Consider the last time you used Canada’s health-care system. Was the experience positive or negative? What role did information quality play?
The last time I visited Canada’s health care system, I was impacted positively. I recall that I could not explain my health condition to health care providers because I was unconscious. Fortunately, my electronic health record (EHR) in the hospital demonstrated that I was asthmatic.
The EHR helped care providers to do a quick clinical assessment and diagnosis. Since the medications that I had been given by my physician were not very efficacious, the emergency room staff used the data in my EHR to craft a care plan that could improve my health. I was jubilant about the critical role that my EHR played in my visit to the hospital. Thus, I believe that information is important in Canada’s health care system.
What do you think of the purpose of Infoway? Do you believe that “deep integration” is required in the Canadian health-care system?
Infoway is a non-profit organization that aims at deeply integrating health care services through the utilization of information technology (IT). Generally, integration refers to the process of combining many related parts to form a unified whole. From a technical perspective, the integration of an information system culminates in relatively high levels of accuracy, relevancy, and accessibility. From a practical point of view, deep integration in relation to the health care system in Canada would result in decreased wait times, reduced side effects of medications, better ways of managing chronic diseases, and better patient participation in the delivery of health care.
The case study indicates that Canada’s universal health care system has a big number of professionals who work in teams to facilitate the delivery of care. To further demonstrate the large size of the health care system in the country, it is indicated that annual health care expenditure is above $180 billion, which implies that every citizen spends an average of $5,300. Therefore, deep integration of the health care system is required in the nation.
With an integrated health care system in the nation, the quality of health care information would be improved. At the end of the day, a deeply integrated health system will improve the health of Canadians and national identity, both in the short-term and long-term. For example, in the case study, a nurse says that she is able to make one or two follow-up appointments in one week using IT tools. In fact, each trip is almost 1600 kilometers.
What kinds of challenges do you believe Canada Health Infoway will face in completing its vision? How long will it take to achieve complete integration?
Although Canada Health Infoway is committed to achieving a deeply integrated health care system in the country, the organization would face some challenges in its endeavor. The firm needs to use strategic management approaches to overcoming the challenges so that it can achieve its goals. First, a large-scale integration approach would require a lot of capital. As contained in the case study, the kind of deeply integrated health care system that is envisaged by Canada Health Infoway is expensive and imperfect.
The firm would not access funds in an easy manner because it would be required to write grant proposals to various organizations. Funds would be needed for training personnel and purchasing IT equipment. Second, there would be a challenge with regard to a lack of technical expertise in implementing the initiative.
Only a few experienced IT professionals would be involved in the project. The firm would be required to train its technical personnel, which would take a relatively long period. Fro the case study, it is evident that Luc Boucher, Karen Madill, and Daniel Girard anticipate the program to be complicated. Based on the high level of complexity of the program it would require a five-year period to be completed.