Essay Example: Concise Description of the Project

The project here was "Interoperability of Health Information Systems." This involves the interconnection of various HISs to incorporate the patient's personal health information using a series of electronic health records. The primary aim of the project was to enhance communication channels between various stakeholders within the healthcare facility. While this was being implemented, the major ethical issues that emerged were the security and privacy of the health records. However, risk analysis tools and risk management framework was utilized to predetermine or predict the occurrence of data breaches before they affect the entire system. The critical challenge involved was the high cost of training individuals, before transitioning from an older system of communication to a newer integrated system. The success of the project was evaluated by comparing the organization's performance index before and after the interoperability.

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Organization’s Name and Information

The organization's name was "Living Hope Facility.” The healthcare offers care and treatment to patients with various range of health complications, including emergency services.

Vision and value statements

To promote the quality of the patient's outcomes, their safety, and the privacy of their health records. Its fundamental values are enhanced communication, trust between health provider, system, and the patient, honesty, and caring.

Stakeholders

clinicians, physicians, and technicians within the organization.

Project Objectives

• To facilitate more accessible communication between the three vital stakeholders (clinicians, technicians, and physicians)
• To improve the organization's level of productivity by advancing on the quality of the patient's outcome
• To provide security, the safety of EHRs using the integrated HISs.

Method Used

Qualitative and quantitative method approaches were implemented in the project to obtain the supporting figures and arguments.

Methods of Evaluation

Three modes of the evaluation were utilized to evaluate the success or failure of this interoperability project. The methods are:

• Goal-based methodology,
• Process-based methodology, and
• Outcome-based methodology.

Goal-based methods ensure that the expected projections are achievable. Process-based methods are used to monitor if all the mentioned processes were followed to deliver the outcome. Finally, the outcome-based evaluation method is used to compare the result and expectations.

Lessons Learned from the Practicum Project

• The two most important lessons learned after completing the interoperability project were;
• An efficient communication channel can significantly improve the patient's outcome since most medical errors are eliminated.
• Digital communication channel with integrated network connections improves the security and privacy of personal electronic health records.

In any healthcare organization, the stakeholders would demand that more patients come in, so that they either enjoy the sustainability of the competitive advantage, or build their reputation regionally, or internationally. To achieve this, patient outcome is a critical determining factor. For this reason, improving the patient outcome by working with an active communication channel where the waiting time is reduced is more relevant than it may seem (Kreps & Kunimoto, 1994). Similarly, security and privacy are also the most pertinent requirements that any healthcare organization should strive to achieve. Åhlfeldt and Huvala (2014) stipulated that patients become happy and more comfortable to deal with in environments where they are confident that their medical records are protected from access by any unauthorized personnel without their consent. They further derived that the nurse-patient relationship would not bore fruits if the PHI provided is at risk of getting lost or into uncertified hands. Ideally, analog health communication channels had challenges of regular loss of PHRs, and could hardly be monitored; whereas, an integrated HIS has installed monitoring systems that raise the alarm whenever a suspicious activity is done using the patient's records.

In the future, I will be able to provide quality healthcare to patients, especially after understanding how the EHRs are transmitted from person to another in a manner that links with the health processes, and treatment plans, and related ethical considerations. Besides, I will also implement this lesson to prevent any potential data breaches while handling patients, because I now understand the causes, its signs, and ways to correct the faults once they occur. Conclusively, the interoperability of HIS is an essential practicum project whose lessons can be applied directly to the various nursing practices.

References

Åhlfeldt, R. M., & Huvala, I. (2014, August). Patient safety and patient privacy when patient reading their medical records. In International conference on well-being in the information society (pp. 230-239). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-10211-5_24

Kreps, G. L., & Kunimoto, E. N. (1994). Effective communication in multicultural health care settings (Vol. 3). Sage Publications.