Healthcare Information Management Systems Why

Healthcare Information Management Systems

Why is user resistance -- particularly from nurses and physicians -- often considered the greatest obstacle to successfully implementing patient-centric management systems?

Resistance to change is by far the most costly and commonly cited reason for all systems within a hospital to not attain their fullest potential. The lack of adoption for patient-centric management systems can be attributed to resistance to change and fear of what the new systems will do to re-align or change job priorities and status (Tan, Payton, 2010). Health Information Management Systems (HIMS) are often rejected due to these factors and those the systems are designed to support and streamline the work of often minimize their use and make them over time, less valuable from a data use and analysis standpoint. There are many allegories between patient-centric management systems and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems throughout manufacturing and services companies. CRM systems typically experience a 70% failure rate due to resistance to change (Foss, Stone, Ekinci, 2008). When a new CRM system is deployed it is common for the sales, marketing and even executive management teams to openly question tis value and see it as more of an intrusion than a tool for getting more work done (Foss, Stone, Ekinci, 2008). In many respects, nurses, physicians and the staffs of clinics are also exhibiting the same rejection of new systems by not allowing them to change their jobs, even if there is the potential to increase their performance as a result (Tan, Payton, 2010). As any new change to how information is used in a healthcare organization will also bring a change in status, every person who relies on the information included is clearly cautious (Hickman, Smaltz, 2008). This is why change management programs and initiatives are critically important in any new HIMS and patient management system being implemented in a healthcare facility. Showing how the system will save time and actually make the workers more effective is the key to making a change management program highly effective.

Develop an organizational policy on data security, including actions to be taken when there is a security breach.

The most critical aspect of any organizational policy on data security is the need for aligning it to the governance and strategic initiatives of the healthcare provider first (Dwyer, Reiner, Siegel, 2004). The tight integration of organizational policies to governance frameworks and initiatives is critical if the investments in the core technologies to secure information assets are going to pay off. Governance from a strategic standpoint must define the spending and investment priorities on security technologies to ensure they contribute to the overall profitability and long-term growth of the healthcare provider. The need for aligning organizational policies and security strategies is also critical for the performance of patient management, physician and administrator system performance from a reliability and uptime performance level as well (Dwyer, Reiner, Siegel, 2004). Averting downtime due to a lack of security can cost a healthcare provider literally millions of dollars in revenue and operating systems (Tan, Payton, 2010). Security is not only critically important from a legal and regulatory standpoint, it is also a form of insurance in responsiveness and uptime over the long-term of a healthcare operators' business. The organizational policies for security management also must take into account the many variations in how systems can be compromised, yet in so doing, not restrict their use across the organization (Dwyer, Reiner, Siegel, 2004). The best practice in this area is to concentrate on creating role-based access points and defining specific steps that healthcare it professionals can take to mitigate unauthorized use of the information (Hickman, Smaltz, 2008). By having a high degree of compliance of it security strategies to governance frameworks, healthcare facilities can ensure all investments in these technologies deliver long-term value.

How feasible is the Web services solution for HIMS? What are some of the challenges and potential solutions?

The growing adoption of development platforms and applications that can enable secure, enterprise-wide access to the full suite of HIMS modules is progressing rapidly. These developments in Web Services development architectures and platforms is also driving the development of entirely new frameworks for it governance in healthcare providers as well (Tan, Payton, 2010). It is today very feasible to have a Web Services solution for an HIMS platform and modules, and many enterprise software companies today are doing this including Oracle, SAP and others.

The challenges to creating a Web Services-based HIMS system center on creating a scalable and secure enough platform to manage the many process workflows inherent in a system of this complexity. Next, the protocol stack of an HIMS system must support multi-role-based modeling and the development of role-based security. There also is the challenge of staying compliant to HIPAA requirements (Tan, Payton, 2010) and the need for staying agile and patient-centered as it investments are made over time in the platform. Finally there is the challenge of creating a Web Service capable of being modular enough to stay responsive to organizational needs while at the same time delivering a very high level of integration to processes and legacy systems (Hickman, Smaltz, 2008).