- Healthcare Data Quality
Data quality has become a center of focus for any organization when setting up data warehouses, putting more emphasis on the customer relationship management. This is true for healthcare organizations where cost pressures and the grave of improving patient care force efforts to incorporate and clean organizational data. This is due to the fact that data is a focal point to efficient healthcare and to financial existence. Data concerning the accuracy of diagnoses, the effectiveness of the treatments and the practices of healthcare providers is vital for any healthcare organization that works extra hard to excel in healthcare delivery.
Data quality is concerned with accuracy, precision and timeliness. Clear definition of data models and accuracy of data values are the most important points to be considered in any healthcare information system. Data quality can be viewed as data that is suitable for data consumers but the problem then arises when there is difficulty of one or more data’s dimension that is unfit for consumption. In response to this data processing is treated as a data manufacturing system whereby three important roles are identified: the data producers, the data custodians and the data consumers. Data producers are the people, groups or systems that generate data. Data custodians are the people who presents and handle all the computing resources for data storage and processing. Lastly, a data consumer refers to people, group or systems that use data.
Importance of data quality
In healthcare industry improved data quality is directly associated with the better management of health plans, improved accounts receivable practices and better management of healthcare supplies. Though all these advantages are all financial, they are also potentially important clinical benefits to improved data quality.
In more competitive settings, hospitals are resorting more and more to customer relationship management to support them so as to manage the stiff competition. Effective use of relationship marketing strategy needs best data quality, for instance, patients can be tracked from the point of first contact through all subsequent interactions with the hospital whereby the database also provides information needed to implement the hospital’s targeted direct mail programs.
Data quality challenges
- The wide range of structured and unstructured types of data make it difficult for ensuring data quality.
- In most organizations data is never given priority and is discarded during budget squeezes.
- There are many dimensions that can affect quality data e.g. timeliness, accuracy, completeness, etc.
- No accepted ways of determining extends of data deficiencies.
- Difficulty in defining levels of data quality those are appropriate to an organization.
- Healthcare Information Regulations, Laws, and Standards
A foundational understanding of the governmental and legislative context of public health informatics is subject to its right and acceptable use. All healthcare information systems that serve great public good must be managed and operated in compliance with a broad range of legal constraints and within the limits of the legal authority. The most important consideration of the healthcare information systems is the need to safeguard the privacy of individuals’ health information. Healthcare organizations always gather and manage huge amounts of very sensitive personal information. A failure for such organizations to protect this kind of information may lead to breach of public trust and individual privacy.
Healthcare Information Regulations, Laws, and Standards constraints
Every healthcare organization must undergo licensure, accreditation and certification processes for it to be allowed to operate. Licensure refers to a process through which a governmental authority permits an individual practitioner or healthcare organization to operate or engage in an occupation or profession and these regulations are established to ensure standards compliance. Accreditation is a formal process through which a recognized organization assesses and recognizes that a healthcare organization is up to set standards. Certification is a process by which a recognized body evaluates and recognizes either an individual or an organization meets set requirements or criteria.
Public health information gathering, use and revelation are not exception from the laws and regulations that apply to the rest of healthcare organizations that deals with personal information that need utmost care and privacy. Some laws do not comprise exceptions for some public health roles, but these exceptions require careful scrutiny so as to ensure an accurate understanding of their implications and limitations. Complications in these analyses are attributed to the fact that healthcare information laws and regulations are undergoing fundamental adjustments (Karen et al., 2009). Since the environment is in dynamic change, the healthcare information professionals have a responsibility to monitor legal developments constantly and be set to make changes to policies and procedures to adapt to changing laws and standards of healthcare.
Another challenge is that both federal and state laws may simultaneously apply to a given agency, to an information system, to a data set, or to an individual practitioner. Such laws were not formulated in a coordinated manner and they need not impose the same standards or obligations. Use of some sensitive information under federal law does not guarantee the use of the same under state law, and vice versa.
Lastly, common law standards for the competent management of information systems are beginning to show up. This affect the implementation and use of public health information and failure to consider them may put a significant project or role into unnecessary risk.
- Organizing Information Technology Services
It is most important for the healthcare organizations to have access to appropriate Information Technology staff and resources to support effective running of Healthcare Information systems and system users.
The IT department is responsible for ensuring that the organization has IT plan and strategies that are up to date depending on the organization’s evolution. It also works with the organization to acquire or develop and implement necessary computer applications. Other roles of the IT department are to provide user support, manage the IT infrastructure, and examine the role and relevance of emanating information technologies.
The IT department has four core functions and this depends on the size of the organization’s IT group and diversity of applications and responsibilities in place. These are:
- Operation and technical support who manages the IT infrastructure
- The application management who manages the process of acquisition, development and implementation of new applications
- IT administration comprising of groups that focus on supporting IT administrative activities
- Specialized groups that undertake research and development roles.
IT department may be lead by the CIO (Chief Information officer). Other team leaders may comprise of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer), CMIO (Chief Medical Informatics Officer) and the CSO (Chief Security Officer). There are various factors that influence how IT roles may be organized and structured in every organization. Other IT staff may include systems analyst, programmer, database administrator, network administrator, telecommunication specialist, web master and web developers.
The structure or organization of the IT services depends on the job functions or service e.g. communications unit, research and development unit. Product lines also determine the nature of IT structure since teams to develop, implement, maintain and support a specific application or suite of applications. Other factors like critical organizational process and geographical distributions also determine the nature of IT services organization.
There is need to continually monitor IT services for their effectiveness and efficiency.
- IT Alignment and Strategic Planning
Formulation of IT involves making decisions about the mission and goals of the organization and the activities and initiatives it will undertake to achieve that mission and those goals. For instance, in keeping with an IT mission to use technology to support the improvement of the quality of care, an organization may have a goal to integrate clinical application systems. The following ideas may be of great importance in striving to achieve this goal:
- Present a common way to access all systems.
- Interface existing varied application systems.
- Require that all applications use a centralized database.
- Employ a common set of clinical applications from one vendor.
IT strategy also involves concepts that govern the way to a class of initiatives and applications. Governing concepts states how organization takes or view many different things. Some will concern IT applications or the IT function.
There are five major vectors that an organization has to consider so as to arrive at an IT strategy. Vector means the perspectives and approaches that may be chosen to determine its IT investment decisions. These vectors are:
- Organizational strategies
- Continual enhancement of core process and information management
- Basic views about rivalry or the character of organizations.
IT is one of the strategies that offer an organization a competitive advantage. IT enables creation of new healthcare industries and businesses e.g. internet-based healthcare consumer content, health insurance products, and providers of second opinions – all of which alter rivalry force. However, use of IT can be a great danger to an organization’s competitive position. For instance, the bargaining power of patients (buyers) over providers and payers may be increased by consumer-oriented web sites that rate provider quality.
Challenges if IT planning
- The overall strategy is unclear or volatile.
- The linkage may be shallow
- Senior managers may hesitate to engage in the IT strategy discussion.
- The true value of IT initiative is unclear
- It is difficult to make tradeoffs between IT investments
References
Karen A. Wager, Frances W. Lee, John P. Glaser.(2009). Healthcare Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Healthcare Management. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
