MSc PROJECT MANAGEMENT - Coursework Example

Computer Sciences and Information Technology MSc Project Management Questions and Answers Questions and Answers How are healthcare facilities handling assessment and referral services in children’s services performing?The current performance of the referral and assessment information systems in children’s services is discouragingly underwhelming. The inefficiencies in the current systems, despite their modernisation, often result in high incidences of errors. These errors lead to wrongful treatment procedures, patient neglect, and poor quality in services for the end-users (Broadhurst et al., 2010). The causal factors for the problems are immediately apparent from factors such as narrow-minded leadership approach, poor implementation strategies, and lack of standards to gauge the performance of the assessment and referral systems in children’s services. 2. How does the management respond to occurrence of errors in the modernised systems?

Senior management in children’s services indiscriminately punish employees for inadequacies in the assessment and referral systems. Although many analysts are of the opinion that ineffective implementations account for the errors, they decry the practice by management to blame and punish employees overlooking the assessment and referral processes. The result has been a consistent practice by employees to cover up errors occurring in the systems (Broadhurst et al., 2000). In addition, the workers take a more laid-back approach to disseminating feedback that helps the management to pinpoint functional and operational challenges in the systems.

The overarching impact of this gap in communication between the employees and management is the clear impediment to innovation and continuous management necessary of all technology-based information systems. The vicious cycle of malpractices in the system has resulted in stagnation in the innovation process and the consequential failures of the modernized assessment and referral. 3. What is the opinion of the experts on the design adopted by healthcare facilities handling children’s services?

Many experts think the current flaws in the referral and assessment systems are traceable to the initial design frameworks of the systems. The approach taken by healthcare management left out key steps in the introduction and implementation of the computerised systems. Some of the problems included lack of careful assessment of the functions of the modernised systems (Kaye et al., 2004). Proper staff retraining was also necessary for effective transition from the manual systems to the automated system.

Pushing to the periphery the needs and input from various stakeholders contributes to the current difficulties in the current modernised assessment and referral systems. 4. How effective is the process of assessment and referral given the heavy level of automation in the processes?The heavy level of investment in technological facilities seems to have done little to improve the quality of service delivery through the modernised assessment and referral systems. The paradox is confounding, and begs the intervention of stakeholders instrumental to the corrective process of the systems.

Currently, experts seem to agree that the problem is attributable to the highly obstructive combination of poor implementation procedures, inhibiting management culture, and poor design frameworks upon which the systems’ creation happened (Broadhurst et al., 2000). 5. Are there benchmarks governing referral and assessment information systems? Healthcare systems lack benchmarks on which to found their information systems for handling referrals and assessments. Benchmarks are standards upon which a certain organisational process occurs to ensure optimum performance (Shaw & Stahl, 2008).

Healthcare systems lack these mechanisms, leaving individual institutions to come up with their own systems, which achieve different and disappointing results. Without proper benchmarks, top management teams in healthcare facilities have little means to comprehend the requirements automated assessment and referral systems need to meet expectations of the organisations and the various stakeholders, for instance the employees and the clients in need of referral or assessment services. Finally, establishment of benchmarks will help management in reviewing the state of the systems and drive innovation given the high dynamicity of technology-based systems.

ReferencesBroadhurst, K, White, S, Fish, D, Munro, E, Fletcher, K, and Lincoln, H. (2010). Ten Pitfalls and How to Avoid them. NSPCC. Retrieved on May 3, 2012 from http://www.nspcc.org.uk/inform/publications/downloads/tenpitfalls_wdf48122.pdfKaye, R, Kokia, E, Shalev, V, Idar, D and Chinitz, D. (2010). Barriers and Success Factors in Health Information Technology: A practitioner’s perspective. Journal of Management And Marketing in Healthcare. Vol. 3(2), 163-175. DOI: 1179/175330310X1273657773 2764 Retrieved on April 14, 2012 from http://www.

maccabi-research.org/res/pdf/ Barriers.pdfShaw, M and Stahl, B. (2008). Quality assurance based healthcare information system design. Americas Conference on Information Systems, ON, Canada 14th – 17th. Retrieved on April 15, 2012 from http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~bstahl/publications/2008_healthcare_qa_amcis.pdf