HIMSS is an organization that is dedicated to providing high quality and safe health care to people. It also ensures that the activities it engages in are cost effective. Since the organization is a non-profit organization, it adopts information management systems which enable it to provide people with quality and affordable health care.
The organization’s management comprises of a board of directors who are usually elected by the members of the organization. The management therefore ensures that the organization remains committed to achieving its objective of delivering quality health care services by adopting information management systems (Glaser, n.d).
The advancements that have been made in Information Technology have made the medical field to implement measures aimed at ensuring that the flow of information is efficient between the patients and physicians.
The ever increasing demand for health care services has made medical institutions to adopt health information systems in order to ensure that the services delivered to the patients are of high quality. The quality of health care matters a lot to patients. This is because quality health care makes patients to trust the services that medical practitioners offer to them (Friedrich, 2012).
The cost of providing health care is critical to any medical organization. Most medical organizations adopt information management systems in order to ensure that they incur less cost while, at the same time, providing the patients with high quality care. With the advancements in technology, organizations have been able to come up with initiatives whereby they have been able to carry out their operations efficiently at low costs (Ball, Smith, & Bakalar, n.d).
Medical organizations are supposed to ensure that patients recover from medical complications and not worsen their medical conditions. There are also medical experts who are not well equipped with the right skills of handling their patients. As a result, it is important for medical organizations to ensure that they adopt information management systems in order to ensure that the patients remain safe while undergoing treatment (HIMSS, 2012).
This is important especially when the patients undergo surgeries. With the adoption of information management systems, it has been possible for medical institutions to adopt mechanisms that are very accurate in terms of ensuring that the patients remain safe while undergoing certain types of complicated treatment.
Information management systems are effective in ensuring that medical practitioners are efficient in the operations that they undertake towards their patients. HIMSS has been on the frontline in ensuring that it adopts the most advanced technology in the medical field. One of the key focuses of the organization is the information management system (Ball, Smith, & Bakalar, n.d).
The organization has remained on the frontline in ensuring that the types of information management systems that it adopts are relevant to the current trends in the medical field. This strategy has been very effective in ensuring that the organization has been able to meet all the needs of the patients effectively (NextGen, 2012).
The organization has paid significant attention to certain aspects information management systems that have enabled it to be very efficient in its goal of delivering quality services to the patients. The information management systems that the company has adopted are directed towards quality improvement, efficient reporting and monitoring, enhancing collaboration between employees, and the reconciliation of medication (NextGen, 2012).
HIMSS regards the issue of medical reconciliation to be more urgent and it has therefore implemented measures to ensure that issues such as e-prescription are addressed efficiently. Medical reconciliation is a process whereby medical data are easily shared among the medical experts within the organization.
As a result, it is easy for most members of staff to access data regarding a patient by looking at the reconciled data (Friedrich, 2012). This issue has therefore made it easy for the members of staff within the organization to easily prescribe drugs to the patients after critically looking at the patient’s data from the information systems.
The organization has also implemented measures whereby the patients can receive prescriptions of drugs as a result of accessing the information systems of the organization either though emails or through the company website (Salaver, 2007).
With the adoption of information management systems, the organization has been able to provide a mechanism whereby the members of the organization are able to work in teams. The type of information systems that the organization adopts ensures that the clinicians are able to cooperate thereby enabling them to arrive at concrete solutions with regard to addressing the various issues that affect patients (Zaroukian, 2008). As a result, the organization is able to provide quality services to the patients.
The adoption of e-communication strategies by the organization has enabled it to effectively address the ever increasing demand for health services by the patients.
The e-care services that have been adopted by the company have proved to be efficient, increased productivity of the medical professionals and have reduced the operating costs of the organization (Salaver, 2007). This process has made the office visits by the patients to be more productive and efficient.
There are various reasons as to why patients use the e-care services. Their main reasons are to inquire for information updates, renewals of their prescription, inquiring for test results, and booking for appointments with medical professionals. These services have been very efficient in terms of enabling the patients to receive adequate care from the clinicians.
The software as a service (SAAS) concept has assisted the organization to be efficient in its operations in terms of providing health care services to the patients. Initially, the company used to have various systems administrators who used to back up the company data at their respective areas of operations.
The software that was meant to enhance the operations of the company was distributed to the system administrators at their respective areas of operation. However, the organization has focused on improving its efficiency by reducing its costs of operation. As a result, the organization has adopted a strategy whereby only one system administrator is required to back up all the organization’s data.
This process has been enhanced by the adoption of special software which has made it possible for the organization to closely monitor all the operations of the various outlets of the organization (NextGen, 2012). This issue has enabled the company to reduce its operating costs as well as enhancing more efficiency in the delivery of health services to the patients.
The software that the organization has adopted has enabled it to backup and restore its data with ease as well as minimize disruptions to the daily activities of the clinicians.
This issue has increased the productivity of the organization, improved customer satisfaction, improved the productivity of the workers, enhanced delivery of quality services, and streamlined communication of information among the clinicians working in the organization. The benefits that the organization has realized from the SAAS service have had have great impact on patients, the organization, the community, and the vendors of the organization (Friedrich, 2012).
Health Care Enterprise Resource Planning is a strategy that has enabled the organization to come up with ways that make the management of the entire organization easy. The ERP has focused on Human Capital Management, Financial Accounting management, Supply Chain management, and Infrastructure and Security. Human Capital Management focuses on time and absence management, training of the Administration and personnel, and payroll issues.
The company has adopted various software that have been effective in ensuring that the Human Capital Management strategy is effective. These software include Kronos Workforce Time Keeper, Lawson Healthcare Solutions, and Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management (HIMSS, 2012).
The organization has also implemented different Financial Management software which have enabled it to remain accountable in its daily operations. The organization also has a team of experts who ensure that the Information systems work consistently and accurately.
The organization has also been effective in enabling the patients to become responsible for their own health care. The organization has therefore ensured that the patients are able to access any type of information that they require online. The patients have also shown more interest in electronic health information. The organization has therefore been effective in developing patient self-management tools which make it possible for the patients to keep abreast with the updates within the organization (Ball, Smith, & Bakalar, n.d).
References
Ball, M. J., Smith, C., & Bakalar, R. S. Personal Health Records: Empowering Consumers. Web.
Friedrich, K. (2012). Keys to Success of Health Information Exchange. Web.
Glaser, J. P. (n.d). Information Technology Strategy. Web.
HIMSS. (2012). Stories of Success! Health IT’s Impact on National Safety Goals & Priorities. Web.
Next Gen. (2012). Next Gen Healthcare HIMSS 2012 Sneak Preview. Web.
Salaver, T. (2007). Software as a Service: Another Link in the Health Care Service Chain. Web.
Zaroukian, M. H. (2008). Patient Web Portals, Clinical Messaging and E-visits. Web.