Evaluating Health Informatic Systems

In 2009, the U.S. Government passed The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to promote the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (Mangalmurti, Murtagh and Mello 2060). The HITECH Act authorizes grants and incentives to promote the “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHR) by providers (2060). The effect is a high commitment to a technology-led system reform, urging a renewed national commitment to building an information infrastructure to support health care delivery, consumer health, quality measurement and improvement, public accountability, clinical and health services research, and clinical

When developing a new information technology system such as a health documentation system, a team will work through a series of steps “in order to conceptualize, analyze, design, construct and implement a new information technology system”. (Morris, 2009). Traditionally, there were five phases to developing a new system, but it has been found that having seven phases can provide analysts and developers create a system that can more precisely meet the needs of a company. The stages include: planning, systems analysis, systems design, development, testing, implementation and

Background: The Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) identified five goals for adopting health information technology (HIT) into the current health care systems that would significantly improve healthcare in America. (Abdelhak, Grostick, & Hanken, 2012, p. 82) These goals will help improve the quality of care within the federal health system by reducing medical errors, cost, and duplication of workload.

Coming from a background heavy in NICU and pediatric homehealth experience, I chose to create a hypothetical situation that related to a common problem that many children contract and spread. My demographic area has a large population of immigrants and lower income families, so education and effective communication is a must.

Advances in modern technology surrounds us in our day to day lives, allowing conveniences and efficiency at our fingertips. Great strides have been made over the years with technology, and the healthcare industry along with many other industries have adopted this new way of functioning; electronically. The effects of technology have come to the forefront in where our government has acknowledged the benefits and opportunities. “The promise of Health Information Technology for improving quality and safety of health care while reducing costs has caught the eye of policy makers and other leaders in health care” (Hersh, 2006). It deeply affects how we connect, interact, and communicate internally and externally, but also gives us a sense of control on how we engage ourselves to the innovative software and systems.

The purpose of this project was to overview on the effects of health information technology integration (HIT). This report is mainly focused on understanding of health information technology, specifically on use of health information technology as significant use. Scope of this literature review, given the current state of health information functionality 8.

An informatics needs assessment is a critical step in the selection and implementation of the Electronic Health Record (EHR). The purpose of a needs assessment is to understand the organization and the needs of the organization well enough to boost the positive impact of an EHR while minimizing the negative effects (American Medical Association, n.d.).

There are some assumptions made by university health care system in its implementation that the common advantages of using a computerized system would obviously work to their own advantage. Users of the system make a great impact to the existence of the same. It is imperative to consider old data that is supposed to be fed to the system in order to make it efficient while updating the rest of information. Self evaluation process is recommendable to the system by the Information Technology experts. The human interface of the system should be included by the evaluation team. This will include two psychologists. The above aspects should be considered by a team of analysts before they conclude on whether the project does or does not

Information and communication technology has been adopted and implemented within various sectors of the economy. This is attributed to the benefits of technology in facilitating organizational activities and processes and its use in meeting the changes which characterize the modern society. The health sector is one of the industries which have significantly implemented technology. The health sector’s technological applications have been achieved within health information systems. The implementation of technology in this sector has resulted into both positive and negative implications on health

Demographic shifts in the global population, greater levels of technological disruption due to the Internet, social media and the en masse adoption of smartphones and tablet PCs are together re-defining the healthcare informatics market. System and informatics theories have emerged as the foundational elements of healthcare informatics supported by the Data, Information. Knowledge (DIK) Model which acts as a taxonomy for these developments (Haugh, 2005). Systems and informatics theories along with the DIK Model form the ontological foundations of healthcare informatics field of research occurring today and will continue to provide a basis for further research (Braganza, 2004). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the contributions of systems and informatics, the role of the DIK Model, expert systems in nurse care and medicine, and the use of decision aids and decision support systems. All of these elements are critically important to strategic information systems plans healthcare providers put into place to serve patients while giving healthcare professionals the applications, systems and software they need to excel in their roles (Djellal, Gallouj, 2007).

The variation in information needs across any healthcare provider organization forces healthcare information technologies (HIT) platforms, systems, processes and procedures to align its design to support the unique information needs of each department and role. The greater this alignment of HIT systems and technologies to specific administrator, doctor, nurse and lab technician roles, the higher the level of overall systems performance and results attained (Agrawal, Grandison, Johnson, Kiernan, 2007). Just as an enterprise has strategic information needs that help to define the future direction of the business, healthcare provider organizations also have a comparable set of strategic information needs. The administrative roles in healthcare providers need to have a consolidated view of the organization from a cost, quality management, service level, patient recovery rate, patient satisfaction and profitability standpoint as well (Middleton, 2005). All of these factors are often gathered together in a dashboard that administrators often rely on to manage the core areas of their healthcare business (Leung, 2012). Administrator's information needs are also longer term in nature and more oriented towards the development of strategic initiatives that will last several years, requiring

The successful implementation and subsequent meaningful use of information technology solutions within a health care organization is a challenging and iterative process. The organization must engage in careful and ongoing strategic and tactical planning to ensure that the implemented technology will ultimately be effective and beneficial for its practitioners, staff, and patients.

An information system is a base in today’s business world. Everything is electronic. In various businesses, the survival and ability to succeed strategic business goals is challenging without extensive use of information system. Businesses improve the efficiency of their operations in order to accomplish higher profitablity. Besides that, information systems are important tools available to managers for achieving higher levels of efficiency and productiviy in business operations. For an example, Zara uses the PDA technology to gather customer feedback and input.

Health information systems (HIS) are complex and it is helpful to understand advantages and disadvantages to some key components of a HIS. This section will describe the advantages and disadvantages of usability, interoperability, scalability and compatibility.

The report highlights the development of public health informatics and its results. The field is not new, but there are novel ways that computer and information technologies are finding their way in the provision of public care. Most agencies tasked with this role of providing public care are continually utilizing electronics to make it give rise to desirable outcomes. This trend is not new, but its success if restricted by factors such as necessary legislation and integration of systems. Many areas of public care have established informatics to facilitate their functions. This introduces a problem because these systems cannot be integrated with those of other field of healthcare. This is one of the most challenging obstacle that the field of health informatics has to overcome.