Health management information systems

Course Learning Objectives
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Course Learning Objectives
Introduction
I had never imagined the levels and the web of healthcare beyond doctors and patients. When I signed up for this course, I did not understand the significance of Health information as an aspect of public health and healthcare all over the world. It involves the compilation and safeguarding of patient's data such as their laboratory reports, symptoms and diagnoses, medical and familial history, treatment procedures, and care outcomes. I have learned that such information is specific to healthcare providers and researchers as it is the basis for epidemiological studies (Feldman et al., 2018) and helps in devising better patient-centered care options. I learned that the primary example of a health information system is a laboratory's website where people can log in and check their reports online rather than facing the inconvenience of physically going to collect the results. Through this course, I got to know that it is also an essential part of telehealth and has been quite successful in providing medical accessibility to everybody.
Role of Health Information Manager
I had little knowledge about the organizational levels and managerial roles in healthcare. The course inculcated the importance of each hierarchical level. I had never heard about health information managers and what their duties are. I learned that they are professionals that offer services in some aspects of healthcare management, such as records, that includes data collection and quality assurance, standards, coding, disclosure, privacy (Feldman et al., 2018), and disposition of health information. They are responsible for managing information and ensuring facility-wide privacy and security, and data integrity. They implement methods and map out systems to construct accurate healthcare records collection (Andargoli et al., 2016). They analyze information such as medical records in a detailed manner to facilitate the delivery of healthcare, support patients' decisions regarding treatment and their safety. I believe that they have a crucial role in maintaining and ensuring the confidentiality of patient records and advocate the patient's right to privacy, security, and confidentiality regarding their health records.
Now that I know about it, I have come to realize that all this time, we were secured and prioritized by numerous health information managers. They not only collected data about our birth health but also kept the records of our vaccinations, our family health information, and whatnot. Health information managers are crucial for any healthcare facility as they actively participate in transforming electronic health records to ensure more privacy. They manage meaningful data to make it available in time, with accuracy and conciseness. They improve the quality of healthcare by reducing errors, disparities, and ensuring the delivery of patient-centered care. They also manage to reduce health care costs that result from inefficiency at providers' end, incomplete data availability, and improper maintenance (Andargoli et al., 2016). Their functions are significant in quality programs because they guide documentation, communication with the patient, and implementation of electronic-health (Shah et al., 2016) while maintaining the electronic health records' infrastructure and solving policy issues.
Process of Strategic Planning
This course inculcated in me a broad understanding of strategic planning in healthcare. We were taught with strong examples of how it can shape any organization towards success. Strategic planning mainly involves the process of establishing the main goals of any healthcare policy and its documentation by assessing the progress and the fulfillment of managerial duties (Gibson et al., 2015). An ideal strategic plan involves recording cumulative aims, vision, and values, as well as the long-term goals and plans to expand and advance a policy or the digital infrastructure of a facility to reach those goals (Haupeltshofer et al., 2020). The challenges surfacing in healthcare today are finances, policy-making, government mandates, technological advancements, and patient satisfaction. Throughout the course, we were taught about servant leadership and how healthcare providers must adapt to it and take a step back to analyze and assess their organization's strategies and plans for the future. We saw how the turbulent climate in healthcare has made it crucial to act according to strategic thinking, apt assessment, and structural modeling.
I have learned that strategic planning is like a roadmap guiding the organization in the right direction. It advises decisions regarding funding, capital investments, latest technology, managerial staff, and their duties along with other useful resources. I learned about the numerous analyzing techniques used in the process of strategic planning (Haupeltshofer et al., 2020), such as the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to create clarity regarding their long-term goals.
There are various methods of strategic planning. If I were to start an organization, such as a hospital, I would follow the practices I learned through this course. The first step is to develop a vision for my organization or healthcare facility. This serves as my mission in what I wish to achieve. It is also the reason for the existence of my organization. Usually, the mission is expressed in the form of a statement, a slogan, which conveys a message of purpose and clarity to the patients, employees, physicians, and public in general. The mission sets the roads for all future goals, milestones, and objectives (Gibson et al., 2015). My staff and managers need to remind themselves of their motives daily continually. The goals and objectives are critical elements in this step. They must be structured in a way that leads to the maximum usage of our resources and to minimize the adverse outcomes. Moreover, all of our internal departments must have a unified mission that converges in the direction of success.
The next step involves analyzing the business and its operations. I believe that it is one of the most crucial objectives of strategic planning. As mentioned earlier, I must evaluate the internal strengths and weaknesses, potential external threats, as well as the opportunities I wish to open doors of. This is the SWOT Analysis. It helps the organization to rightfully engage its stakeholders and vendors to gather their suggestions, concerns, and point of view. Such involvements significantly improve the quality of work and services and will make it easier for me to execute and sustain my organization's plan.
It is highly essential to select and develop strategic options that the organization will work parallel to. As a manager, I must lay out all the possibly executable strategies based on their available resources and input. Then I can narrow these strategies down into a list according to their guiding principles to advance the facility (Gibson et al., 2015). Guiding principles are best understood as ground rules, as they will set our organization in the right direction by maximizing the output from cumulative inputs.
Now my managers and I must validate our strategic objectives. This is where our finances and other tangible resources are discussed. It is a must to determine the flow of such resources (Andargoli et al., 2016) and what effects it can have if the flow is disrupted. As a successful manager, I will form a timeline in this step that also highlights the critical measure to be taken in emergencies or desperate times. Once the strategies are tested and verified in this step, I must bring them together to devise an achievable, specific, and realistic strategic plan.
Once every loophole is identified, the strategic plan must be executed. My managers and the staff must follow the guidelines of the initial strategic plan (Ratwani et al., 2016) and implement the strategic options. All successful organizations make sure that their employees actively participate in this step. To get the best from our involvement, it is vital to have effective communication at all organizational levels of the facility and explain how it will be beneficial for the individuals to act according to the plan.
Once the assessment of our custom strategic plan is complete, the manager will also be instructed to establish an appropriate budget and allocate resources smartly. This helps in the elevation of initiatives that reflect our competency, leadership, commitment, work ethics, and discipline among the staff at different levels. For the long-term effectiveness of our strategic development, there will be ongoing and constant progress reviews of the managers and other staff. Appropriate reports will be circulated via memorandums so that...