Complete a Vila Health interactive simulation in which you will evaluate the current state of hospital HIM systems and needs. Then, write a 5-6 page analysis of the current health care information technology environment and how the Vila Health hospitals fit into that environment.
Introduction
Note: The assessments in this course build upon the work you have completed in the previous assessments. Therefore, complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.
Health care is a diverse field; it is not just hospitals and physicians. Health care settings include a wide range of facilities and services, including skilled nursing homes, home health care agencies, rehabilitation clinics, behavioral health clinics, and support services, just to name a few. Therefore, when making decisions related to health informatics, it is important for administrators to take into account the larger, external information technology environment and how their organization fits into it.
This assessment provides an opportunity for you to analyze a current health care information technology environment and make system integration decisions within the larger context of the external environment.
Overview and Preparation
Note: This assessment builds on your work from Assessments 1 and 3. Therefore, complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.
The following resources are required to complete the assessment:
Vila Health: Health Information System Characteristics and Needs.
This multimedia simulation will enable you to evaluate the current state of health information management systems and needs at Vila Health\’s St. Anthony Medical Center.
APA Style Paper Template [DOCX].
Use this template for your written analysis of the health informatics external environment:
Once again, you will assume the role of a mid-level administrator within the Vila Health system. In the previous assessment, you analyzed the Vila Health settings and the health information systems of the various hospitals it acquired and made your system integration decisions and recommendations.
In this assessment, the chief operations officer would like your analysis of the current health informatics external environment and an explanation of how your integration decisions align with this environment.
Complete the Vila Health: Health Information System Characteristics and Needs interactive simulations linked above. Determine the HIS needs of two medical departments, services, or clinics.
Requirements
Analyze the current health care information technology environment, and support your system integration decisions, within the larger context of the external environment.
Note: Remember that you can submit all—or a portion of—your draft analysis to Smarthinking for feedback, before you submit the final version for this assessment. If you plan on using this free service, be mindful of the turnaround time of 24–48 hours for receiving feedback.
Document Format and Length
Format your analysis using APA style.
Use the APA Style Paper Template [DOCX]. An APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] is also provided (linked in the Suggested Resources) to help you in writing and formatting your analysis. Be sure to include:
A title page and references page. An abstract is not required.
A running head on all pages.
Appropriate section headings.
Your analysis should be 5–6 pages in length, not including the title page and references page.
Supporting Evidence
Use credible scholarly or professional evidence to support your analysis.
Format all citations using APA style. Remember that an APA citation includes both the in-text citation (the author\’s last name and the year of publication) and the full reference for the source.
Writing Your Analysis of the External Environment
Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your analysis addresses each point, at a minimum. You may also want to read the HIM System Characteristics and Needs Scoring Guide to better understand how each criterion will be assessed.
Analyze the current health care information technology (IT) environment.
Consider the information needed to create a complete picture of the IT environment.
Explain how the Vila Health hospital’s HIM systems fit into the external health care technology environment.
What evidence do you have to support your assertions and conclusions?
Determine the interrelatedness of HIT throughout an organization.
How do various applications used throughout the organization, such as electronic medical records (EMR) and pharmacy, laboratory, scheduling, and billing applications, work together?
How might an understanding of a broad range of applications help health care managers make strategic decisions. For example, how would a demographics database application help make marketing decisions?
Identify the specific, unique HIM needs of each hospital.
How might system integration decisions serve those needs?
Identify the specific regulations and guidelines that must be followed for particular health information systems.
Consider current laws, the responsibilities of managers for meeting regulatory obligations and guidelines, and best practices for compliance.
Analyze common procedures and best practices for securing sensitive health information.
Consider the effects of government agencies and specific regulations on health informatics.
Support your system integration decisions and recommendations.
Utilize current trends and best practices from the literature.
Write clearly and concisely, using correct grammar, mechanics, and APA formatting.
Express your main points and conclusions coherently.
Proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on the substance of your analysis.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Articulate the impact of internal and external environmental changes in health care organizations related to use of technology.
Analyze the current health care information technology (IT) environment.
Explain how hospital HIM systems fit into the external health care technology environment.
Competency 3: Analyze the roles of governmental, regulatory, and professional agencies related to health care and their impact on clinical outcomes and financial performance.
Identify the specific regulations and guidelines that must be followed for particular health information systems.
Competency 4: Evaluate health care applications and technology infrastructure.
Support one’s system integration decisions and recommendations.
Competency 5: Articulate the characteristics and services of different types of health care organizations and their unique use of health care technology.
Determine the interrelatedness of HIT throughout an organization.
Identify the specific, unique HIM needs of a hospital.
Analyze common procedures and best practices for securing sensitive health information.
Competency 6: Communicate effectively with diverse audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with applicable organizational, professional, and scholarly standards.
Write clearly and concisely, using correct grammar, mechanics, and APA formatting.
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Solution
HIM System Characteristics and Needs
Vila’s health care system requires a major upgrade to fit in the international health care standards. The health care unit does not only require a system that focuses on physicians and hospitals but needs other support systems such as home health care agencies and behavioral health clinics. The health care industry forms an integral part of human life. Maintaining quality in the health care delivery system while ensuring that all challenges facing health care are at their minimum is a sign of an improved health care system (Markazi-Moghaddam et al., 2019). Rapid application of IT in the healthcare industry has formed a base of active innovation of all health care systems. Vila health care systems are not an exception in the current IT integration. This paper aims to analyze the current health care information technology and how Vila health fits into this environment.
Current Information Technology Environment
The current health care industry is looking forward to developing a system that can minimize human errors in health care. The current state of Vila health does not suffice to obtain the optimal minimization of errors because of the low application of technology in the operating systems of the organization (Jeddi et al., 2020).). The management of the internal factors affecting the quality of health care delivery in the institution is an important decision to the Vila management team.
Information Needed to Create a Complete Picture of IT environment
Vila needs the installation of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and e-journals to increase the accuracy of health care services. Each day, many patients interact with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and health care workers, where relevant information about the patient’s medication is passed from one doctor to the next (Hu et al., 2020). This flow of information needs a well-organized mechanism for storage and effective management of this information against the threat of getting into the hands of unauthorized persons. Policies for universal health care delivery in the US call for all health care institutions to adopt the EMR system that allows easy communication and record-keeping in health care institutions. The installation of an effective EHR system would thus imply that the clinic would be fit to meet the current needs of patients.
Vila Health Hospital’s HIM Systems Fit into the External Health Care Technology Environment.
Moreover, installing an EMR system at Vila health would effectively eliminate human errors, which have been a major cause of health in the US. The EMR system has been effective in eliminating human errors. The efficiency of the health care operations through Electronic Medical Records has also led to the high demand for the patients’ medical records in the black market. Hackers look at hospital data as a rich source of information they can be using to carry out their malicious activities (Jeddi et al., 2020). Despite the significance that ICT has been having on health care institutions, the threat to electronic security has also increased simultaneously. These issues have been calling for an accurate measure in dealing with this threat in health care institutions. Therefore, as Vila health thinks about the massive application of technology that would define all the health care services it will be offering to the community, there will be a need to invest in an effective information security system to secure patient data.
Interrelatedness of HIT throughout an Organization
Vila health care needs to understand the complexity and diversity of the health care field. The activities done within the clinic do not suffice to drive the clinic to its required quality. The health care systems involve a wide range of facilities and services, including skilled nursing homes, home health care agencies, rehabilitation clinics, behavioral clinics, and support services. However, effective management of all these health care facilities and services requires an effective system that enables the free flow of communication from one department to the next (Tsagaankhuu et al., 2018). Computer physician order entry systems (CPOE) technologies in health care institutions house different groups working together to ensure that patients receive health care services. Despite the name of this tool implying to physicians, it is important to all health care professionals. Patients depend on the health care workers to have a positive change in their well-being; physicians are charged with ensuring that they receive health care services. On the other hand, employers in the healthcare delivery system hold different positions in the institution that ensures that services are smooth and of high quality in various healthcare institutions. Vila requires this kind of system to manage all these facilities.
Working of Applications at Vila Health
The current communication devices used at Vila health do not define quality or show a positive direction towards quality improvement. The application of technology needs to be taking center stage in the integration between nurses, doctors, and other health care workers in the institution. Use of handheld wireless devices technologies in healthcare aids in connecting the health records to the overall health records in the hospital. Electronic Health Records, computerized disease entries, medical insurance cover, electronic prescribing, and telehealth are systems in health care carrying a heavy load of confidential information of patients and require an effective communication device (Jeddi et al., 2020). Vila health has the opportunity to grow, and the substantial growth that management could depend on emanates from the application of the current technology in health care institutions. Vila needs immense hiring of nurse informatics with professional skills to lead to technology integration in the clinic. This compels these companies to ensure that all their workers and the system adhere to the security protection that would not jeopardize the clients’ information.
Common Procedures and Best Practices for Securing Sensitive Health Information
The transformation of the Vila clinic through the integration of technology requires the use of simulation in the training of the current nurses to understand the direction that services would be taking in the future. The use of simulation models for education and training has improved the health care training that many clinicians can have a virtual reality of what they are about to find in the field from the models of training offered to these medics. Additional VR technology training Vila nurses would increase the clinic’s social, environmental, and personal presence in the international environment (Markazi-Moghaddam et al., 2019). In some clinics, AR is already in an application used in the training of medical nurses to conceptualize some of the complex anatomical structures in humans. Health care practitioners need effective training of all their practice on the best ways of handling the technology installed in the hospital. Effective awareness through training on IT security is that each employee will understand the system by recognizing the effective application of health IT in practice.
Effect of Health IT in Strategic Decision Making
One of the essential ways to improve healthcare quality in clinics is to admit a drastic technological transformation. The fear of securing health data has been limiting many hospitals from adopting a digital mass migration. However, healthcare needs an effective IT security framework that all medical practitioners need to learn. The preparation of a technological change in health care starts from the preparation of the users who will be having a daily encounter with the technological products installed in a health care institution (Markazi-Moghaddam et al., 2019). The mass application of modern technology in health care effectively reduces human error using automated error alerting mechanisms, has been significant in increasing the quality-of-service delivery to patients. Fear of causing error in the treatment of patients has been limiting health workers from giving the most effective remedy. However, health IT brings in a new system of operation that dispels healthcare workers’ doubts while ensuring they achieve the ultimate need in offering health care services. For instance, error alert devices help medics to adopt ways of ensuring their safety to patients.
Unique HIM Need at Vila Health
The need for technological health care migration has also been changing the management of health care institutions. The Computerized Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) are some of the IT tools affecting the behavior of health care providers. This tool can provide healthcare professionals with a warning on an intended treatment (Jeddi et al., 2020). Doctors are also prone to errors such that when they do not have a controlling system, they can commit numerous atrocities that affect human life. The integration of CDSS in various health institutions allows each medical practitioner to understand the tool such that an alarm raised from the tool will prompt a stop in medication. Besides, these tools reveal a patient’s accurate health conditions, promoting faster medical attention to save lives.
Conclusion
The massive use of IT tools in health care delivery proves the level of advancement that Vila health need to adopt in the 21st century. The role of technology has a pivotal role in almost all levels of integration in the health care industry. The success of these tools in the health care industry is a sign that all health care instructions are moving towards a data-driven innovation where all decisions affecting the functioning of a clinic or a hospital lies on proof given by a particular data.
References
Hu, X., Qu, H., Houser, S. H., Chen, H., Zhou, J., & Yu, M. (2020). Hospital characteristics associated with certified EHR adoption among US psychiatric hospitals. Risk management and healthcare policy, 13, 295. https://dx.doi.org/10.2147%2FRMHP.S241553
Jeddi, F. R., Nabovati, E., Bigham, R., & Khajouei, R. (2020). Usability evaluation of a comprehensive national health information system: relationship of quality components to users’ characteristics. International journal of medical informatics, 133, 104026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.104026
Markazi-Moghaddam, N., Kazemi, A., & Alimoradnori, M. (2019). Using the importance-performance analysis to improve hospital information system attributes based on nurses’ perceptions. Informatics in Medicine Unlocked, 17, 100251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imu.2019.100251
Tsagaankhuu, S., Zhang, X., & Ayush, E. A. (2018). Characteristics of hospitals that adopt hospital information systems in Mongolia and its impact on patient safety and quality of care. Central Asian Journal of Medical Sciences, 4(2), 116-125. https://doi.org/10.24079/CAJMS.2018.06.003