Successful Implementation of Electronic Health

Successful Implementation of Electronic Health Information Technology

The many benefits of automating healthcare through the use of Health Information Technology (HIT) can be seen in the process improvements that all lead to improved patient outcomes while driving down healthcare costs. These improved patient and process improvements are only possible when development and refining of applications are managed systematically and thoroughly from the practitioners' needs and requirements (Dodd, Carr, 1994). For Health Information Technology (HIT) systems and platforms to provide the greatest possible contribution they also must also reflect the needs, requirements and preferences of each stakeholder group that relies on them. Incorporating requirements in each stage of the software development cycle leads to less resistance to the new system while also ensuring a higher level of adoption over the long-term (Moore, Nolan, Gillard, 2006). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how a Health Information Technology (HIT) system is made more efficient, productive and a stronger contributor to profits based on input from each stakeholder group, especially nurses. Just as stakeholder inclusion improves the probability of success for a given system, when stakeholders are ignored and excluded, the probability of failure escalates rapidly (Jain, Purao, 1991). This analysis provides insights into how effective it is to include nurse feedback in each of the five phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), specifically concentrating on information needs to better diagnose patients and create highly effective treatment plans.

Inclusion of Nurse Requirements in Each SDLC Phase

Healthcare organizations that define their Health Information Technology (HIT) initiatives and plans from the perspective of the internal customer or user of the system first have significantly greater levels of system adoption, process improvements, greater impact on positive patient outcomes as well (Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin, Blumenthal, 2011). From personal experience it is clear that including the healthcare professionals' feedback in each of the five phases of the SDLC model leads to systems that better align to patient's needs and streamline information delivery and knowledge management. Personal experiences have provided a unique glimpse of how powerful this dynamics is when done well with full inclusion of stakeholders. In the majority of instances however stakeholders are often ignored or only provided what the healthcare systems can deliver with little if any customization or configuration (Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin, Blumenthal, 2011). This is because customization and configuration is expensive and time-consulting to complete and is one of the leading causes of nurses being ignored during each phase of the SDLC model (Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin, Blumenthal, 2011). When this occurs a system fails to align to an organization and a significant amount of time and money are wasted.