1 Running Head: HEALTH CARE IT SYSTEMS Health Care IT Systems HSA315 August 29, 2016 Strayer University Health Care IT Systems HEALTH CARE IT SYSTEMS 2 According to Hageman, (2016), currently, the US is suffering from effects of high health care costs and shortages of nurses. One of the key responsibilities of the Chief Technology Officer is to come up with ways of improving health care quality as much as the burden of high costs affects the health care sector. Systems of IT including the CIO has the huge responsibility of cutting costs with motives of improving the healthcare sector and in the process of taking care of the high costs, the CIO also highlights the need for better systems of healthcare. Some of the characteristics for CIO’s include reliability, creativity and adoptability as they are the main determinants of the system’s success. The traits that are common in all successful CIPO’s also include a risk taker trait, confidence for setting up new systems and representing their companies, valuing people, innovators, makers of tough decisions, transformational leaders, learners and future anticipators. All these traits describe the most successful CIO’s in the healthcare systems. One of the recommendations where the CIO’s expertise can be of help to both patients and employees is by knowing how to network with other external systems of healthcare including patients. Networking with patients is of importance as there is high feedback from the IT services provided in the systems. For example, computerized services such as the use of internet or telephones could fail and with good networks with patients, it is possible to identify the system’s weaknesses. Also, the outcomes of sharing ideas and learning from external systems are only achievable thorough good networking relations. For example, new trends including advancements of the IT machines and operations are achievable through networking with other systems in the same field for purposes of sharing ideas and building each other. One of the developing technologies that systems of healthcare systems should make use of with motives of health care processes and quality improvement while reducing heath care HEALTH CARE IT SYSTEMS 3 costs and services includes the use of Integrated Delivery System Research Network (IDSRN) and the development of more IT products that include advanced systems of data colletion in the whole system. IDSRN development is focused on capitalizing on the capacity of researching large integrated systems of delivery in the United States. Effective conduction of relevant research is very critical as it leads to the discovery of finding ways of cutting down costs as more ideas are reinvented in improving the quality and services provided in the health care systems in the US. The new IT products developments also include computerized manuals for both workers and patients that help in reducing errors which could cost the company a lot. Products of translating effective strategies into other languages in different regions of America, for example, in Latin America where Latin language is common, the new advancement is used to ensure the strategies are widespread effectively. The provision of IT or computerized manuals for patients includes the usage of facilities such as wheel chairs. The provision of the computerized manuals reduce the time wastage for instructing the patients which also reduces the cost of having nurses to train the patients to operate such service providers. The quality and services is improved as patients are free to communicate to the nurses in charge through phone calls in case of any failure. Reduction of costs and improved service production is evident enough from health care systems using these IT improvement ideas and practices in the US. According to research, it is impossible to keep up with the required standards for quality health care provision and reduction of costs without the involvement of the IT department in the healthcare systems not only in the US but worldwide (Hageman, 2016). HEALTH CARE IT SYSTEMS 4 The two significant methods that systems of health care should make use of with purposes of preventing the misuse of information and to protect data privacy to achieve high security of information includes the performance of risk assessments and developing PHI security strategy. Performing risk assessment assists in the identification of potential and present threats. These kinds of threats are a form of a vulnerability to patients as their information personal information is accessed by the wrong individuals with the wrong motives. As soon as a threat is identified through the performance of risk assessment, there is an emergency alert send to right IT staff in order to deal with the situation immediately. Another way to protect health information and data in these systems includes the development of a strategy in Protecting Health Information (PHI). According to (Martin et al., 2016), in the process of developing a PHI, all authorized persons are held responsible for any kind of misuse of information which includes the spread of rumors. It is of importance for health systems to take note that bringing experts from external sources is a threat to the data and other health information of the health care system. To successfully achieve in the PHI strategy, it should be based appropriately on the information to be protected. Predictable information is protected by making it inaccessible to other employees including the public (Hageman, 2016). PHI requires a lot of training where the involved individuals in the IT department are required to be well experience with ways of responding to an emergency of a potential or an existing threat of breach of information. The implementation of policies, technologies and processes takes time for it to be effectively achieved in practice. It calls for the need of employing trustworthy employees which is one of the biggest challenges as it is difficult to predict personal behaviors of individuals. According to research, the most effective ways to have the information protected by assurance of security is by identifying ways HEALTH CARE IT SYSTEMS 5 of automated protection where passwords and usernames can be used in future to track such cases. The purpose for employing we experienced IT members is the need of responding effectively and quickly to insecurity incidents. An incident response plan is not an exceptional step in the two strategies as it helps the IT sector to deal with these situations in an organized manner as trained (Cook et al, 2016). According to Hageman (2016), one of the strategies that health care organizations can adopt to train providers in making use of technology in healthcare includes applications of health records that are electronic with motives of improving efficiency and quality. Some of the leading health care systems in the US have found successes through the use of electronic records which have improved the overall status of their systems. The system allows a provider to construct the Electronic Health Record (EHR) strategic plans in their systems with motives of integrating both inpatient and outpatient care by the provision of a continuum of well-coordinated services (Martin et al., 2016). The success depends on the leadership which is required to fully involve itself with activities of also involving the clinical staff in the processes of implementation and designing the plans. There should be a mandatory training session for every staff member with strict timeline adherence and budget. The EHR systems are developed with purposes of facilitating the entire health care systems’ operation including the quality of services offered to patients. It entails the use of evidence based practices, alerts, checklists, discrete data fields among other details to ensure successful progress with the inclusion of accurate communication of the ongoing activities in progress. Improvement has been achieved in patient flow, faster inquiry responses, less duplicative tests, redeployment of claims of staff and transcription, quick and HEALTH CARE IT SYSTEMS 6 more transparent capture of charges and incentive payments of federal. EHR is one of the most recommended strategies used in training providers in the health care systems in applications of technology practices (Cook et al., 2016) The three best practices of effective IT alignment and strategic planning initiative include developing strategic priorities that focus on provision of quality services to patients. Without the development of strategic priorities that involve patients leads to loss of focus for the main purpose of the IT functions. Secondly, it is of importance to identify critical initiatives to ensure successful execution of the set strategy is achieved. Consider both financial and non-financial metrics that are key drivers of performance. Potential compliance, strategic and operational risks should be identified in the process. Finally, it is critical to monitor critical initiatives in order to identify the necessary practices that are missing while assessing the plan. Monitoring critical initiatives assists in identifying the progress of the whole plan as threats and strengths are easily identified. Assessment goes hand in hand with the step of monitoring critical initiatives as it is impossible to complete the mission set without assessing the process (Hageman, 2016). HEALTH CARE IT SYSTEMS 7 References Cook, A. J., Delong, E., Murray, D. M., Vollmer, W. M., & Heagerty, P. J. (2016). Statistical lessons learned for designing cluster randomized pragmatic clinical trials from the NIH Health Care Systems Collaboratory Biostatistics and Design Core. Clinical Trials, 1740774516646578. Hageman, J. C. (2016). Infection prevention and control for Ebola in health care settings—West Africa and United States. MMWR supplements, 65. Martin, C. O., Hawkins, A. M., Olds, K., Akhtar, N., Holloway, W., King, S., & McClintick, J. (2016). Abstract WP3: EMS Routing for Endovascular Patients-One Health Care Systems Successful Model. Stroke, 47(Suppl 1), AWP3-AWP3.
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