Managing Information Systems in Healthcare

Managing Information Systems in Healthcare

Challenges of Managing Information Systems in Healthcare

The many IT challenges and decisions Health and Wellness Network (HEWE) have center on three specific areas that the case study discusses and asks for recommendations on. The first is defining which three systems to integrate together; the second is the definition of a disaster planning strategies, and the third is the development of a project implementation strategy. Driven by significant problems in each of these areas, HEWE wants to get the best recommendations possible. The following are the recommendations generated from analyzing and participating in the case study.

HEWE has been experiencing significant errors in processing patient information, and the administrative and clinic information systems today operate independently from each other. There are also billing errors and costly re-working of patient financial records, and most likely the loss of patient goodwill and loyalty as well. It is critically important for healthcare systems to have a high level of integration for patients to not only trust the billing but also trust the treatment they have received (Mekhjian, Vasila, Jones, 2008). Based on the analysis of the case and costs, it is recommended that the order entry system, medical records/abstracting system and monitoring systems be integrated with each other. It is also recommended to HEWE that the data needs to be entirely managed internally as well. This is due to the fact that in many instances these types of systems in hospitals are legacy, or built specifically for the processes in place in this specific healthcare provider. It is therefore essential to keep administrative support onsite to ensure a high level of responsiveness to support queries, greater levels of knowledge capture over time, and the ability to reduce costs while increasing effectiveness. Aggregating all data into a single database is considered to be the best possible solution as well due to the ability to scale the integrated systems over time to match evolving user requirements (Mekhjian, Vasila, Jones, 2008).

In terms of the disaster planning, the decision was made to select remote backup services, the most cost-effective strategy available for backing up records and data. In terms of recovery, the decision to rely on distributed processing was an expensive one, yet assured HEWE of continual uptime due to parallel and fault-tolerant processor-based systems. For the insurance coverage, Business Interruption Insurance Coverage was chosen as part of the disaster planning strategy that HEWE undertakes. While there are many insurance options specifically for HEWE to consider, the Business Interruption one makes the most sense from covering potential loses due to a lack of systems and data being available.