Improved Healthcare Coordination and Chronic Disease Management The fourth healthcare reform initiative encompasses improving healthcare coordination and controlling the rise of chronic disease. Stille, Jerant, Bell, Meltzer, and Elmore (2005) emphasize communication between healthcare professionals is the key factor for confirming patients understand their healthcare options and helping them develop a sense of control in their healthcare management, especially for patients with chronic diseases. Unfortunately, they explain many healthcare providers are not properly reimbursed for the coordination services they provide and do not feel as they have enough time for communication outside a patient’s office visit. They reveal this lack of communication …show more content…
HMIS and ERP assists in the integration of medical record databases across healthcare settings and allows multiple healthcare providers to access to their patients’ complete health histories and facilitate patient care coordination (Washington, Sun, & Canning, 2010). However, Sanja (2013) explains since healthcare providers are a diverse group of professionals, CIOs might experience resistance to adopting ERP systems across healthcare settings. In order to increase the chances of successful ERP implementation and improve interoperability, she stresses CIOs must clearly communicate health information exchange (HIE) strategies and goals to their employees, so they understand why ERP is important to healthcare coordination and disease management (Sanja, 2013). Healthcare coordination can be improved through the collaboration of healthcare providers across …show more content…
Positive mission statements CIOs can strive for include: providing comprehensive, patient-centered healthcare that uses HMIS and ERP to promote prevention and wellness, better disease management, and the employment of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to deliver high quality services at competitive prices. Revolutionary vision statements CIOs can work to achieve involve: enhancing patients’ abilities to manage their personal healthcare plans by increasing their access to HIT resources; providing more opportunities for patients to use Web-based technologies to increase primary care accessibility; better coordination of healthcare services by utilizing innovative HMIS; and encouraging more transparency for healthcare consumers by promoting the use of Web-based data information management services and healthcare portals. CIOs will improve the chances of successfully achieving these mission and vision statements if their stakeholders understand these new HMIS and HIT initiatives and work to incorporate them into their daily workflow
“Care coordination is the deliberate organization of patient care activities between two or more participants (including the patient) involved in a patient’s care to facilitate the appropriate delivery of healthcare services. Organizing care involves the marshaling of personnel and other resources needed to carry out all required patient care activities and if often managed by he exchange of information among participants responsible for different aspects of care.”
Jha, A. K., Burke, M. F., DesRoches, C., Joshi M. S., Kralovec P. D., Campbell E. G., & Buntin M. B. (2011). Progress Toward Meaningful Use: Hospitals’ Adoption of Electronic Health Records. The American Journal of Managed Care, 17, 117-123
The preliminary effects of the Meaningful Use Program have began to have an impact on improving the quality of care and its’ safety and efficiency. I gained a greater understanding of information technology and it’s role and importance to my current and future practice. I learned the goal of the Meaningful Use Program isn’t just to install technology in facilities across the nation its so much more. The goals are to empower patients and their families, reduce health disparities and support research and health data. The EHR can prevent medication errors, reduce long term medical costs, improve population health and through the Meaningful use program the vision of this program is becoming reality.
If I was to become the CEO of a large health care organization, I would investigate and analyze all the information to determine what needs to be improved within the organization in order to make the best decision for the company. There are three major elements of quality: structure, process, and outcome”(Burns, Bradley, & Weiner, 2011, pg 251). One way to improve the quality of care in my organization is to be passionate and excited about the engagement of consumers. The patients need to be able to have access to the right information to educate themselves about their health care decisions. If they are active working with the physicians it can reduce emergency hospital visits and improve treatment and quality of life that is associated with different chronic diseases (Aulbach, 2015). As for my staff, I would ensure that they have all the equipment as well as the
Unfortunately, the quality of health care in America is flawed. Information technology (IT) offers the potential to address the industry’s most pressing dilemmas: care fragmentation, medical errors, and rising costs. The leading example of this is the electronic health record (EHR). An EHR, as explained by HealthIT.gov (n.d.), is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It includes, but is not limited to, medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. The EHR, then, serves as a resource that aids clinicians in decision-making by providing comprehensive patient information.
“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an incentive, the government began issuing payments to those providers who “meaningfully use certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.” (hhs.gov) There are three stages that providers must progress through in order to receive theses financial incentives. Stage one is the initial stage and is met with the creation and implementation of the HER in the business. Stage two “increases health information exchange between providers.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) Stage three will be the continuation and expansion of the “meaningful use objectives.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) The hospital, where I work, initiated the HER mandate many years ago. In this paper, I will discuss the progression and the challenges that my hospital encountered while implementing the EHR mandate.
The objective of the MCEG is to provide channels to exchange information between managed care/health plan information systems executives and to provide opportunity for personal networking. MCEG provides a forum to develop policy which relates to the use of information technology and healthcare. MCEG provides feedback to vendor sponsors and other vendors on the trends and types of technology needed to ensure that their products and strategies meet their customer’s present and future managed care needs. Additionally, their objective is to “educate executives on clinical and administrative trends in health care, new and emerging technologies, and other pertinent information to assist in achieving the key goals of cost containment, effective service and high quality health care.” (Why We Matter, 2011)
In 2009 President Obama, through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, pledged to provide incentives to the nation’s physicians and hospitals to convert to an electronic healthcare system in attempt to improve the quality of care and reduce cost (Freudenheim, 2010). By converting to an electronic system, we have the opportunity for improved communication between all healthcare providers and decreased cost to our healthcare system. The goal is to improve communication across all aspects of the service chain (Horan, Botts & Burkhard, 2010). Almost two years later, the conversion progress continues to be slow. Only one in four physician’s offices, mostly large groups, have implemented the electronic record system (Freudenheim, 2010).
Today, many Americans face the struggle of the daily hustle and bustle, and at times can experience this pressure to rush even in their medical appointments. Conversely, the introduction of “patient-centered care” has been pushed immensely, to ensure that patients and families feel they get the medical attention they are seeking and paying for. Unlike years past, patient centered care places the focus on the patient, as opposed to the physician.1 The Institute of Medicine (IOM) separates patient centered care into eight dimensions, including respect, emotional support, coordination of care, involvement of the family, physical comfort, continuity and transition and access to care.2
Care coordination will be essential to help maintain the health of the client. Care coordination is the process that transpires between
The present environments for healthcare organizations contain many forces demanding unprecedented levels of change. These forces include changing demographics, increased customer outlook, increased competition, and strengthen governmental pressure. Meeting these challenges will require healthcare organizations to go through fundamental changes and to continuously inquire about new behavior to produce future value. Healthcare is an information-intensive process. Pressures for management in information technology are increasing as healthcare organizations feature to lower costs, improve quality, and increase access to care. Healthcare organizations have developed better and more complex. Information technology must keep up with the dual effects of organizational complication and continuous progress in medical technology. The literature review will discuss how health care organizations can provide effective care by the intellectual use of information.
My overall vision is to develop and promote information technology solutions to better improve health outcomes, patient safety, and prevention of medical errors in underserved countries. In closing, Health informatics and Health Information Management is an exciting program that is designed to provide me with a suite of resources to help me develop essential leadership, teamwork, and healthcare management skills that will help me to become successful leader in healthcare
The process of implementing an EHR occurs over a number of years. An electronic record of health-related information on individuals conforming to interoperability standards can be created, managed and consulted with the authorized health professionals (Wager et al., 2009). This information technology system electronically gathers and stores patient data, and supplies that information as needed to the healthcare professionals, as well as a caregiver can also access, edit or input new information; this system functions as a decision support tool to the health professionals. Every healthcare organization is increasingly aware of the importance of adopting EHR to improve the patient satisfaction, safety, and lower the medical costs. Studies have implied that, healthcare professionals who practice clinical features through EHR were far more likely to provide better preventive care than were healthcare professionals who did not.
Physicians, administrators, staff, and patients who are affiliated within the healthcare organization should understand the importance of interoperability by coming together to ease situations, in efforts to create a better community. Most communities have more than one healthcare organization available for service.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is reshaping the health care system in the United States at an accelerating rate. In earlier times US Healthcare system was more focused on intervention of diseases, but now it is moving more towards preventive approach and I see Health IT as the most important tool that can lead this change. I strongly believe that my professional goals, range and depth of my experience and knowledge is an asset and my enthusiasm for the field makes me an ideal candidate for the Master of Professional Studies in Technology Management (Health Information Technology) program at Georgetown University.