A report on the organizational impact of a breach to health care information systems

A report on the organizational impact of a breach to health care information systems

Leadership structure as of January 2015 is a revised one to foster heightened response in the wake of responding to evolving demands of health care systems. The move was necessitated to help the hospital achieve its priorities and needs in a span of five years. The evolution is credible and it is in line with the hospital’s mission and value statement as per the acute care hospital restructuring that was initiated ten years ago. Information technology is a vital tool, and it is helping the hospital in the delivery of health care services. The hospital gets its professional support through, outsourcing, stand-alone, and affiliate modes to ensure patients receive the best possible health care (Gould, 2013). The paper gives insight into a summary of the hospital’s organizational structure, mission and value statement, feasibility plan of hiring health care personnel and rationale, justification of the use of information technology and pros and cons of using information technology and security breaches.

Summary of the Hospital’s organizational structure

The lives of people rely on the organisational structure of the hospital, thus the hospital is mandated to function very precisely and ensure high-quality service execution at any given time of the day. The hospital’s organisational structure is characterized as a vertical model with many layers of management. Healthcare professionals’ roles are specific, narrow and low- authority. There are several layers of management that are designed to ensure that every system is operating exactly and correctly.

1. Directors

Healthcare facilities are corporate, thus they are overseen by a board of directors. The hospital is a nonprofit organization with a board of directors that consists of influential healthcare members and the local community. It was founded by a religious group, thus the clergy and congregation form part of the board members to foster religious affiliations.

1. Executives

Boards of directors work closely with executives in ensuring that decisions are executed in the day-to-day operations of the hospital. The chief executive officer is top of the hierarchy of leadership and he is responsible for everyday operations within and outside the hospital. He is assisted by a chief nursing officer, chief medical officer, chief information officer, chief financial officer and chief operations officer. These factions of top executives comprise the core management of the hospital.

• Department administrators

They report to the core management of the hospital and they are responsible for medical or operation services. Departments that are tasked with patient care include orthopaedics, labour and delivery and emergency.

Non-patient departments include food services and billing. The clinical department is vital and it operates under strict terms of service to foster efficiency in its multifaceted activities.

1. Patient care managers

These are people who are directly entrusted to oversee patient care.

They include nurse managers, directors of rehabilitation and physician supervisors. Their task is to ensure that staff members work appropriately, give the best care, address all their duties, follow physician orders, and comply with hospital and legal requirements. In addition, they oversee work schedules and basic human resource roles (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2007).

Service providers

They comprise nurses, physicians, therapists, cooks, laundry workers and security personnel. Each faction has its own job description and the hospital mission and value statement mandate them to work diligently to uphold the safety and health of patients.

The hospital’s hypothetical mission and value statement

The mission and value statement of the hospital is aimed at providing a framework for teaching conflict resolution to healthcare staff to help incorporate the principles of dispute resolution within clinical experiences. The core management team is tasked to develop skills for dispute resolution, such as mutuality, openness, reflection and listening skills. Creating the ability to listen at a deeper level within a busy healthcare environment is equally essential. Skill development is vital in enhancing the role of the health care staff in their current role, thus assisting in negotiating the complexity of the working environment. Value statement expounds on planning and networking that are vital in creating good word of mouth within the health care environment. In addition, culture change is embraced to foster safety through collaboration and better systems.

Feasibility plan of hiring nurses, physicians and allied professionals

Service delivery systems of health care are in dilemma, thus transition to ongoing training and differentiation of roles is important in streamlining human capital. Communication strategies, ongoing training and providing changes that foster effective conflict resolution are means to addressing ethical and legal concerns facing the hospital. A hospital’s feasibility plan is tasked to address activities and practices, such as the coordination of resources, providing care, performing procedures, gathering data, integration of information, responding to emergencies, solving problems and interacting with diverse groups of people. Putting in place ongoing formal training and providing role models is aimed at fostering collaboration, the opportunity to learn skills and good negotiation during service delivery. Providing education, professional development, strategies for conflict management and dispute resolution is a vital tool in creating synergy by merging conflict resolution processes with healthcare environment issues. The professional development strategy in place is aimed at raising the level of dialogue to foster collaboration and synergy (Silver, 1998).

The process of hiring is through an outsourcing model. This model is relevant for the hospital because it cannot handle health care services internally without the help of external specialists. Additionally, some tasks are temporal, thus there is no need of hiring in-house professionals. The outsourcing model transfers the task to an external specialist who has entrusted the responsibility of carrying out the task while at the same time maintaining the assets of the organization. This model is important because of the lack of enough expert labour in given fields and it is a source of cheap labour.

The main areas of the feasibility plan are management metrics, sound communication for financial transactions, product designs as well as logistics scheduling. The hospital is faced with environmental risks, such as customs imposed on the current expenditures, natural disasters whose occurrence could hinder healthcare professionals’ activities and economic trends which do not favour the hospital, such as inflation and political instability. All these risks are a threat to the well-being of the hospital, hence none should be sidelined. These risks are outlined in the feasibility plan and are mitigated by laying a responsive platform collective of all departments, insuring the hospital and a clear compensation framework. Hiring is through open and competitive processes to ensure that only goal-oriented personnel are recruited into the system.

Role of information technology in increasing patient services

Information technology is a vital tool that makes it possible for the hospital to obtain clinical support services, such as quality reporting and identification of important behavioural health measures. It is in line with streamlining the accessibility of healthcare services. Information technology encompasses efforts of improving the quality of nursing care providers and it makes it possible for patients to make informed decisions because they are closely engaged. It also creates a platform for effective communication, which is essential in a healthcare setting, targeting patients, patient’s families and healthcare staff to achieve optimal healthcare.

Embracing information technology helps the hospital clear systematic barriers persistent in the chain of command. This entails shifting control to foster a smooth flow chain of command, improved access to healthcare-related information and increase the cultural competence of the healthcare facility. Streamlining communication practices in intercultural healthcare interactions is vital. This strategy aims at increasing individual skills in intercultural communication, minimizing communication risk and advocating for collaborative practice to understand the diverse needs of participating agents. Building consensus on emerging issues is possible, thus information technology sets the platform for high standards of care and improves interpersonal relationships and professional accountability. It also presents an outline when measuring patient outcomes and parameter evaluation (Low Son, 2003).

The rationale for embracing information technology

Information integration is a successful tool for a healthcare facility. Merging information from different departments is aimed at lowering operation costs. The departments involved are those that directly affect the patient and those that indirectly affect the patient. Alignment of information from all these departments ensures that there are efficient inventory controls leading to an effective response to demand and health care service delivery.

There is the issue of information synchronization in an institution with diverse departments. The joint undertaking of various departments in a healthcare facility is aimed at developing designs, schedules or strategies to further the hospital’s healthcare service delivery. Each department is designated a specific role and players in different departments are given the freedom to execute authority at their jurisdiction, thus close collaboration is through embracing information technology (Clemons, 2006).

The sound business model is through embracing information technology. Embracing information technology makes it possible for the hospital to customize its services, thus amicably addressing the needs of each patient. Both internal and external environments are integrated to foster long-term competitive advantage in health care service delivery. Association with other healthcare facilities is possible. In addition, there is an improved decision-making process due to the availability of crucial information needed (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2007).

Merits and demerits of information technology

Merits	Demerits
•       There is improved efficiency, thus a faster flow of activities •         Health care service satisfaction and transparency •    Heightened resource utilization •   Quality healthcare service delivery •   Quality and strategic management are a reality	•  There are high cases of data breaches •   Patient privacy is compromised •  High operation costs that result from regular formal training

Conclusion

The organization structure is clear and it aims at ensuring a streamlined chain of command. Ongoing training improves areas to do with conflict resolution, communication and overall delivery of health care services. Embracing information technology sets frameworks that ensure the achievement of sustainable solutions beneficial to the healthcare setting. Healthcare professionals are excellent problem solvers when closely involved, thus feasibility plan aims at addressing issues affecting them. Problem resolution strategies are framed to take the dimension of how health care staff handles the patient. The mission and value statement focuses on professional development, culture change, and healthcare service improvement. Effective communication is necessary for sound conflict resolution between patients and healthcare professionals and this is through collaborative practice to help develop diverse skills.

References

Clemons, E. (2006). “ERP is for Sustainable Competitive Advantage.”Information and Management, 11(3), 131-134.

Gould, D. (2013). “Giving infection control a big hand.” Community Nursing Notes, 5(1), 3-6.

Lovelock, C., & Wirtz, J. (2007). Services Marketing-People Technology, Strategy. NJ: Prentice.

Low son, R. H. (2003). Strategic operations management: The new competitive advantage. London: Rout ledge.

Silver, M. (1998). Strategy in crisis: why business urgently needs a completely new approach.Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press.

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Description

The Board of Directors of the long-term care facility (LTC) wants justification for putting in new security measures within the current health information system (HIS). Therefore, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has asked you as the IT manager to create a report that explains the organizational impact of a breach of healthcare information systems, focusing on the financial and privacy liabilities.