Health Care Informatics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Health Care Informatics - Essay Example 2. Improve efficiency through faster transmission of results between physicians and departments. That means that if, for example, a patient has undergone lab tests, an MRI, a CT and a stress EKG, all the results should be readily accessible at the time that the doctor makes a therapeutic or diagnostic decision. 3. Improve billing cycles. This means getting the necessary information to the billing department in a form which can be submitted to an outside agency for reimbursement. Even in a heavy private-pay and HMO setting, such as this fictional clinic, it is important to have such an access. In a hospital which does, for example, $360 million in Medicare, Medicaid and third-party insurance billing per year, a 1-day saving in time from procedure to billing can shave $1 million off that hospital's accounts receivable (i.e. free up cash of $1 million for every day saved). 4. Make healthcare delivery more efficient and productive. Hospitals are in a service business, but are relatively people-intensive and unorganized. To the extent that a hospital can use computer tools to reduce staff per patient, staff per procedure, or staff per dollar of patient revenue, those computer tools help the hospital to be more efficient and productive. 5. Link to outside institutions which refer patients to our facility. Hospitals which value their high-margin operations, such as cardiology, oncology and orthopedics, depend on outside referral from primary care physicians and community hospitals. The better the connectivity between the referring doctor and this institution, the more likely that this hospital will receive those patients. Three strategic goals 1. To become the number one hospital in the region for patient referrals for tertiary care. That means that this hospital needs to establish, then maintain, a better outcomes record than other hospitals in the region. 2. To reach out to patients directly, in a way that involves the referring physician, but gives the patient the ability to help understand and direct his/her health care. 3. To use computing to supplant humans as the primary mode of communication. The longer-term goal is to eliminate paper, entice the health care professionals to use computer tools more thoroughly, and thereby to improve productivity. 2. Search the Internet for information about joint application design (JAD). Summarize the information you learned in the form of a memo to your supervisor outlining the use of JAD in the development of an RFP. Memo To: Mr. Supervisor Re: Relevance of applying Joint Application Design (JAD) to our implementation of new computer infrastructure. Dear ___, This memo covers the application of the tools of JAD to our specific situation at the Clinic. I believe that proper application of this technique will help us in developing a