic management should be the goal and adjustments to the defined system should be made with respect to that. Quality Management Quality standards following in health care center is the need of time. Without quality standards an organization cannot be judged or defined. The international total quality standards such as ISO 9000-9001, ISO 14000 etc. are vital for goal setting. However these qualities are set for the industries but just to make an example, health care institutes should apply these for future progression and development. Contingency planning has a significant role and without it organization cannot survive in times of hardship (Devanna, Fombrun and Warren, 2006) Risk management must be done. Any kind of intellectual property loss can be dreadful and problematic for the institute as this can take to some serious consequences. The trouble-free setup thus can be prevailed with appropriate risk management strategy which is the backbone of lost data backup. Conclusion The above discussed health information department importance and its context in human resources presents a very clear cut picture that this kind of setup is essential for all the hospitals and health care institutes around the globe. The traditional way of data storage has been no more impact as processes are made simpler and easy through information technology inception. Storage of data in the computers/information technology is time saving, easier, simpler, understandable and retrievable. Traditional data if lost cannot be recovered however data on information technology can be retrieved. All the departments’ integration has made hospitals a virtual network, in which department roles are well defined and followed properly. Well defined and organized job descriptions have made operations of the hospital strong and powerful. Any kind of previous record of the patient is now retrievable so that in any case or emergency, doctor would know the exact position of the patient. Strategic planning by the Manager carries a lot of value, that how he carries his operational activities and what steps he has taken to eliminate any kind of barrier or disturbance in the hospital’s setup. Developed countries like USA, UK and Australia have been actively following Health Information Management and now it’s time for other countries to adopt this strategy for a brighter and safer health care future. References Moghaddasi, M. & Sheikhtaheri, A.(2006). A new model for the organizational structure of the medical records department at hospitals in Iran, AHIMA, vol. 3, 1-5. Retrieved. 30 Oct. 2012 from Terlep, M. (2012) Practices makes perfect when it comes to ICD-10, AHIMA, Vol. 4, 1-3. Retrieved 30 Oct. 2012 from Devanna, M. A., Fombrun, C., Tichy, N., & Warren, L.(2006), Strategic planning and human resource management. Human Resource Management, 21(1), 11-17. Read More