A Comprehensive Analysis of IT Integration in Avon Hospital's Strategic Planning and Patient Safety - Free Paper

Avon Hospital is currently one of the most high-tech, patient-friendly hospitals located in Lorain County. Some of the services offered by the organization include critical care for both orthopedic surgery and outpatient procedures. The facility is one of the most technologically advanced hospitals in Northeast Ohio. According to Hanlon (2015), Avon Hospital was the first facility to provide diagnostic cardiac catheterizations for patients experiencing heart and chest complications. I was privileged to interview the president of the Avon Hospital, Dr. Rebecca Starck. Dr.Rebecca agrees that she coordinates the entire HIT in the hospital and ensures that the IT projects are aligned with the organization's strategic planning. The management always files a weekly report on the HIT governance and explains any HIT gaps within the facility, which must be addressed. More so, she conducts inspections to ensure the smooth working of the facility. According to her, the hospital relies primarily on IT, meaning strategic planning must align with HIT governance. The interview focuses on evaluating the alignment of IT projects with organizational strategic planning and the external environment.

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Interview Questions

• Do you have the strategic planning for your organization? If yes, what is the relevance of it to the progress of the organization?
• The question would determine whether there is any strategic plan within the hospital to assess if HIT is incorporated.
• Briefly describe the strategic planning process utilize in your organization.
• The question aims at understanding the planning process for the hospital and whether HIT is part of the process.
• Which project selection method does your organization utilizes for justification of the information technology projects?
• The question tries to understand the organization's strategy in incorporating the HIT projects within its missions.
• Are the organizational IT strategy's details appropriately tethered and aligned with the organization's strategic planning details?

The questions aim to assess whether the working of the hospital is aligned with HIT.

Are all the critical organizational stakeholders consistently and adequately informed concerning the IT project and its governance?

• The question ascertains whether stakeholders are involved in the implementation of IT projects within the facility.
• What are the significant elements HIT strategic plan in your organization?
• The question focuses on assessing what incorporates the hospital’s strategic plans and how they apply HIT.
• In your opinion, why healthcare information technology (HIT) strategic planning become more critical for healthcare organizations?
• The question evaluates the interviewee's perception of the relevance of applying the IT projects in an organization's strategic planning.
• Which method of IT does project selection your organization use?

The questions would determine the criteria used for implementing IT projects in the organization.

• In your opinion, why has data standardization become increasingly critical in the management of the healthcare organization?
• The questions ascertain the interviewee's perception regarding data standardization because the process utilizes information technology.
• Does the utilization of HIT in the organization impact the safety of the patients?

The question assesses the relevance of information technology on patients' welfare in hospitals and whether it should be applied.

Analysis of Responses

Question: Do you have the strategic planning for your organization? If yes, what is the relevance of it to the progress of the organization?

Response: Yes, of course. We have vital strategic planning for Avon Hospital. The strategic planning in Avon Hospital entails creating objectives and strategic goals for the future of the organization. The management considers the set goals to develop a strategic plan to achieve them within the set period. Strategic planning in the hospital is critical for its success. Therefore, our organization always determines the goals and creates the best path to achieve them. Strategic planning has helped the organization improve communication among the necessary chains because there is no confusion among the department in the direction the organization is undertaking. There has always been a shared vision because employees always get motivated and committed to achieving the hospital's image. Therefore, the employees are still motivated and committed fully because of the hospital's strategic planning.

Question: Briefly describe the strategic planning process utilized in your organization.

Response: The strategic planning process entails determining the organization's long-term goals by analyzing strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and the threats experienced in the business environment. More so, it involves future trends to project the need for innovations in service provision. Therefore, Avon Hospital utilizes a SWOT analysis as a tool for strategic planning.

Question: Which project selection method does your organization utilize for justification of the information technology projects?

Response: Upon identifying the hospital's strategic goals, the next phase in selecting IT projects is to conduct the business environment analysis. Like other businesses, the hospital also focuses on providing the best services in patients’ care. This way, it will be able to counter the competing healthcare facilities located in the area. The study mainly outlines the steps required for achieving the strategic goals and determines which of the objectives would easily benefit from the information technology. Then, the management defines the potential information technology projects, the scope, benefits, and constraints. Then, the management selects the projects to assign resources based on priority. The coordination within the facility, treatments, and communication within departments relies mainly on information technology. Therefore, Avon Hospital invests mostly in information technology projects to achieve strategic goals.

Question: Are the organizational IT strategy's details appropriately tethered and aligned with the organization's strategic planning details?

Response: Avon Care Hospital aligns the HIT strategy strictly with the strategic planning of the organization. Some of the basic tasks that rely on IT within the facility include management of clinical software, administration of staff, keeping patient records, admissions, coordination of medical wards, operating rooms, and emergency departments. Avon Hospital also relies on IT for billing, registration, ordering and receiving lab results, health information management, and the working of specialist software like IV pumps and radiology. Therefore, the organization's strategic planning cannot be achieved without aligning each project with IT because the computer systems aid most of the facility's tasks.

Question: Are all the critical organizational stakeholders consistently and adequately informed concerning the IT project and its governance?

Response: Once the IT project is done within Avon Hospital, all the departmental and management team is informed and involved in training. The employees are also taught and guided on the project's relevance in achieving the hospital's mission and vision. Avon Hospital ensures that any IT project done is embraced by the relevant stakeholders and the entire department. This way, it becomes fully utilized for the benefit of the organization. Therefore, the HIT governance effort is a shared responsibility within the organization. Consequently, we have to involve all the stakeholders before undertaking any HIT project.

Question: What are the significant elements of the HIT strategic plan in your organization?

Response: Avon Hospital utilizes the seven elements of a strategic plan to achieve its primary objective of providing the best care to its clients. Those elements include

Vision statement: Avon Hospital focuses on becoming one of the best hospitals worldwide regarding the quality of services and patient care.

Core values: The hospital has strong core values which include integrity, trustworthiness, and honesty

Long-term goals: Avon Hospital focuses on expanding the facility to accommodate over 1000 patients. It also aims at increasing the technological capacity by acquiring the best and most modern machines and specialists.

Action Plans: The hospital has a concrete action plan that outlines all the goals, objectives, missions, and steps to achieve them.

Mission statement: Avon Hospital promotes a healthy community by offering quality medical care and guidance to the clients.

SWOT analysis: The hospital uses SWOT analysis in strategic planning, which incorporates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Yearly objectives: At the beginning of each year, the hospital designs the goals which have to be achieved within the next 12 months.

Question: In your opinion, why healthcare information technology (HIT) strategic planning become more critical for healthcare organizations?

Response: Currently, most of the activities involved in management, coordination, diagnosis, and the therapeutic process relies, to no small extent, on technology. Therefore, in healthcare, it would not be easy to offer quality services without relying on technology. The strategic planning should align with IT because it would be almost difficult to achieve healthcare goals without incorporating technology in the implementation process.

Question: Which method of project selection does your organization use?

Response: Avon Hospital relies largely on cost-benefit analysis when selecting the IT projects to undertake. Some projects are costly, yet the benefit is not worth that cost. Therefore, the facility prioritizes those projects with the highest benefits in both the short-term and long term. For instance, some equipment is quite expensive, but they are critical in achieving the hospital's objectives, meaning we have to purchase them.

Question: In your opinion, why has data standardization become increasingly critical in the management of the healthcare organization?

Response: Data standardization is always critical in healthcare management, especially in the current situation, whereby hospitals rely almost entirely on technology. There is still interoperability and health information exchange is experienced across the globe. More so, standardized data allows clinicians to collect and examine multiple and big data sets like clinical, financial, patient-derived, and operational. Therefore, it is critical to have a common data language or data standardization to achieve the healthcare industry's dream worldwide.

Questions: Does the utilization of HIT in the organization impact the safety of the patients?

Response: The safety of the patient is highly guaranteed when HIT is utilized in a hospital. Healthcare information technology uses both computer hardware and software in this case for storage, retrieval, sharing, communication, and decision making. HIT in healthcare presents numerous opportunities for transforming healthcare like reducing human errors, improving clinical outcomes, improving practice efficiencies, facilitating care coordination, and data tracking over time. Therefore HIT guarantees, to a great extent, the safety of patients because it reduces human errors and enhances the quality of healthcare offered to the patients.

Reference

Hanlon, P. (2015). Cleveland clinic: a closer look at one of the top respiratory care hospitals in America, whose clinical-home connected care model adds value and ensures continuity of care. RT for Decision Makers in Respiratory Care, 28(6), 13-16. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4200609/