The quality of treatment in healthcare organizations is largely based on the effective data management. Similar statement can be made regarding the quality of the medical personnel’s work. Thus, it is important to identify the obstacles, barriers or pitfalls that may prevent effective work of data management strategies and technologies within medical organizations of the country. In addition, the factors that may influence those obstacles, barriers and pitfalls are to be identified as well. Overall, after the evaluation of the situation, a conclusion can be made that major problems in the filed are related to the absence of unified standards and systems, and to the poor level of skills for informational technology use among the medical personnel.
First, addressing the obstacles, barriers and pitfalls that may arise while working with data management within the healthcare industry, it is important to note that all of them come from the absence of a unified system in the field (Oakman, Blendon, Campbell, Zaslavsky, & Benson, 2010). As a result, the medical workers of varied healthcare organizations are exposed to operating different systems and technologies in their practice. When the situation requires collaboration from the representatives of the medical institutions, using different types of data management technologies, they find it very difficult because their data operating systems appear incommensurable (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). Besides, there exists no standardized system of data introduction into national healthcare management databases. Moreover, the challenges experienced by healthcare institutions and their personnel are connected with using different proprietary systems and rather heterogeneous sources of the information (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). In view of that, the process of sharing the data becomes problematical or even unattainable. Finally, in a variety of cases, the medical personnel does not demonstrate sufficient level of skills for operating data management systems.
To influence the above-discussed obstacles, barriers and pitfalls, it is necessary to have in mind the factors that might influence them. Among these factors are:
- the necessity to set the realistic time frames for the HER implementation;
- the necessity to resolve the problem of the technology acquisition and the work of the server;
- the necessity to organize the scanning of paper records;
- the necessity to concentrate on the Work Flow Analysis design;
- the necessity to focus on the employees’ training;
- the necessity to resolve the question of confidentiality, privacy, and security policies in relation to IT and new systems;
- the necessity to monitor the results of implementation (McFadden, Stock, Gowen III & Cook, 2006).
Besides, the other important factor that has a great impact on the obstacles, barriers and pitfalls in data management operations within the healthcare organization is the interoperability of the implementation of all technologies. This necessity is explained by the fact that different healthcare institutions in the country and even beyond its borders have to mutually cooperate while providing their assistance to patients (Hillestad, Bigelow, Bower, Girosi, Meili, Scoville & Taylor, 2005).
In addition, it is important to remember that the complex procedures are more advantageous in data management operations. For that reason, the medical personnel, operating varied technologies in their work with the medical information should look for ways to integrate their application software and the other possible application software from the other medical establishments (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). This will create a foundation for effective work trough making the application software more complicated and rigged with multiple options. Also, while designing a mechanism for overcoming the problems, obstacles and pitfalls in the use of healthcare management strategies, its developers should have in mind the factor of cooperation. As multiple representatives of the healthcare industry work together in cooperation including medical nurses and doctors, healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical companies, regular data exchange should take place between all of them. One more important factor in operating healthcare management strategies is in the unity of standards. In this vein, the system of electronic health records can work effectively and respond to the necessity to have the integrated and shared data when all the information is collected according to the definite standards, and only one system is used and accessible for each healthcare organization within the industry. Thus, all the participants of the process should have in mind this factor while filling in new medical data and operating it.
In conclusion, it should be stated that the implementation of electronic health records, health information exchanges, and national data repositories is the process that requires much attention from all its participants including developers and users. This is explained by the fact that there exist multiple obstacles, barriers and pitfalls in their work. Among the most critical problems are the absence of a unified system and the unified standards in the field. As a result, it becomes impossible or almost impossible to work with the patient’s data from different medical instructions within one data system. Thus, the important factors related to these possible obstacles, barriers and pitfalls is complication and unifying of standards, which will allow solve the most important issues in operating data management systems.
References
Hillestad, R., Bigelow, J., Bower, A., Girosi, F., Meili, R., Scoville, R., & Taylor, R. (2005). Can electronic medical record systems transform health care? Potential health benefits, savings, and costs. Web.
Khosrow-Pour, M. (2006). Emerging trends and challenges in information technology management. USA: Idea Group Pub.
McFadden, K., Stock, G,., Gowen III, C., & Cook, P. (2006). Exploring Strategies for Reducing Hospital Errors. Journal of Healthcare Management, 51(2), 123-35.
Oakman, T., Blendon, R., Campbell, A., Zaslavsky, A., & Benson, J.. (2010). A Partisan Divide On The Uninsured. Health Affairs, 29(4), 706-711.