This article examines improving local health care beginning with recommendation for incorporating unapplied telecommunications concepts in the local health care facility. The second part discusses two recommendations for applying various process improvement frameworks that could be applied to the management of the IM/IT department. The final part provides a description of the benefit of a robust configuration management database to the local health services provider.
Improving Local Health Care:
Quality health care is an important aspect in the modern health care system because of the necessity for quality and safety improvement measures. This concept is described as the extent in which health care services for patients and populations enhance the possibility of desired health outcomes. These services also need to be consistent with the existing professional knowledge in the field. Consequently, quality and improved care services are determined through evaluating the impact of these services on desired outcomes and the extent they adhere to procedures based on scientific and professional knowledge. As part of improving health care services, health care systems should adopt several process-improvement strategies. These strategies should recognize ineffective care, inefficiencies, and avoidable errors and then effect changes on the system to result in improved care.
Incorporating Unapplied Telecommunications Concepts:
Based on the last visit to the local health care system in the community, there is need for service providers to incorporate unapplied telecommunications concepts to improve local health care. The main concept that would have improved the previous visit is communication and coordination of care through which the health care providers synchronize their initiatives through discussing tests and outcomes (Angst, Devaraj & D'Arcy, 2012, p.258). The coordination of health care processes and outcomes would have improved the outcomes of the quality of care received during the last visit.
One of the major ways with which communication and coordination of health care would have improved the quality of care received during the last visit to the community's health care system is by lessening the duration of patient stay and hospitalization. This telecommunication concept could have lessened the length of stay through establishing priorities that contribute to improved care services for patients.
Communication and coordination of care services in the local health care system should involve the use of IT-assisted techniques. These techniques are crucial to improved patient outcomes because of their role and effect in communication in patient care. The need for IT-assisted communication in patient care is attributed to the fact that many transactions in a health care system involve information sharing between patients, physicians, nurses, and staff. In the current health care system, Information Technology plays a critical role in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of communication-based process and transactions (Angst, Devaraj & D'Arcy, 2012, p.258). IT-assisted communication and coordination of care help in improving patient outcome because IT provides strategic benefits and operational efficiencies.
Some of the major examples of IT-assisted communication strategies and techniques include telemedicine, electronic health records, and e-prescribing. Electronic Medical Records (EMR) promotes easy access of a patient's medical history, especially for consulting doctors or physicians. Consequently, the physician has the ability to work with other physicians in devising a suitable health care plan for the benefit of the patient. Secondly, the access to the patient's medical history ensures that there is no room for duplication of care services or errors in delivery of care. The other example is e-prescribing that would contribute to improved care since it ensures that medications are recognized universally, which lessens the risk of error and poor outcomes due to wrong medications or dosage.
Process Improvement Frameworks:
The need for quality and safe improvement measures to ensure quality health care services is widely recognized across the entire health care system. Actually, the complexity of health care is derived from inefficient processes, differences in provider education, health insurance, and changing care mix of patients. Based on a report by the Institute of Medicine, a significant percentage of medical errors are brought by faulty systems and processes rather than individuals (Hughes, 2008). Therefore, there is an increased need to adopt several process-improvement framework or techniques since medical errors are brought by system or process failures. These process-improvement frameworks can be adopted in the system by applying them in the management of IM/IT department.
Some of the major examples of process improvement frameworks include Six Sigma, failure modes and effects analysis, Lean Management, Plan-Do-Study-Act, and Root Cause Analysis. These measures have widely been used in the health sector to improve the safety and quality of care services to patients. The first recommendation for applying various process improvement frameworks in the management of IM/IT department is Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). As a means for developing clinical practice, continuous quality improvement is based on the principal that the health care system has room for improvement in every process and occasion. This approach is usually directed by clinicians and geared towards a comprehensive understanding of the complexity of delivery of care services. Unlike research initiatives, continuous quality improvements provide relevant information that is applicable to the health care facility (Hughes, 2008).
Secondly, internal benchmarking can be used for applying several process improvement frameworks. This application focuses on identifying best practices within the facility, comparing the best practices, and comparing current practice over time. This process should also incorporate external benchmarking since the internal process does not necessarily reflect the best practices in other health care facilities. This provides the health care organization with an opportunity to compare its best practices with those of other facilities in order to determine the quality of its services and processes. The use of benchmarking is important in this process because it helps the facility to determine the extent with which it is delivering quality care.
Management Database:
A successful and effective service knowledge management system is dependent on a robust configuration management database. This is primarily because the management database acts as the source of configuration details and relationships that individuals rely on to control services in the entire lifecycle. Notably, a robust configuration management database serves as a store of information related to each component of an information management system. Therefore, a robust configuration management database is linked to service framework and operational efficiency.
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