The One Stop Shop : A Kaiser Permanente Case Study Review

Today, health care is one of the most the important subjects in United States. There are many Private and nonprofitmaking organization dedicated to health care. This paper discusses the readiness of Kaiser Permanente as a health care organization to respond the future health care needs of citizens. This paper also contains its strategic plan that addresses issues relating to network growth, nurse staffing, resource management and patient satisfaction.

Segmentation and positioning are two important concepts in marketing. While these terms are generally used in relationship to promotional activities, the term segmentation has relevance for market research as well. Segmentation involves dividing the larger universe of consumers or businesses into smaller units that represent more specific target audiences. Positioning is the next step whereby companies determine, based on the segments they have identified, how they can effectively promote what they have to offer compared to competitive offerings and positioning. Effective marketers know that the better they can segment audiences, the more they will be able to develop target messages and select specific

Kaiser Permanente is a managed care facility that provides services across the health care continuum. Over the years the organization has continually made efforts toward improvements since it was first founded in 1945. These improvements generate a series of successes that set Kaiser apart from similar organizations. But, just as any health care delivery system, Kaiser has faced challenges in the past, present and may continue to do so in the future. In this paper I will explain what attributes to the success of Kaiser Permanente and some of the challenges they face.

Back in December of 2015, Kaiser Permanente planned to acquire Group Health Cooperative for 1.8 billion dollars with a proposition to invest $1 billion in new equipment, staff, facilities and research in hope to improve health in Washington state. In the Advisory Board’s article Eyeing growth, Kaiser announces first major acquisition in over a decade it says, “these deals are focused on delivering a better product to

Healthcare systems are highly complex, fragmented, and use multiple information technology systems and vendors who incorporate different standards resulting in inefficiency, waste, and medical errors (Healthinformatics, 2016). A patient 's medical information often gets trapped in silos, which prevents information from being shared with members of the healthcare community (Healthinformatics, 2016). With increasing healthcare costs, a system needed to be created that would lead to the development and nationwide implementation of an interoperable health information technology system to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare. Introducing the National Health Information Network (NHIN), this organization can be defined as a set of

14. Capability to exchange key clinical information among providers of care and patient-authorized entities electronically

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.

Technology has come a long way over the years and continues to advance rapidly. The health care system is greatly affected by the advancements in technology. An example of this would be the use of electronic health records (EHR). In this paper I will be describing the electronic health record system. How my facility has initiated the EHR with following the six steps and describe meaningful use and how my facility is working towards this. Lastly I will discuss how to maintain patient confidentiality with use of EHR, and what my facility is doing to prevent HIPPA violations.

Containing ninety participants, 36% of the respondents were hospital CIOs and I.T. executives, 19% from integrated delivery systems headquarters, 19% from group practices, and 27% from other facilities. Survey results pertained to patient health records, electronic health record (EHR) certification, and other IT issues in healthcare. According to the survey, “81% of respondents said their I.T. budgets will grow, with the most common prediction being growth of 5% to 10%. Implementing electronic health records was the No. 1 software investment priority for the coming year for hospitals, integrated delivery systems and group practices alike.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) Interestingly, despite the economy at the time showing signs of a recession, “the vast majority of health care organizations expect their information technology budgets to grow during the next fiscal year, and this growth is driven primarily by a need to improve access to information for clinicians, the survey shows.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) This improved access to information can be applied to patients as well, as the push towards cloud storage and record/test results access alleviates the need to wait, call, and require record searches from the physician’s staff. On the subject of streamlining access to the implementation to patient EHRs, 19% of

Implementation of Healthcare Information Technology potentially reduces cost yet, remains a continuous challenge. The adoption of improved healthcare infrastructure is compelling and significant barriers remain such as technical issues, cost, concerns about privacy and confidentiality, system interoperability and lack of well trained staff to lead the process (Palvia, Love, Nemati, & Jacks, 2012).

Health Information Exchange is the electronic movement of healthcare information amongst organizations according to the national standards. HIE as it is widely known, serves the purpose of providing a safe, timely, and efficient way of accessing or retrieving patient clinical data. Health Information Exchange allows for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other vital healthcare professionals to have appropriate access and securely share vital medical information regarding patient care. Health Information Exchange has been in efforts of developing for over 20 years in the United States. In 1990 the Community Health Management Information Systems (CHMIS) program was formed by the Hartford Foundation to foster a development of a centralized data repository in seven different geographically defined communities. Many of the communities struggled in securing a cost-effective technology with interoperable data sources and gaining political support. In the mid-1990s a similar initiative began known as the Community Health Information Networks (CHINs) with the intention of sharing data between providers in a more cost-effective manner. In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research Health Information Technology Portfolio was funded $166 million in grants and contracts to improve the quality and safety to support more patient-centered care. This was the beginning of the progress we have seen in HIE today. Health Information Exchange devolvement serves the purpose of improving

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe two health information and communication technologies (HICTs) and how they aid nurses in supporting safe, quality care, facilitating continuity of care and care coordination, and partnering with patients and families to increase participation in health care. HICT involves electronic creation, storage, exchange, and analysis of health information to advance delivery of health care. Widespread use of HICT within the healthcare industry can achieve the following goals: improve healthcare quality and safety, reduce costs and health disparities, enhance clinical research, and ensure security of patient health information (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Several examples of HICTs include: electronic medical record systems, electronic prescribing, consumer health applications, and telehealth (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], 2015). Integration of HICTs in healthcare settings is valuable for all clinicians, but most importantly nurses as they are primary caregivers.

To provide Kaiser Permanente’s internal assessment as an organization we use a strategic S… W… O… Theory (SWOT) analysis that attempts to grain a comprehensive insight into Kaiser’s corporate strategy and key

The Act has brought mandatory changes for healthcare providers to adopt, implement, and demonstrate the meaningful use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and other health information technology instruments by 2015, so as to continue to receive full Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act 2009).1 This paper-to-digital transition requires a significant amount of change in the current information management solutions of healthcare organizations and demands a new approach in healthcare information management. Technically speaking, hospitals, physicians’ clinics, and Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs) will require quick access to computing and large storage facilities which may or may not be available in the traditional settings. Moreover, in accountable care structures, healthcare data such as Protected Health Information (PHI) will need to be shared across various settings and geographies to provide accurate patient care.2 To absorb this change, healthcare providers operating under traditional paper-based arrangements will have to invest in technological capital and establish an Information Technology section which initially will require significant amount of planning and resources. Even now when the majority of healthcare organizations are struggling to maintain their profit margins and are staggering to get hold of cash flows, this additional mandatory investment will

Many people may question the worthiness of such increased technology in the health care setting. To those people it must be conveyed that in almost every other industry, technology has made a dramatic impact on the quality, efficiency, and cost; in healthcare, it can make a difference in saving patient’s lives (Sensmeier, 2014, p. 17). Through my career as a nurse, I have seen the usage of three different electronic health records (EHR). In seeing what worked and what did not work, the more secure the nurse was with the EHR the better the patient outcomes were. This exhibited to me the need to have an EHR that enables the whole healthcare