Organization Planning, Project Management, and Information Technology

The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) six aims of quality provide an advantageous framework to progress the quality of care in the U.S.A. health care system. IOM developed six aims for improving to provide safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable patient care (Institute of Medicine, 2001). Organizations need to strategically plan to evolve in meeting IOM’s six aims and to remain a financially sound entity. Strategic planning involves defining the future and stipulating the measurement of achievement (Sare & Ogilvie, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to start the initial steps for creating a strategic plan in a healthcare organization, through describing and evaluating an unmet need, considering the mission, vision, and values, providing the background context, vision, strategic goal, and consider the broader issues.

Healthcare and health information technology (health IT) are undergoing transformative change at an unprecedented pace. Strategic planning has become a major discussion point among CIOs, CTOs, CMIOs, and IT Directors. Whether it is implementing enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR) systems, working toward compliance with the “meaningful use” EHR Incentive Program, enabling patients’ involvement through PHRs, transitioning to ICD-10, establishing insurance exchanges, becoming an accountable care organization, or even deploying a medical home, healthcare executives are confronted with a confluence of high-priority initiatives.

Two organizations migrating to a common health information system would need a system that meets current regulatory requirements, meets the needs of the combined organization and their practice environment. The implementation of a common health information system would require an interdisciplinary group of forward thinking innovators, and an interoperable electronic medical record system that includes standard nursing terminology.

The ever-changing environment in healthcare requires strategic planning teams to address a handful of specific critical issues that will lead to success in the long term. In an industry as diverse and large as health care, Scripps Mercy will face many challenges but will need to avoid the temptation during the environmental assessment phase of its strategic plan. Zuckerman (2012) states, "Failure to produce a limited number of issues to address in subsequent planning activities almost always dooms the strategic planning process" (p. 43), too often healthcare is riddled with issues; an effective environmental assessment will condense these concerns in a solid and clear way. All the new upcoming changes in healthcare reform and technology will have Scripps Mercy face many challenges in information management, their demographic served, and staff recruitment and development.

The high cost of healthcare continues to rise and many in the United States are optimistic for health information technology to reduce and improve our current situation. Health IT encompasses a broad array of new technologies designed to manage and share health-related information. When properly implemented, these systems can help coordinate patient care, reduce medical errors, and improve administrative efficiency. Therefore, implementing a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) will help the National Health Information Network (NHIN) achieve their goals in improving quality of care for the citizens of the United States. Thus, in order for the health IT to deliver on its promise, several obstacles must be overcome.

Due to many changes in health service organizations’ internal and external environment, planning can be sometimes onerous (Longest & Darr, 2008, p. 366). Therefore, a well thought strategic plan will guide leaders and keep them focus on the organization’s mission. In health service organizations, strategic planning is emanated at the top level of the pyramid, then pass down to others in leadership positions (Longest & Darr, 2008, p. 366). A strategic planning process consists of many steps: a situational analysis, external environment analysis, internal environment analysis, strategy formulation, strategic implementation, and strategic control. As mentioned before, health service organization faced many challenges, a strategic planning not only helps with planning, controlling, and decision making, but it also allows management to analyze their strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats. Again, the strategic planning process has proven to be effective when implemented by the entire organization.

The acquisition of an information technology (IT) system by a healthcare organization must incorporate several different concerns. Generally, there is a process by which the organization determines what functions and capabilities are essential for the new IT system to provide. Much of that concern is dictated by specific goals of the organization, its mission, and the operational elements of the organization. Most importantly, the organization must consider the varied interests and needs of all of its stakeholders in relation to the new IT system.

With the rapid growth in technology, many healthcare organizations have embraced the use of healthcare information technologies. As such, the information technology department has various staffs that perform fundamental roles in the information technology-related activities. It ranges from activities of customizing a software to implementing and maintaining a network to ensure effective system backups. In addition, these healthcare information technologies bring about other

Strategic Planning: Due to the current issues, both internally and externally, the organization is facing, Dr. Townsend is challenged to prepare an action plan to implement the proposed strategy needed to restore the organization back to financial health and improve the morale among the physicians and support staff. Another course of planning Dr. Townsend will challenge is the organizations old structure into a way that all patients will be satisfied.

A strategic planning report is to explain how the use of the tool will benefit an organization in the health care industry. Discussed in the report address what the strategic planning development and implementation process is and to address why it helps organizations be successful.

Information and communication technology has been adopted and implemented within various sectors of the economy. This is attributed to the benefits of technology in facilitating organizational activities and processes and its use in meeting the changes which characterize the modern society. The health sector is one of the industries which have significantly implemented technology. The health sector’s technological applications have been achieved within health information systems. The implementation of technology in this sector has resulted into both positive and negative implications on health

Improving the quality of health care system is the main goal of this organization. In this case study we will be talking about the strategic plans being made by the organization for the next decade to deal with the problems of resource management, network growth, patient satisfaction as well as nurse staffing. The readiness of the organization towards catering the citizens' needs for health care will also be discussed in this case study (Goetsch and Davis, 2010).

The success of Healthcare Management Information System (HMIS) projects is essential in health care delivery. However, system implementation is a challenging task and the success of the project depends on multiple factors (Safdari, Ghazisaeidi, & Jebraeily, 2015).To attain success, critical success factors need to be addressed for HMIS implementation. These factors can prevent issues in the implementation of the system. There are three characteristics of success factors: characteristics of the users, characteristics of the system design, and characteristics of the organization.

The variation in information needs across any healthcare provider organization forces healthcare information technologies (HIT) platforms, systems, processes and procedures to align its design to support the unique information needs of each department and role. The greater this alignment of HIT systems and technologies to specific administrator, doctor, nurse and lab technician roles, the higher the level of overall systems performance and results attained (Agrawal, Grandison, Johnson, Kiernan, 2007). Just as an enterprise has strategic information needs that help to define the future direction of the business, healthcare provider organizations also have a comparable set of strategic information needs. The administrative roles in healthcare providers need to have a consolidated view of the organization from a cost, quality management, service level, patient recovery rate, patient satisfaction and profitability standpoint as well (Middleton, 2005). All of these factors are often gathered together in a dashboard that administrators often rely on to manage the core areas of their healthcare business (Leung, 2012). Administrator's information needs are also longer term in nature and more oriented towards the development of strategic initiatives that will last several years, requiring

A country’s economy and well-being depends upon how strong its healthcare system is. A country would grow into a stronger nation if the people are mentally and physically stronger. Moreover, healthcare systems are usually complex and complicated systems and thus, they need a lot of attention. As Donley (2005) states, “[t]he changing patterns of health care delivery have increased complexity in all practice environments” (p. 314). By a complicated system, it means how different healthcare organizations together play a pivotal role in measuring success of a country’s healthcare system. These healthcare organizations further rely on various departments within the system which are in turn led by various leaders. Thus, it is evident how leaders are the key link in deciding the fate