Issues on the Existing System at a Community Hospital in Midwest
Read the following case study and answer the discussion prompts:
A small community hospital in the Midwest has used a homegrown information system for years. The system began in the early 1970s with a financial module. Over time, additional modules were added. A limited number of departments selected a commercial system and interfaces were used to integrate these into the overall functionality of the hospital information system. Except for physicians, most in-house clinical or care-related documentation is online. However, about 15% to 20% of this documentation is done by free text and is not effectively searchable. In addition, the screens, including the drop-down and default values, were built using terms selected by the in-house development team in consultation with clinical staff; thus there is no data dictionary or specific standard language. In the last few years, the hospital has purchased two outpatient clinics (obstetrics and mental health) and a number of local doctor practices. The clinics and doctors’ offices are now being converted to the hospital administrative systems. A few of the clinical applications that are tied directly to the administrative systems such as order entry and results reporting are also being installed.
A major change is being planned. A new chief information officer (CIO) was hired last year, and she has appointed a chief medical information officer (CMIO) and a chief nursing information officer (CNIO). No other significant staff changes were made. With her team in place, one of the CIO’s first activities was to complete an inventory of all applications. Rather than continue to build, a decision was made to switch to a commercial vendor, and the hospital selected a commercial system.
Identify issues with the existing system. Provide staff with an appropriate “work-around” for using the existing system. Provide an overview of two of the standard languages used within the new system including discipline or specialty, updating frequency, and available cross-maps. Describe ways to obtain clinical staff input and specific methods to support the transition to the new system.
Elaborate on a scripture reference related to the discussion content.
Discussion Thread: Case Study—User Experience, Standards, And Analytics
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Discussion Thread: Case Study—User Experience, Standards, And Analytics
The system in the Midwest hospital is facing different challenges. For example, there is no specific standard language, thus becoming difficult to share information from one point to another. The lack of standard language in any system threatens the provision of healthcare services to clients due to medical errors. The fact that most documentation uses the free text mechanism makes it difficult to get the data for the individuals looking for certain information. Another issue is that the system uses drop-down values, which usually makes the user input difficult. Additionally, it is easy to dismiss these values, thus posing challenges in navigating the necessary information (Kaley, 2020). The drop-down values can also slow the users' operation, especially when this technique captures already-known data.
The clinical staff should choose the right input to avoid all the problems associated with the drop-down and default values. They should know the right time to apply the drop-down values and make the necessary adjustments for the better option. For example, they can use the toggle or the switch if the input involves the two options for the given data set. Moreover, they can shift to the radio buttons, making scanning the target values easy without requiring much user interaction in viewing the available options. The clinical staff should also adopt the necessary practices to build the data dictionary to help achieve a high-working analytics team. For example, they should gather the necessary information and update the data dictionary to ensure everyone stays on the same page.
The standard language is crucial regarding the health system setup. These data sets usually prov...