Last week, you identified challenges related to informatics and recommended strategies for overcoming them. In this Assignment, you address common challenges applied in a specific informatics scenario. Then, you extend your thinking by addressing another common challenge: resistance to change. The rapidly evolving world of informatics means departments and institutions must evolve in ways that make some professionals uncomfortable, and this Assignment focuses on overcoming that real-world circumstance.
To Prepare For this Assignment, consider the following scenario:
The radiologist at your hospital reports to the administrator that 30 patients have been diagnosed with brain tumors during the past 2 months. The administrator requests a report detailing the number of patients diagnosed with brain tumors during the past 6 months. However, the radiology department uses a free-text entry for their diagnoses, and their system does not communicate with the larger electronic health record (EHR) system installed at the hospital. You recognize an opportunity to address challenges with the EHR system in your hospital and decide to also write a proposal for a solution to improve your hospital’s EHR system.
- Based on this scenario, analyze each of the challenges described below that the hospital may need to address:
- Vocabulary standards
- Interoperability
- Workarounds
- Patient safety
- Patient privacy and security when pulling reports
- Reflect on potential solutions to each of the challenges described.
- Research change theories in the Walden Library (or other academic sources) that might assist in your convincing the institution to implement potential solutions.
- The Walden Library recommends the following resources:
- SAGE Knowledge: a collection of specialized encyclopedias in several subject areas that includes many types of theories.
- Computers and Applied Sciences Complete: journals covering engineering, computer theory and systems, new technologies, and social and professional context.
- Reflect on how an electronic health record system analytic API could help interpret the data found in the scenario.
The Assignment
- Write a proposal for how the hospital in the scenario might overcome each of the following challenges related to the scenario:
- Vocabulary standards
- Interoperabiliy
- Workarounds
- Patient safety
- Patient privacy and security when pulling reports
- Recommend a change theory that might assist in your convincing the hospital administration to implement the EHR solution and improvements you propose. Be specific and provide examples.
- Support your proposal by explaining how the EHR solution might benefit data analysis for the promotion of improved health outcomes.
- Note: The title page, introduction, summary, and references are in addition to the required page count.