Healthcare Management
Helpm31990
14713_PPTx_CH16.pptxChapter 16: Managing Information
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Chapter Objectives
• Appreciate the interconnected nature of computerized devices in hospitals and other organizations.
• Be able to define and explain the elements of an electronic health record system.
• Appreciate the growing use of information systems in support of public health activities.
• Understand that many health care providers and members of the public do not share the same enthusiasm for information systems that managers have.
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Outline
Electronic Health Records
Managing Public Health Information
Managing Inventory
Managing Human Resources
Definitions
Health Information and Data
Result Management
Order Management
Decision Support
Electronic Communication and Connectivity
Patient Support
Administrative Processes
Reporting
Health Information and Data
Provide immediate access to information such as individual diagnosis, medications, allergies, and laboratory test results to improve the ability or service to make sound clinical decisions in a timely manner.
Result Management
Provide access to new and past test results, thus allowing all participating providers to make more informed decisions about the effectiveness of treatment regimens and patient safety.
Order Management
Ensure that providers have the ability to enter and store orders for prescriptions, tests, and other services. This capability is intended to improve legibility, reduce duplication, and allow orders to be completed in a timely manner.
Decision Support
Provide reminders, prompts, and alerts to facilitate diagnoses and treatments by improving compliance with best clinical practices, promoting regular screenings and other preventive practices, and identifying possible drug interactions.
Electronic Communication and Connectivity
Promote secure, open, and readily accessible channels of communication among providers and patients to improve the continuity of care, increase the timeliness of diagnoses and treatments, and reduce the frequency of adverse events.
Patient Support
Provide tools that give individuals access to their health records, provide interactive education on relevant health topics, and protocols to help people conduct home-monitoring and self-testing activities to improve control of chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
Administrative Processes
Include computerized administrative tools, such as scheduling and record-keeping systems; such equipment should greatly improve the efficiency and performance of hospitals and clinics, allowing them to provide more timely services to patients and other clientele.
Reporting
Provide sufficient supportive equipment (software, hardware, and memory capacity) that meets uniform data standards and enables health care organizations to respond more quickly to federal, state, and private reporting requirements, including those that support patient safety and disease surveillance.
Acceptance of Electronic Health Records
Acceptance of electronic health records has been the most difficult barrier to overcome
Factors explaining slow acceptance include lack of user familiarity with computers, insufficient funding problems for purchasing equipment and software, concerns about return on investment, and concerns about security of system
Structural Considerations
Systematic elements of an electronic health records system are similar to those found in a paper system.
Advantages of electronic health records include quick retrieval, far more compact, rarely lost or misplaced, reduction in error rates, and far less expensive to operate.
Major disadvantage is constant security threats and financial burden to implement systems.
Impact on Quality
Use of electronic health records has led to higher documentation rates of hypertension, greater use of antihypertensive therapy, and more successful reductions in blood pressure as well as achieving better outcomes in treating a broad spectrum of diseases.
Electronic health records have been used to identify errors that are directly related to patient care.
Managing Public Health Information
Information systems serve important functions in surveillance, program evaluation, and population outcomes assessment.
Privacy and security issues are a major concern in the use of public health information.
Privacy requirements for health information must be respected as a critical element of the interdependence and trust needed between health organizations and their clients and constituents.
Managing Inventory
Information systems are used to manage a variety of other activities in organizations, including assuring an adequate inventory of supplies
With the use of computers the inventory process is performed much faster and more efficiently
Managing Human Resources
Record keeping requirements have increased significantly since passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.
Information systems have aided in the responsibility of complying with record keeping and reporting requirements that fall on shoulders of human resource departments.
Final Words
The potential for information management to improve the value and quality of services delivered by health organizations has dramatically increased in recent decades.
Successful managers will search for new opportunities to employ information technology to manage quality, human resources, inventory, and other processes and outcomes of their units and organizations.
