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Situational Analysis of Health Information Technology

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Situational Analysis of Health Information Technology

Information technology (IT) in healthcare has re-engineered patient care, improved efficiency, and better compliance. Health information technology (HIT) helps healthcare providers to handle data better, make clinical decisions, and be more efficient. However, optimizing HIT requires careful analysis, both internal and external. This paper presents an in-depth scenario study of a medium-sized city hospital, including its organizational design, healthcare provision, IT, and challenges and opportunities to improve patient care and efficiency: Situational Analysis of Health Information Technology.

Background of the Healthcare Organization

The hospital under analysis is a medium-sized hospital situated in an urban area that offers both in and outpatient services, emergency services, surgical care, a diagnostic centre, cardiology, and oncology services. It treats various clients, with a high number of the patients being elderly, poor, and suffering from chronic diseases without adequate health insurance. It is affiliated with a large regional healthcare system; it works in harmony with outpatient clinics and specialized centres.

The hospital’s goals are to provide safe, effective and efficient care to patients and across the institution. It has developed significant commitments to the use of HIT through the implementation of EHR, Telemedicine solutions, and hospital information solutions. However, the hospital continues to face challenges in the extensive adoption and integration of IT within departments and the numerous service domains (Ross et al., 2020).

Current Business and Healthcare Services

The hospital has multiple services, such as inpatient treatment, outpatient therapy, emergency care, surgery, imaging, and rehabilitation. It is a fee-for-service system, and most patients come from Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance. The hospital is most famous for the specialty clinics that see many patients, like cardiology and oncology. Dedicated trauma care and critical care services also make the hospital regionally significant (Cresswell et al., 2015).

Structure and Organization of the Health System

The hospital is an outpatient clinic, specialty care center, and rehab unit in a regional healthcare network. The system is led by a central board that decides the hospital’s strategy, policies, and processes. The board has several higher-level executives who direct the operations of the hospital, such as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The hospital’s IT department maintains electronic health record systems and coordinates electronic health records across departments.

Internal Organizational Policies, Procedures, and Culture

There are clearly defined policies and procedures at the hospital for IT use, patient data protection, and compliance. These range from protocols for EHR usage, patient information security under HIPAA, and system updates and maintenance. The culture in this organization is one of care and collaboration as well as efficiency and analysis.

Workflow and Communication

The workflow of the hospital—from patient records to scheduling and clinical decisions—heavily depends on the IT system. EHR has real-time data for departments, but system integration is a problem. Radiology, pathology, and pharmacy have different IT systems, which leads to many inefficiencies and delays. Secure messaging and collaboration systems are also available at the hospital to keep team members connected (Davis & Green, 2022).

Clinical Content of the Organization

The hospital offers many clinical services and is responsible for large quantities of clinical data in the form of patient records, tests, and treatment plans. The EHR system contains this information, and clinicians can access it to view and update patient information easily. However, problems arise when clinicians do not keep updated records, and patient data becomes incorrect or incomplete.

The People Working in the Healthcare Organization

The hospital has many employees, including doctors, nurses, IT professionals, administrators, and maintenance personnel. The IT department is also the key to ensuring everyone at the hospital is connected and able to access and make use of the hospital technology. However, there are differences in how technology is used and embraced by various employees. Some clinicians embrace digital technologies, but others, especially less tech-savvy ones, have difficulty implementing new IT systems (Johnson & Thompson, 2020).

Human and Computer Interface

HCI determines the ability of staff to interface with the hospital’s IT infrastructure. The hospital implemented intuitive interfaces for its EHR and telemedicine platform, meant to minimize the learning curve for clinicians. However, these efforts do not come without hardships. Sometimes, the interface of some systems is not intuitive, which is frustrating for staff who must work with software frequently. (Ross et al., 2016).

Situation of the Health Information System and Information Technologies

The hospital’s HIS consists of a number of interrelated systems: the EHR system, telemedicine platforms, and administrative management tools. While these platforms are good for the delivery of healthcare, they are not always well-integrated. For example, radiology and laboratory data are frequently entered manually into the EHR, creating more inefficiencies and more errors.

Hardware, Software, and Computing Infrastructure

The hospital has invested in modern hardware and software for its health IT. These include powerful servers, workstations, and mobile devices physicians use to query patient information. However, the hospital’s system is beginning to tangle from all the patient information and is becoming increasingly dependent on telemedicine.

The hospital has a cloud solution in place to scale, but there are questions about security and reliability (Davis & Green, 2022). The hospital’s IT department is actively working to upgrade both hardware and software to meet the demands of a rapidly changing healthcare environment and to ensure that systems remain secure and compliant with healthcare regulations

Systems for Monitoring and Control Mechanisms

The hospital organization uses different monitoring and control methods to ensure the medical records and health information systems are secure. These include network monitoring tools, cybersecurity measures, and compliance tools that will assist in maintaining HIPAA and other regulatory compliance. System audits are performed frequently and patches are applied as necessary to maintain the company’s defenses against cyber threats.

However, the hospital still struggles to monitor all the systems and ensure compliance with staff security measures. Due to the dynamic nature of cyber threats, the hospital needs to strengthen its defences and ensure vulnerable patient information is secure and patients’ trust is retained (Brown & Martin, 2021).

External Health Services Delivery Environment

The healthcare environment outside the hospital has advantages and drawbacks. Medical policy shifts—from the move toward value-based care to the rise of digital health—offer the hospital both a challenge and a chance to change. The hospital is also exposed to outside pressures, from private hospitals and speciality outpatient facilities, which now provide sophisticated telemedicine and other digital health care. The hospital will need to react by expanding its digital health services and making sure that its IT infrastructure can provide quality care in the market (Zakaria et al., 2010).

External Rules, Regulations, and Pressures

The hospital is subject to stringent regulatory requirements imposed by institutions, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Health and Human Services (HHS). Compliance with HIPAA rules is paramount, and the organization can take a strong approach to protecting patient information. The hospital also has to deal with changing telemedicine policy, reimbursement, and healthcare laws, all of which add regulatory pressure (Zakaria et al., 2010).

Current External Health Information Technology Environment, Challenges, and Opportunities

Externally, the health IT landscape is changing rapidly. The hospital faces threats and opportunities with telemedicine, data science, and artificial intelligence, which are already prevalent across healthcare. Although there is much room to expand patient care and efficiency, the hospital has difficulties adopting new technologies and adhering to new regulations. Leveraging these external trends, the hospital aims to enhance its IT infrastructure, improve patient outcomes, and stay competitive in an increasingly digital healthcare market (Cresswell et al., 2015).

References

Cresswell, K. M., & Sheikh, A. (2015). Health information technology in hospitals: Current issues and future trends. Future Healthcare Journal, 2(1), 50–56. https://doi.org/10.7861/futurehosp.15.015

Ross, D. S., & Venkatesh, R. (2016). Role of hospital information systems in improving healthcare quality in hospitals. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 9(26), 1-5. https://dx.doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i26/92686

Zakaria, N., Affendi, S., & Zakaria, N. (2010). Managing ICT in healthcare organization: Culture, challenges, and issues of technology adoption and implementation. Health Information Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 1357-1372. https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/health-information-systems/49936

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You will create this assignment following the Assignment Detail instructions below.

Review the tutorial How to Submit an Individual Project.

Assignment Details

This Individual Project builds upon your work in Unit 1.

Part 2: In Unit 1, you completed the strategic information systems plan (SISP). In Unit 2, you will conduct a situational analysis.

This involves analyzing the current internal and external health IT situation for the healthcare organization. In the situational analysis process, you must include the following:

Deliverable Requirements: The situational analysis requires at least 5 pages in APA style as well as 3 APA-formatted references. The title and reference pages do not count as part of the 5 pages.

Submitting your assignment in APA format means that you will need the following at a minimum:

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Situational Analysis of Health Information Technology

Situational Analysis of Health Information Technology

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