Knowledge Management in the Healthcare Care Setting - Term Paper Example

Knowledge Management in the Healthcare Setting Name Course Name and Code Instructor’s Name Date Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Knowledge management in health care setting is a relatively new concept. It has a number of obstacles that hinder its effective implementations. These obstacles range from financial to technological development to culture among others. The paper attempts to explain how these problems can be solved so that there can be enhanced management of knowledge in healthcare facilities. 4 Literature review 4 Recommendations 16 Conclusion 16 References 19 Introduction The report is about knowledge management in the healthcare care setting. The report is directed at healthcare practitioners. The paper highlights as well as provides ways of dealing with knowledge. The paper gives a number of strategies that have been instituted that are aimed knowledge management in the healthcare setting. The paper explains a number of issues facing knowledge management in the healthcare sector. The paper also provides methods that can be instrumental in knowledge management in the healthcare setting. Background Knowledge management in health care setting is a relatively new concept. It has a number of obstacles that hinder its effective implementations. These obstacles range from financial to technological development to culture among others. The paper attempts to explain how these problems can be solved so that there can be enhanced management of knowledge in healthcare facilities. Literature review According to Lighter (2010), knowledge is any information, data as well as experience. It is also a combination of facts; trainings, analysis as well as lessons learned which compromise knowledge for any individual. Knowledge management offers individuals as well as organizations with approaches as well as practices, which makes use of business processes, intellectual capital as well as IT solutions to enable healthcare organizations with more operational means. By capturing, organizing, codifying, distribution as well as utilization of knowledge, healthcare facilities can embrace knowledge management practices, which help the employees to conduct positive operations. In addition, the fountain of different types of knowledge within a healthcare facility give a chance to the coming generations to learn from previous mistakes and develop solutions to the healthcare facility (Summer, 2008). Healthcare is knowledge-yet; however, healthcare knowledge is under-utilized at the point-of-care as well as point-of-need. The healthcare is having an exponential growth in the scientific comprehension of diseases, treatments as well as care pathways. Consequently, healthcare knowledge is in flux – new healthcare knowledge generated at a rapid rate and its utilization can impact on patients care as well as health outcomes (Riano, 2008). Nonetheless, the growth of knowledge is not corresponding with the healthcare ability to effectively disseminate, translate as well as current healthcare knowledge in the medical sector (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). Healthcare facility managers have a task of examining costs associated with healthcare. They are also under pressure to discover strategies that would enable carrying out of activities in a better, timely and cheaply. Workflows as well as internet technologies are instruments that can be fundamental in cutting such costs. The biggest challenge in healthcare regards changing of raw data into information that is relevant (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). Advancements in information technology as well as telecommunication have enabled healthcare facilities to overcome the changing large amount of data into relevant information. The healthcare sector has a disjointed information exchange since each hospital, insurer, doctor as well as independent lab have their own information and in some cases, the information is not shared among the medical practitioners (Wickamasinghe & Geisler, 2008). From a managerial perspective, these challenge prompted healthcare practitioners to look at various healthcare management concepts, which could alleviate information explosion (Bali, Troshani & Goldberg, 2012). “Exchanging medical information between various information systems is a norm for medical practitioners and hospitals all over the world” (Bali, Troshani & Goldberg, 2012, p. 4). Advancements in information Technology has made it easier for in the medical fraternity to share medical information. Nonetheless, despite establishing a technological infrastructure for sharing medical information, a good number medical stakeholder is experiencing an information explosion (Bali, Troshani & Goldberg, 2012). Medical practitioners have to handle over “10,000 known disease, 3000 drugs, 1,100 lab tests, 300 radiology procedures, 1,000 new drugs and biotechnology medicines in development and 2000 individual risk factors” Bali, Troshani & Goldberg (2012, p.4). The issue is aggravated by advancements in hardware technologies that accentuate information overload in the healthcare. For instance, organ as well as tissue scanning speeds is increasing after every 2 years, this makes tests faster and more affordable (Bali, Troshani & Goldberg, 2012). Image resolution doubles after 1 year. Advancements in the modern-day genetic sciences is a significant driving force behind the development of pharmaceutical and increase in number of potential drug compositions (Bali, Troshani & Goldberg, 2012). Medical practitioners, apart from bearing with the implications of advances in genetic sciences as well as hardware technologies they are also required to deal with information overload as a result of advancements in biomedical knowledge (Bali, Troshani & Goldberg, 2012). An indicator to the impacts of the biomedical knowledge as well as generic engineering revolutions on healthcare is the increase in biomedical knowledge in the National Library of Medicine’s Medline database of literature that has been published in health-related sciences. In case, a modern-day healthcare practitioner wants to get the information from the current literature that is added annually then it would take if 1100 years if he reads one article a day (Bali, Troshani & Goldberg, 2012). It is not possible for medical practitioners to possess all the knowledge that is significant in their area of specialization (Hamric, Hanson & Tracy, 2013). Information explosion in the healthcare industry has to a large extent affected the capacity of healthcare professionals, especially physicians in offering proper as well as appropriate medical diagnosis and treatment. Likely, information explosion in the healthcare industry will be accentuated by advancements in genetic engineering and biomedical knowledge (Dwivedi, 2009). If the ramifications of all these elements are seen together, then healthcare stakeholders have to be proficient in understanding as well as healthcare information so that they can get wisdom and knowledge while handling a large chunk of clinical data. The data is dynamic in nature and requires the ability to comprehend context-based healthcare information (Poe & White, 2010). Opportunities for the implementation of knowledge management to primary healthcare givers has grown over the last two decades with the application of information communication technology (ICT), changes in the medical record keeping as well as the need to audit quality standards (Bali, Troshani & Goldberg, 2012). Knowledge management approaches for primary healthcare givers ought to take account of the unique nature of specialty with more emphasis on first-contact care, comprehensive services as well as coordination (Chu, 2010). Knowledge management solutions, particularly one that sees evidence-based medicine (EBM) or technology based as the only fundamental paradigm (Howick, 2011). Instead, primary healthcare givers need a portfolio of solutions. It would be prudent of leaders in the medical industry would consider at least one element from these areas clinical audit, mentorship, community of practice as well as EBM. According to Donaldson, Lank & Maher (2011) knowledge management has the capability of improving working lives of primary healthcare providers in the present changing of roles and expectations. Previously, primary healthcare provider’s general practitioners were considered to fountain of medical information regarding their area of practice, worked as individual with a list of their patients and they rarely used ICT. Their medical records were written by hand on medical record cards that were put on the patient’s record envelop (Rising, 2011). Knowledge available to them was restricted to few textbooks, colleagues as well as pharmacopoeia. Nonetheless, things have shifted dramatically in the past two decade. Presently, information from computerized medical records is available. Therefore, the role of medical practitioners has changed. Presently, medical practitioners do not know all the important information; however, they should know where to get information that is required (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). At individual patient level, mastery of a generic problem-solving process is important than factual knowledge. At the level of medical practitioners, they are able to audit quality standards in a manner that has never been witnessed before (Classen, Tytgat & Lightdale, 2010). The high volume of medical knowledge as well as the regular search for an improved managerial effectiveness within health services also establishes an environment within which knowledge management has the potential for success. Healthcare managers have a task of discovering methods that are faster, better as well as cheaper. Bearing this in mind, a number of concepts as well as paradigms that have caught their attention is clinical governance (CG), evidence-based medicine (EBM), model of integrated patient pathways, KM (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). According to Jibawa & Cade (2009), evidence based medicine process begins with identification of knowledge-gaps in the healthcare treatment; this is preceded by search of the best evidence. Then, it is followed by a process that helps in choosing the appropriate electronic data as well as IT applications, which focus on clinical competencies basing on the evidence that has been generated. This is then followed by conducting an appraisal of the best evidence that has been identified by conducting checks to ensure accuracy as well as diagnostic validity of the treatment identified basing on the generated evidence. The final step in its application to patients requires integration of best evidence with General Practitioners clinical expertise to provide the best treatment as well as care (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). According to Courtney & McCutcheon (2009), knowledge management is very broad and multidisciplinary field that encompasses some of the other methods, such as EBM. Generally, knowledge management can be explained as capturing, organizing as well as storing knowledge as well as experiences on groups or workers in an organization as well availing this information to others within the organization. The concept of knowledge management also involves accelerating learning (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). Primary healthcare experts have a wide range of knowledge needs. Biomedical knowledge is significant to primary healthcare experts. In the UK, emphasis has been put on managing chronic conditions. The responsibility of primary care experts is shifting to one focused on CDM that has less out-of-hours activity. Apart from taking care of patients, UK primary healthcare providers are also tasked with the responsibility taking a managerial task within the healthcare system. There have been a number of initiatives in the UK healthcare service that has given primary healthcare a role in commissioning care. The aims of the reforms can be considered to incentivizing practitioners to reform the manner in which they deliver care as well as manage demand (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). The healthcare sector has had incorporation of various management paradigms that aimed at alleviating the information explosion in healthcare; however, none has been fruitful. Knowledge management paradigm is touted as a solution to the current information overload. Usually, knowledge management is considered as an interdisciplinary management method considers the whole spectrum of knowledge activities. Because of this wide-ranging remit, KM does not have a definition that is universally agreed upon. Most of the definition of knowledge management definitions state that it is a multidisciplinary method and its key objective is to ensure knowledge workers get access to the right knowledge, to the place required and at the right time. KM has an array of definitions; nonetheless this paper will adopt the definition of knowledge management (in healthcare sector) (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). Knowledge management is a field which advocates for an integrated approach to managing, identifying as well as sharing an enterprise’s information assets, including documents, database, policies and procedures and unarticulated expertise and experience resident in individual workers (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). A comparison of two decision-making environments in general practice as well as hospital can illustrate some of the specialty particular needs of primary healthcare. Primary healthcare consultation is an intricate phenomenon. Doctors are a “drug” with both effects and side effects that need their own pharmacology. Information communication technology solutions offered by knowledge management overlooks elements of the consultations and are at risk of supplying solutions that are not irrelevant (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). According to Mendenhall, Osland & Bird (2013), there are two types of knowledge explicit or tacit. Knowledge management aims at transforming tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge so that it can hasten effective dissemination. Transfer of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge can be exemplified by database, for instance, the Turning Research into Practice and Medline as well as online collections of framework such as Prescribing Rationally in General Practice (PRODIGY) as well as the National Institute of Clinical; Excellence (NICE). These resources help clinicians to catch-up with the amassed medical knowledge as well as information retrieval scheme have shown to increase quality of answers offered by medical experts to typical clinical problems (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). KM projects can be grouped into learner-centered and information-centered activities. Information-centered KM disseminates current knowledge while learner-centered knowledge management intends to develop opportunities to accelerate learning. Healthcare knowledge management can be characterized as creation, modelling, operationalization, sharing as well as translation of healthcare knowledge to bolster quality of patient’s care. Healthcare knowledge management scheme aims at purporting a paradigm shift in one understands of reality as well as healthcare knowledge. The HKM paradigm shift champions for a healthcare delivery scheme that considers healthcare knowledge as an important resource as well as aims to translate it into clinical practice so that health outcomes can be improved. The paradigm shift is driven by unique demands of various healthcare stakeholders, where stakeholders show a specific knowledge need, usage pattern as well as expected result. Healthcare delivery being a knowledge driven process offers chance to incorporate knowledge management practices so that the process can be improved. Knowledge management can help to understand performance in organizations. Knowledge management has positive impact on operational as well as organizational performance (Depress, 2011). The delivery of healthcare is knowledge driven; therefore, knowledge management (KM) as well as knowledge management capacity offers a chance for improving process performance. Knowledge management is more complex in healthcare since the three domains of knowledge development, knowledge normalization as well as knowledge application corresponds with knowledge management perceptions, that is, personal values, objective facts and social norms respectively, that has inherent tension within and between them. As mentioned before, healthcare experts cannot keep track of the large amount of scientific knowledge that is fundamental in the practice. Medical practitioners have a paradox; though they have a lot of information, they cannot get particular information when it is needed. Communities of practice offer a pathway for sharing clinical evidence as well as new knowledge among various specialized medical practitioners. Consequently, community of practice (CoPs) offers a method to the various professional groups within a healthcare facility, to leverage their tacit knowledge. Transfer of healthcare knowledge is largely dependent on professional networks as well as communities of practice. Therefore, these ought to be leveraged by healthcare facility as a fundamental way of diffusing medical knowledge as well as best practice in the healthcare facility. Currently the health care sector is facing problems as a result of the increasing demand from the population. For the healthcare sector, to become effective in meeting this demands it is required that they ought to adopt knowledge management principles. As a result of development of information technology, the present and future medical records can be leveraged to establish knowledge-based solutions, which enhance collaboration among healthcare facilities as well as solve the demand for healthcare through improved record management as development of efficient approaches to diagnose as well as treat patients. According to Mayfield (2008), many business organizations have embraced knowledge management. Nonetheless, healthcare facilities have been a bit slow in adopting these principles. Business organizations that want to become knowledge centric integrate knowledge management principles with information technology as well as business practices. Since 1990s upon the advent of internet, information technology has been instrumental in enhancing knowledge management within organizations. Integration of IT in healthcare is known as health informatics. In the healthcare sector, health informatics is increasingly becoming popular. Recently personal healthcare records as well as electronic medical records have been instrumental in changing the traditional patient paper-based record method. Patient’s data can now be accessed medical stakeholders within a health facility. Examples of data that can be fed on personal health records include medication history, lab results, chronic diseases, allergies, hospitalizations, healthcare claims information, imaging reports. During George W. Bush’s tenure as the US president, he instituted the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (NCHIT) to aid in advancement of healthcare information technology in the US (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). The citadel intent of this endeavour was to reduce healthcare errors as well as costs as a result of information gathering. NCHIT will help increase the ease of using medical information as well as how medical information can be shared between medical practitioners and the patient’s alike. In the United States, the healthcare system cannot adhere to universal concepts defined by NCHIT since there are disparities among healthcare facilities as well as providers. Healthcare practices are not standardized, for instance, reporting format, terms used as well as system processes (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). Lack of standardization will affect the ability of IT systems to work with both internal and external systems. Medical healthcare institutions such as hospital are owned and operated independently. Therefore, they ought to abide by terms and regulations dictated by the government agencies. Nonetheless, there is no urgency regarding standardization of the healthcare industry. In the United States, the Health Information Technology Standards Panel is developing health care sector standards for the health care sector. Design A number of methods were used in developing this report. However, the most instrumental one was the internet. I also visited a number of healthcare facilities to assess their knowledge management strategies. Since knowledge management is a relatively new concept li conducted research on materials that are not more than five years old so that I could be able to understand the latest trends and development in knowledge management. I also visited a number of healthcare facilities, both government and privately owned. Findings The healthcare is having an exponential growth in the scientific comprehension of diseases, treatments as well as care pathways. Healthcare facility managers have a task of examining costs associated with healthcare. The biggest challenge in healthcare regards changing of raw data into information that is relevant. Advancements in information Technology has made it easier for in the medical fraternity to share medical information. The healthcare sector has a disjointed information exchange since each hospital, insurer, doctor as well as independent lab have their own information and in some cases, the information is not shared among the medical practitioners. Advancements in information Technology has made it easier for in the medical fraternity to share medical information. It is not possible for medical practitioners to possess all the knowledge that is significant in their area of specialization. Information explosion in the healthcare industry has to a large extent affected the capacity of healthcare professionals, especially physicians in offering proper as well as appropriate medical diagnosis and treatment. Knowledge management is considered as an interdisciplinary management method considers the whole spectrum of knowledge activities. Discussion Just like any other information technology project, implementation of KM healthcare IT systems needs support of top management as well as a champion. The greatest stumbling block to any knowledge management solution is the healthcare facility culture. The barrier has both individual as well as organizational perspectives. For instance, if the management of a facility puts knowledge management systems as well as practices without considering its users, the general success of this strategy can be severely impeded. Consequently, a champion ought to present as well as with the support of management to involve the user in knowledge management system development life cycle. Traditionally, medical practices relied on medical practitioners as knowledge experts by providing diagnosis and treatments. With little documentation for reasoning, medical practitioners are put in a good position to defend their practice as well as reasoning. Consequently, establishment of a decision-based approach among IT-based solution can experience hurdles depending on the individual. Enforcement of knowledge management practices as well as systems in the healthcare sectors can be successful or likely to fail. Delivery of healthcare occurs in a complex action space, the complexity of the service delivery process, driven by complexity of issues dealt by the teams that requires many disciplines develop and share knowledge is an instrumental requirement. Considering the issues facing healthcare organizations, the significance of knowledge management, identifying the mean available to aid knowledge management as well as explicitly developing and designing appropriate healthcare information systems using KNI framework, and then applying to this IC model is of strategic importance, since it serves to facilitate attainment of a healthcare value proposition of excellence (Bali, Troshani & Goldeberg, 2012). Recommendations Medical practitioners are experiencing problems when dealing with knowledge management. This necessitates the need for effective training of healthcare experts while they are at school and when they have been employed at their various workstations. Training healthcare experts can instrumental in preparing them for the ever-increasing knowledge that is available in the healthcare sector. Information explosion is evident in the medical care sector however, with good planning concepts information can be planned in a manner that will be very helpful to the healthcare practitioners. Conclusion By capturing, organizing, codifying, distribution as well as utilization of knowledge, healthcare facilities can embrace knowledge management practices, which help the employees to conduct positive operations. Healthcare knowledge is under-utilized at the point-of-care as well as point-of-need. The healthcare is having an exponential growth in the scientific comprehension of diseases, treatments as well as care pathways. According to Shanks & Buchbinder (2011), healthcare facility managers have a task of examining costs associated with healthcare. The healthcare sector has a disjointed information exchange since each hospital, insurer, doctor as well as independent lab have their own information and in some cases, the information is not shared among the medical practitioners. Challenge facing the healthcare practitioners prompted healthcare practitioners to look at various healthcare management concepts, which could alleviate information explosion. According to Iskandrian & Garcia (2008), exchanging medical information between various information systems is a norm for medical practitioners and hospitals all over the world. It is not possible for medical practitioners to possess all the knowledge that is significant in their area of specialization. Healthcare managers have a task of discovering methods that are faster, better as well as cheaper. Bearing this in mind, a number of concepts as well as paradigms that have caught their attention is clinical governance (CG), evidence-based medicine (EBM), model of integrated patient pathways and KM. Knowledge management is very broad and multidisciplinary field that encompasses some of the other methods, such as EBM. Primary healthcare experts have a wide range of knowledge needs. The healthcare sector has had incorporation of various management paradigms that aimed at alleviating the information explosion in healthcare; however, none has been fruitful. Usually, knowledge management is considered as an interdisciplinary management method considers the whole spectrum of knowledge activities. Knowledge management is a field, which advocates for an integrated approach to managing, identifying as well as sharing an enterprise’s information assets, including documents, database, policies and procedures and unarticulated expertise and experience resident in individual workers. There are two types of knowledge explicit or tacit. Knowledge management aims at transforming tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge so that it can hasten effective dissemination. KM projects can be grouped into learner-centered and information-centered activities. Information-centered KM disseminates current knowledge while learner-centered knowledge management intends to develop opportunities to accelerate learning. Healthcare knowledge management can be characterized as creation, modelling, operationalization, sharing as well as translation of healthcare knowledge to bolster quality of patient’s care. Knowledge management has positive impact on operational as well as organizational performance. The delivery of healthcare is knowledge driven. Knowledge management is more complex in healthcare since the three domains of knowledge development, knowledge normalization as well as knowledge application correspond with the three knowledge management perspectives. Medical practitioners have a paradox; though they have a lot of information, they cannot get particular information when it is needed. Currently the health care sector is facing problems because of the increasing demand from the population. Many business organizations have embraced knowledge management. Nonetheless, healthcare facilities have been a bit slow in adopting these principles. The greatest obstacle to any knowledge management solution is the healthcare facility culture. Traditionally, medical practices relied on medical practitioners as knowledge experts by providing diagnosis and treatments. Delivery of healthcare occurs in a complex action space, the complexity of the service delivery process, driven by complexity of issues dealt by the teams that requires many disciplines develop and share knowledge is an instrumental requirement. References Bali, R., Troshani, I & Goldberg, S. (2012). Pervasive health knowledge management. New York: Springer. Classen, M., Tytgat, G & Lightdale, C. (2010). Gastroentorological endoscopy. New York: Thieme. Chu, S. (2010). Managing knowledge for global and collaborative innovations. London: World Scientific. Courtney, M & McCutcheon, H. (2009). 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Burlington: Bartlett Publishers. Summer, J. (2008). Healthcare communication networks: The dissemination of employee information for hospital security. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Wickramasinghe, N & Geisler, E. (2008). Encyclopedia of healthcare information systems. New York: IGI Global Snippet. Appendix Knowledge management in an organization How knowledge is shared in an organisation Data process Read More