Abstract
Due to rapid advancement and competitive pressure, it is very hard for IT professionals to plan their architecture even a few years in advance. Building a future-ready IT infrastructure is not about focusing on specific technologies, rather more about the approach an organization take in its strategic technology planning and decision making.
For preparation against uncertain future, healthcare organizations need a stable and sustainable IT infrastructure that is also flexible enough to assimilate new technologies as they come up.
Introduction
One thing is clear about the future of IT in healthcare: it’s totally unpredictable. And for that reason, healthcare organizations must ready themselves for anything (Frank Negro, 2016).
Healthcare organizations and systems are lagging behind banking, travel, manufacturing and other industries in terms of the use of information technology to deliver high quality goods and services. (Sarah Kramer and Joanne walker, 2016)
Instead of playing technology catch up, organizations would be better served by focusing more on long-term strategy of the business as a whole instead of looking at near-term IT projects. This means anticipating the steps in evolution of the industry – in terms of clinical care, competitive landscape and continuously aligning the IT strategy with how the larger organizational direction should change to meet these challenges.
Information technology is imperative in healthcare management because it could improve patient care, efficiency and quality of service. Healthcare and Health Information technology are undergoing transformative change at an unprecedented pace.
Strategic planning
Strategic planning is a very useful tool for guiding all types of organizations including healthcare organizations. The level in the organization at which the strategic planning is relevant depends on the unit’s size, its complexity and the service provided. For example, a cardiology department or a hemodynamic unit can be appropriate level if the plans align with the plans at higher level. The leader of each unit is responsible for promoting the planning process, an essential part of his role.
A strategic plan is crucial to the success of an organizations IT, but today’s healthcare, land scape is calling for a more patient centered approach to planning for information technology. (Michelle McNickle).
It is very important to view health IT strategically from an IT management perspective. Based on developing and institutionalizing health information and health IT Strategic planning for large scale integrated healthcare organizations. Strategic planning has become a major discussion point among COS and IT directors.
Some of the things to look at while making strategic plan for Healthcare IT are:
1. Patient experience – it is crucial to consider what can be electronically to support patients whether they are in the facility or not (Sue Sutton, 2016). One of the major challenges right now in most health care organizations is the patient experience. And many organization have n0t thought through how IT can support and improve the patient experience.
2. Staff experience – when we are thinking about planning, we are thinking about how we can enable staff to do their work in a workflow that is enabled with devices, or integrated with technology (Sue Sutton, 2016). The staff need an effective workflow that enables them to interact with the patient successfully. In most cases the staff have multiple applications they have to access and they don’t have a single log-in, too many devices or they don’t have a choice of device.
3. Employing integrative planning – with major focus on patient and staff as well as how to improve the workflow and operations, integrative planning not only allows for a consistent plan, but also support for the IT plan from all parts of the organization. The rest of the organization should engage and support IT instead of letting only IT do the plan in isolation.
The practices mentioned below will equip the CIO to develop health IT strategic plan as well as providing clarity on operationalizing the plan and managing information and IT strategically within the organization.
• Discover and collaborate with other planning partners.
• Establishing a light weight strategic planning process and a strategic plan template.
• Align with corporate plans for strategic intent, context, and line of sight; consider mission, vision, strategic goals and objectives.
• Conduct thorough environmental scan and strategic analyses.
• Communicate; use tolls such as blogs, newsletter, social media, etc.
• Operationalize the plan.
• Be agile.
• Establish branding and messaging; handouts, brochures, case studies.
IT Strategy in Healthcare
The vision and mission of most healthcare organizations is to provide high-quality care at lower cost and have a healthy population. How to use technology to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities.
The term healthcare technology strategy itself has become increasingly sophisticated and includes an endless list of components extending far beyond traditional infrastructure and support. The healthcare trends driving these strategies are equally diverse and must be considered by organizations which are developing their own IT strategies (Matthew Sena, 2017).
– The core aim is maximizing value for patients. how to have best outcomes at the lowest cost and all parties will benefit greatly from doing so.
Steps
• Defining the goal: defining goal is the first step in solving any problem. In healthcare, the volume of services determines the profit, not delivering good result, it is imperative to define objectives that will improve value without significant raise or lowering of cost. Access to poor care is not an objective nor reducing cost at the expense of quality in healthcare system.
• Document plan
• Measure the goals
• Add initiatives; they are key action programs developed to achieve objectives
• IT Alignment: making sure that the organization’s information systems strategy is aligned with the objectives and strategy.
Factors affecting the success of IT in Healthcare organizations
– Insufficient funding
– Few experienced resources
– Poorly executed strategy
– Lack of strong leadership
– Restricted innovation and advancement in the use of IT to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
IT infrastructure in Healthcare
Ensure:
– Availability and responsiveness of systems at all times – guaranteeing access to critical patient information and smooth clinical workflow.
– Secure access and mobility.
– Best practices for backup, archiving and disaster recovery.
– Electronic Health Record software (EHR)
Infrastructure Recommendation for hospitals:
• Standard Compliance – improved wireless.
• Cyber security – video surveillance, firewalls, electronic access control, intrusion detector etc.
• Patient room technology – internet access, ports, temperature control etc.
• Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology – wireless access point, IP security systems, voice over IP.
Summary
Business, education, healthcare have all been redesigned thanks to information technology. With the right strategic planning and use of the right technology in healthcare, there will be a better patient care, healthy population as well as improved workflow for clinicians.
Reference
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