Portfolio Project Milestone

Portfolio Project Milestone

Introduction

Every organization must have a competitive advantage in order to succeed above its competitors. Organizations that fail to identify their competitive advantage often get outperformed by competitors that force the business out of the market. According to Wager, Lee, and Glaser (2017), various aspects of business can be considered as a source of competitive edge, including unique competence, brand reputation, high return on assets, and higher profit margin. Although there are many ways through which organizations can achieve an advantage over its competitors, the most viable is differentiation and cost advantage. An organization with the ability to achieve superiority in terms of differentiation and cost can offer consumers with products at low costs, and a high degree of differentiation can compete with its rivals effectively. In order to understand the competitive value of healthcare information technology, the researcher will provide a portfolio project milestone that will include an array of scholarly articles

The required textbook for this course;

1. Wager, Lee, and Glaser (2017) explain that the health care information system provides essential knowledge and tools that are necessary to manage different information and information resources in a wide array of health care organizations. The authors have reviewed various environmental forces that have shaped the health information landscape and offered efficient guidance on the evaluation, implementation, and management of different healthcare information systems. The book is a perfect source for this project in that it has reviewed relevant laws, standards, and regulations while exploring pressing issues that are essential to senior-level management. Wager, Lee, and Glaser (2017) have provided an in-depth analysis of different changes in the payment reform initiatives and the most efficient mechanisms for analyzing and assessing the system’s value. The most efficient strategies for acquiring and implementing healthcare IT have also been provided. According to Wager, Lee, and Glaser (2017), new and advanced information on the importance of information systems in the management of the population cannot be negated in this project.
2. In order for an organization to gain a competitive advantage, a healthcare organization must take into consideration its healthcare data quality. Chapter 2 explains that health care data quality is an essential aspect of healthcare that can be achieved through continued accuracy, relevancy, and consistency. The exchange of health information and technology promotes data quality through the reduction of redundancy, enhancing health outcomes, and decreasing medical errors. The security of data healthcare is a priority in healthcare organizations, especially with the growing rate of hackings, breach of profiles, and episodes of ransomware. According to the HIPAA security rule, organizations should protect their health information by undertaking authentication protocols, the transmission of security, auditing, and controls of access. In order to benefit from a competitive edge, an organization must put in place appropriate safeguards, including firewalls, encryption of sensitive data, and anti-virus software.
3. The authors also highlight the importance of stewardship in order to increase access to patient data. Understanding the purpose for data creation, how and when is essential for an organization in order to remain ahead of its competitors. Failure to develop complete and accurate metadata is an essential component of data governance in that it enables organizational analysts to replicate different queries that are essential for benchmarking and scientific studies. In order to avoid the problems associated with healthcare IT, Wager, Lee, and Glaser (2017) advises that healthcare organizations should handle the curation and development of varying metadata to ensure that different elements are well documented from creation until completion. In order to achieve a competitive advantage, organizations mist assign a data steward and query the data in order to handle the curation and development of essential metadata. Failure to handle data appropriately can affect the quality and standardization of data and the ability of an organization to overcome presented competition in the field. Healthcare data require constant updating in that it is not static, and most of the elements require frequent updates in order to continue being relevant and current. It is necessary for healthcare organizations to understand data volatility and how data changes can be challenging to organizations that fail to monitor the data frequently. In order to overcome challenges in the market, it is important to establish a clear idea of data updating and how one to update data while ensuring that updates are conducting without affecting the integrity or quality of the dataset.
4. IT innovations
5. Artificial intelligence has taken a significant position in the healthcare sector. Although AI is still in infancy, the implementation of AI in healthcare will help to improve the quality of services and reduce challenges encountered by staff through improved ability to monitor the health status of patients and immediate notifications (Lee, Lee, & Schniederjans, 2011). The ability to monitor health will minimize staff challenges by ensuring immediate notification of staff about the parameters of operation and enabling homecare assistants to stay in line with the evolution and treatment of patients.
6. The implementation of AI in healthcare ensures the provision of faster and responsive services all the time in that agencies will have the ability to treat themselves to high margins and promote the provision of valuable work. This will also ensure faster filling times and notify clinicians of new assignments as they come up. Shifts can also be requested in an easy and faster mechanism while notifying patients of new assignments as they occur.
7. The implementation of blockchain in healthcare will provide a decentralized record system that will facilitate the development of a decentralized record system. The use of an independent, permanent, and transparent database indifferent locations will facilitate the creation of a client-server database where one professional will have the ability to control different credentials. The application of blockchain in healthcare will make it possible to consolidate critical information that is scattered in various facilities and is often not accessible to doctors and patients. Lack of available information, when needed, causes the loss of money, time, and lives (Lee, Lee, & Schniederjans, 2011). The implementation of blockchain in healthcare will solve these problems in that all data will be represented, stored, and shared effectively to all the relevant parties.
8. Healthcare Internet of Things entails the connection of different infrastructure of software applications and medical devices that have the ability to communicate with other healthcare IT systems. The application of healthcare IoT, such as FitBit, will help to track patient feedback and tabulate the data on iPhone through Bluetooth technology and share such information with physicians (Lee, Lee, & Schniederjans, 2011). This will help to track patients’ health and keep them updated on how they should live and lead a healthy lifestyle. However, this IT innovation would face a great barrier to enter and change the manner in which diseases are treated in hospitals. Besides, there is a limited threshold at which individuals can execute innovative solutions to a particular population an industry in need of change.
9. Organizational Processes
10. Organizational processes are tasks that generate the desired service or product by an organization when appropriate variables are added. Organizational processes, as explained by Shortell, Gillies & Wu (2010), are about the efficient administration of variables. Organizing in a healthcare facility must be planned and applied carefully, a process that entails the determination of the work that needs to be done in order to accomplish particular goals by assigning different tasks to various people. Arranging individuals in the facility in a decision making organizational structure is an essential process that helps an organization to achieve its goals and objectives. At the end of the organizing process, an organization becomes whole by unifying diverse parts with the ability to act in harmony, such as to execute tasks effectively in order to achieve goals efficiently and effectively. Organizing processes that are well implemented should result in an effective working environment with team members who are well aware of their individual responsibilities. As Shortell, Gillies & Wu (2010) explains, failure to undertake the organizing process effectively can result in frustration, confusion, diminished efficiency, and effectiveness.
11. An effective organization process should begin with a review of stipulated plans and objectives. The managers in charge of the healthcare facility must ensure that they examine all presented plans continuously as new goals get developed.
12. Determining work activities that are relevant to accomplish various objectives in an organization as part of its organizational processes (Shortell, Gillies & Wu, 2010). Although determining objectives may appear like an overwhelming task to most managers, it is necessary for a manager to list and analyze various tasks that need to get accomplished different organizational goals.
13. Work activities must be classified into manageable units to foster the accomplishment of organizational processes. A manager should group different activities on the basis of the models of departmentalization in terms of customer, products, geographical, and functional.
14. Organizational processes entail efficient delegation of authority and assigning of activities to relevant personnel (Shortell, Gillies & Wu, 2010). Healthcare organizations should assign different work activities to particular individuals and assign the necessary authority to execute the executed tasks.
15. Developing a hierarchy of relationships is an essential aspect of an organizational process. Every manager must determine both horizontal and vertical relationships among other relations in the organizations to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals.

• Mission, vision, and strategic goals;

1. Every organization must create plans in order to move in a particular direction and develop organically. The development of a mission and vision statement are essential to communicate organizational goals to the public and employees.
2. The mission statement should emphasize the purpose of the organization, as well as its measurable objectives (Moullin, Sabater-Hernández, Fernandez-Llimos, & Benrimoj, 2015). A mission statement should guide the leaders and employees, such as to reflect the desired by the management. The mission statement highlights the benefits of the change and organizational processes to help the public and the employees adhere to the stipulated mechanisms. The mission statement must describe the company’s direction now and in the future, including the need to undertake changes to achieve organizational objectives.
3. The vision statement should help to describe and expound on the purpose. A vision statement should provide the employees with direction and inspiration to stir the organization in the right direction. Strategic planning also should have a marketing strategy to inspire consumers to trust the organization’s products and services (Moullin, Sabater-Hernández, Fernandez-Llimos, & Benrimoj, 2015). The vision should act as a view of the future by describing long-term inspirational plans to accomplish the desired effect.
4. The importance of strategic planning cannot be negated in healthcare organizations. Strategic planning enabled leaders to celebrate the achieved success to facilitate greater goals and objectives. Strategic planning should entail aligning organizational mission and vision to the stipulated measures and plans.
5. Data Challenges
6. The implementation of information technology in a healthcare organization is bound to face resistance and various data challenges. The aspect of data fragmentation is one problem that healthcare organizations must deem to undertake. As National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2015) explains, healthcare data often originates from different sources and arrives in varying formats, which vary from videos, structured data, pictures, paper, and multimedia, among others. Collecting and aggregating such fragmented data can make the integration and extraction of such data difficult. Public health specialists, payers, and social workers must collect data without any possibility of unifying the collected information. The collection of incomplete and inaccurate members’ profiles with little insight into the patient’s health could affect the execution of services. Lack of monitoring and understanding can result in poor communication, inefficient utilization of resources, and loss of revenue.
7. Changing data

Healthcare data undergoes changes due to the fact that physicians and patients tend to change their names, professions, while others retire or die. Other organizations, such as payer institutions may also change the location of form acquisitions and mergers. The introduction of new drugs, treatments, and care models could also change the data captured and model of service delivery. These changes could cause a delay in the adoption of enhanced treatment options and cause poor engagement and experience in treatment.

1. Security and Privacy regulations

It is a cornerstone of building an effective healthcare system and maintain trust between different patients (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015). Data security is of significant importance to the health care industry. However, the continuously changing regulatory requirements and maintaining compliance affects the security and privacy of data.

1. A new generation of millennials and Generation Z is likely to force most health care facilities to adopt new forms of engagements. Healthcare organizations will be faced with the need to equip themselves with a new volume, type, and age of members. It will be faced with the need for changing the organizational needs, such as to reflect on the advanced consumer needs.
2. Technology as a Tool
3. There are various tools in healthcare that can be used efficiently to achieve organizational objectives. Electronic healthcare is an essential technological tool that has been applied in the healthcare sector. EHRR which has created significant strides in the promotion of efficient and centralized patient information.
4. MHealth has made it possible for healthcare to work free of cords and wires in a manner that enables patients and physicians to analyze and monitor various healthcare processes (Tanser, 2006). Healthcare organizations often apply mHealth to document and acquire different information from patients. Besides being a wireless tool, mHealth has assisted patients in assuming active roles in their treatment through continuous communication with different biometrics.
5. Telemedicine has been applied in healthcare to facilitate quicker discharge of patients from ICU through efficient monitoring of patients.
6. Portal technology, self-service kiosks, genome sequencing, wireless communication, and remote monitoring tools have also played essential roles in healthcare organizations.
7. Technology that Provides Value
8. The application of technology and medicine has created significant changes in the healthcare system that have facilitated imminent growth in the system (Christensen, Bohmer, & Kenagy, 2000).
9. . Technology has added value in healthcare by making it possible for patients to keep track of their health and wellbeing.
10. The aging population has been provided with an improved healthcare system through the implementation of a system that requires agile and creative thinking.
11. The need to reduce costs and improved the quality of healthcare has increased the value obtained from the provision of healthcare services (Christensen, Bohmer, & Kenagy, 2000).
12. Technological tools have also made it possible to improve the delivery of healthcare by pushing providers from outdated mechanisms of service provision to advanced methods that cut costs, improve efficiency, and enhance the quality of services provided.
13. Technological has changed payment processes in healthcare facilities to include quality, cost, efficiency, and enhanced patient experience. Healthcare has also shifted towards payment models that reduce costs while enhancing the quality of healthcare plans and improving the overall quality of healthcare services.

References

Christensen, C. M., Bohmer, R., & Kenagy, J. (2000). Will disruptive innovations cure health care?. Harvard Business Review, 78(5), 102-112.

Lee, S. M., Lee, D., & Schniederjans, M. J. (2011). Supply chain innovation and organizational performance in the healthcare industry. International Journal of Operations & Production Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443571111178493

Moullin, J. C., Sabater-Hernández, D., Fernandez-Llimos, F., & Benrimoj, S. I. (2015). A systematic review of implementation frameworks of innovations in healthcare and resulting generic implementation framework. Health Research Policy and Systems, 13(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-015-0005-z

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2015). Improving diagnosis in health care. National Academies Press. https://www.nap.edu/read/21794/chapter/7

Shortell, S. M., Gillies, R., & Wu, F. (2010). United States innovations in healthcare delivery. Public Health Reviews, 32(1), 190.

Tanser, F. (2006). Geographical information systems (GIS) innovations for primary health care in developing countries. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 1(2), 106-122. https://doi.org/10.1162/itgg.2006.1.2.106