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Running Head: HEALTH CARE IT SYSTEMS
Health Care IT Systems
HSA315
August 29, 2016
Strayer University
Health Care IT Systems
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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
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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).
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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
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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
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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).
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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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