National Healthcare Systems Decision-Making Justification

National Healthcare Systems Decision-Making Justification for the Research Participants Theory employed Personal opinion Means of Gathering Information The National healthcare systems form one of the most important systems in the lives of all citizens. This is because it deals with issues related to the diagnosis right through to the treatment of most ailments. In the course of providing these services, several persons and equipments are employed for different purposes.

In this paper, we analyze the impact of computer systems in the provision of quality services in the healthcare settings as well as the debates and issues surrounding their application in the healthcare provision. Our discussion is however centered on the collaborative and decision making advantages related to the use of soft informatics systems. Several approaches to the issue of healthcare informatics in the support of decision-making are identified in relevance to the collaborative advantages derived from integrated development as well as management is analyzed.

These approaches are discussed with clinical as well as managerial practices in mind. Ethical issues of computer systems are debated in relation to patient privacy, health policies using the relevant theories. Introduction It is a general consensus that a computer system plays an important role in the collaborative operation of National Healthcare Systems.

The soft informatics systems and methods for example contributes a lot in the resolution of problems associated with operational problem associated with shared ownership (Checkland and Holwell, 1993; Connell, 2001; Ormerod, 2001).Several reports have indicated that similar methods have been successfully employed in the guidance of decision making in the management of large organizations like the National Health Service in the UK (Lee, 1970; Haley, 2000). This is because a national Health Care System is a very large and extremely complex network of organizations with a shared system ownership.

So as to come up with an evaluation technique that is systematic, there should be a consensus as well as commitment from the management authority that are part of the national healthcare system. The use of soft systems methodologies (SSM) can greatly increase collaboration in the national healthcare systems. Decision making in the healthcare systems The decision making in the healthcare systems can be categorized into two methods. The first one involves the making decisions that are related to the process of care giving itself.

These involve the decisions that are made by the clinicians as well as the patients as part of the diagnostic and prognostic activities, management of the patient, their treatment as well as discharge. The second one involves the making of decisions that happen within as well as across the various healthcare organizations that have a sharp focus on the improvement of the healthcare management decisions. This form of decision making is of utmost importance to the managers, clinicians, planners, patients, planners, commissioners as well as researchers.

This research is however focused on the role played by the information systems in the integrated development as well as the management of processes within the National Healthcare Systems.

Hypothesis H1: The use of soft systems methodology can effectively improve the level of collaboration in the National Healthcare Systems Justification for the research The running of a large and complex multi-organization framework such as the National Healthcare System is not easy as a result of the shared framework and the different forms of relationships that exist between the individual components and subsystems.

The highest level of coordination and collaboration is needed and therefore the need of reliable information exchanges system with the ability to handle the mission-critical and often proprietary information on patients care. In order to increase the level of collaboration, an effective methodology is appropriate and must be employed. This paper describes how to improve the level of collaboration in the national healthcare system.

Methodologies The process of analyzing healthcare settings as well as their ideologies requires qualitative research methods and strategies as a result of the elevated level of system complexity as well as the high rate of socio-cultural and technological changes.

The initial point to note is that the case analysis does facilitate a method of facilitating the validation of patterns that are identified in the collected data that are sourced from diverse locations as well as the construction of a relatively comparable framework from already grounded theory (Yin,1999; Seror,2002).An extensive historical analysis does reveal the logic of the evolution of the system like its phases of creation right through to the integration up to the horizontal coordination (Stead et al.,2000; Seror,2002).

The other approach adopted for this research is the sociometric analysis of the largely virtual infrastructure that rides over the internet backbone and its contribution to the mission-critical healthcare institutions as well as their networks (Ahuja, 1998; Jackson, 1997). The network infrastructure in this case refers to the system of relations that exists among the various network nodes that represents the soft systems that are in use in the different hospitals. Participants The participants in this research were managers, clinicians and patients who are sourced from different hospitals nationwide.

Research design The research design employed involves data collection from various hospitals nationwide. It involves a comprehensive qualitative and longitudinal quantitative study. This is to stretch across the twenty hospitals that are randomly selected and spread across different parts of the nation. The criteria for choosing the healthcare institutions are their size and length of existence. They must have bed occupancy of at least 100 and must have been around for the last fifteen years.

Data collection The data to be used in this research were collected using triangulations method and entails the use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques as postulated by Jick (1979).This is so as to optimize the chances of gathering only the valid data as well as achieving a reasonable level of reliability from the different hospitals. The quantitative data gathering technique used is questionnaire which is administered to a selected respondent cohort at a period of every two months for a total of ten months.

Implications The implication of the research is that it would help in the improvement of the level of collaboration of the national healthcare system. The aim is to improve the collaboration when it comes to the sharing of data and information that concerns the national healthcare management. The main limitation to this research is the geographical disparity between the different health care institutions in which the research is to be carried out and the difficulty in acquiring the needed permission from the various hospitals.

Funds and time also posed serious limitations. Theory employed The theory employed for this research supports collaborative advantages of soft system methodology. The theory is that of ccoodination.The theory of coordination of organization design as pointed out by Crowston (1997). Malone (1988) describes coordination theory as "a body of principles regarding how the various activities of separate actors can be effectively coordinated.

Context Computer systems are very important in the provision of quality services in the healthcare settings, it helps in improving the quality and effectiveness of care and there is more likelihood that it reduces cost. Uses of computer system in the national health management systems have the following benefits; Decreased Cost and time, computers are known for their speed once provided with accurate information. Through providing information automatically, it promotes cost-effective testing and treatment. Secondly; it helps in attaining improved quality.

At the registry which is the entry point at any health centre, due to sharing of information, the information at the registry shall be transferred and will help in giving advice to solve clinical problems; computers can integrate patient records including research plans. Computers have also been very instrumental in alerting the physicians in case of complex problems. Database from computers can be used to compare the actual results from the expected ones hence helping the physician to make informed decisions on the prescription to make for the patient.

In improving quality of services, computer systems are very important in the Intensive Care Units. In most cases, those who are in the Intensive Care units are those who need close monitoring. It becomes most difficult for the doctors to detect minor changes as in whether the life of the patient is worsening or improving. Through use of commuter technology used in the Intensive Care Units, the doctors are able to monitor the progress of their patients.

Intensive Care Unit physicians have also been able to use computers in obtaining accurate information from the patients which enable them to make difficult decisions which they could not have made easily. Thirdly; computers are known for their accuracy, once a computer is fed with correct information, the machine will be able to provide accurate results.

Computers helps in reducing the work which was to be undertaken by many human resource, it is observed that human beings are known of making errors and the more the number of human beings involved in the process, the more the likely of mistakes.

With all the benefits of the Health informatics, stakeholders still have some fears and worries on the same including; Confidentiality and Privacy- stakeholders argue that it is very difficult and next to impossible to keep the information of the patient in computers where a very health worker has access to. This is because in most health facilities, the data is kept in a uniform way and the same is used for your next visit.

According to the privacy law which applies to medical practitioners, confidentiality and privacy of the patient should not be compromised at all times. It is therefore important that when using health informatics, the management should respect the fundamental rights of the patient. Conclusion The national health care system can effectively improve its collaboration by adopting computer technologies and methodologies such as the soft systems methodology. It is therefore crucial for the government and the healthcare providers to join efforts in creating a better national health informatics system.

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