LP7 Assignment IT System for St Timothys

LP7 Assignment: IT System for St. Timothy’s

National American University

Mgmt. of Continuum Care Services

Amanda Buckholdt

As the Director of Continuing Care Services for St. Timothy’s Health Care System, it is important to realize that as technology evolves, so does the way that we treat and track our patients. When developing an information system that will track patients over time and place it is important to look at many different aspect before diving into creating your own program and process. Information systems can be difficult to create but by using a coordinated clinical information system, it “allows providers at any point in the integrated care system to have access to all of the information plus any recent tests or procedures that may have taken place (Pratt, 2016)”. By having this, it creates a convenient way to track and manage patients and their care.

The first steps that should be taken when designing this system should be an evaluation of the current process. Moving from paper to electronic can take a toll on an organization. Paper files must still be accessible as historical documentation may be needed to continue care. The work load to scan all historical documents into the system would be tremendous therefore keep records of all the data prior to the implementation of the program would be ideal. There are many information systems available that already track patient records for management purposes. Mirroring one of the programs but tailoring to the needs of St. Timothy’s Health Care System would be ideal.

By know what is needed for this system, clinical financial and management helps to pinpoint exactly what will be needed for this system. It is important that this system helps the facility to track their patients over time and location. If the patient moves from one facility to another, all of that documentation must be readily available within this system. Some of the basic components that are essential under clinical would be, the patients information, medications, diagnosis, medical needs in terms of locations or equipment and any past pertinent history that would be significant to the patient.

Next under financial, items that would be essential would be insurance information, billing records and the ability to generate bills and payment plans. Lastly under management, this would need to overlap with clinical. Some of the essential items would be an overview of the patients past and future care. It would go into detail on where the patient has been treated and what kind of specific care the patient is currently utilizing. It would have the capability to generate this information into a summary report to make it easier on transfer facilities.

So challenges that are anticipated would be unwillingness to change. Many staff members become comfortable with the current process and can see no need for change. This can make it difficult to implement the change. May briefings and trainings would be conducted before the roll out of this system to generate buy in from the staff. With this we would want to to find the best way to implement change and could do so by following three simple steps,communicate the rationale behind the need for change, implement the change in phases and evaluate, review and report on the change (Kirke, 2013).Some barriers could be the staff population. Some of them may not do well when working with computers. This may increase wait times or even create errors in the system.

Managing a patient’s long-term care is important, information systems such as electronic medical records (EMR) have proven to provide all of the critical information in one area for convenience. These types of systems “connect clinicians, financial staff, and executive management with access to real-time, comprehensive data (HCS, 2017)”. This is important when supporting a patient needs. This type of system would be similar to the information system that we would want to produce for St. Timothy’s Health Care System. We would want our system to provide more information than just a health record.

In conclusion, once all of the requirements for the information system were agreed upon, we would contact a local software company to develop the system for us. It is important to recognize the need for change as technology advances. There are simpler ways to track and manage patient care. Finding the best way to do so relies on those who do the job every day. Their input is detrimental when it comes to developing information systems. There are always chances for external problems and if they were to charge too much for the program, it is possible that a cheaper alternative would be to look in to information systems that were already available and just alter those to fit the needs for St. Timothy’s Health Care System.

Reference

Dale Kirke. (Sept 2013) How to Implement and Manage Successful Change Programs Retrieved

on 08 August 17 from https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/09/implementing-change-programs.html

Pratt, J. R. (2016). Long-term care: managing across the continuum (4th ed.). Burlington, MA:

Jones & Bartlett Learning.

HCS (2017). EMR and Clinical Modules. Retrieved on 08 August 17 from

http://www.hcsinteractant.com/solutions/clinical-information-system-emr/senior-living/