Information System Briefing Essay

Health care organizations are constantly striving to keep up with technological advances in order to provide the best quality patient care imaginable. Success depends on implementing an information system that is designed to meet the quality standards set for the health care industry. Implementing an information system can be a big challenge, which is why choosing an information system that will assist the organization in meeting their goals is important. Including stakeholder input is also vital to ensuring the correct system is chosen. This briefing will discuss the process of selecting and acquiring an information system, how the goals of the organization, and how the stakeholders affect the selection process. Selecting and Acquiring an Information System The process for selecting and acquiring an information system has many important steps. One of the first steps the health care organization needs to start is to find out what type of system they need. It is important that the organization chooses the system that best fits the organization. The organization needs to decide first if the system will be built in house, leased from an application service provider or an outside consultant. This will take lots of work and planning to get the system up, so that it will run smoothly for the operations. The organization needs to put together a team. This team will be in charge of the budgeting, planning, coordinating, and managing the process of the new system. The organization will need to have a project leader, information technology professional, system champion, and those who are in charge of clinical and administrative sections. Those that are chosen for the team should have knowledge and the understanding of the new system. The team needs to decide what goal is for the information system such as, what do they want to achieve, what are the goals, and that  everyone is committed to the project. Organization’s Goals Drive the Selection of the Information System According to Wager, Wickham Lee, & Glaser (2009) â€Å"Health care professionals need access to reliable, complete, and accurate information in order to provide effective and efficient health care services and to achieve the strategic goals of the organization.† The organization’s goals should be upheld in all aspects and at each step of the selection, acquisition, and implementation processes. The information system should not be selected until all options are evaluated by cost, benefit, and ample input from key stakeholders. The concept of formulating a strategy suggests that an organization needs to identify what activities and initiatives they will commit to in order to achieve their mission and goals. For example, an IT project committee may have the goal to combine clinical application systems. In order to succeed choices may need to be made between different options such as a single sign-on option, use of a clinical application suite, or use of a common database (Wager, Wickham Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Health information technology (HIT), if not implemented correctly can be disastrous to the organization. According to Doebbeling and Pekny, PhD (2008) â€Å"the probability of a successful HIT implementation is greatly increased by a well-characterized, deliberately designed host set of health care processes. Furthermore, expectations of HIT within a health care process must be realistic with respect to benefits and costs.† (p. 501). Organizations’ Stakeholders Play in the Selection and Acquisition Process Each of the stakeholders in an organization’s project has roles and expectations. Stakeholders should always participate in project steering committees and lend their skills and knowledge to new ventures. Commonly stakeholders wish to determine the actual and future value of the information system implementation project by way of project status reports and monitoring. Stakeholders can be identified as doctors, nurses, administrators, business managers, and CEO’s. Anyone who holds an interest in the success or failure of the organization could be considered to be a stakeholder. Patients are included as stakeholders as well. Especially since the patient is the source of the data to be entered into the information  system. Stakeholders are vital to the selection and acquisition processes. In closing of this briefing there has been shown a need to implement a new system. We also see a plan designed to not only implement a new system but also a designed plan to make sure that the system will be adequate for the expected development of this organization. Shown also in this briefing is how the growth of this organization is demanding a growth in the information technology that this organization will need to move forward into the future. The stakeholders’ influence is also covered in this briefing. Showing the benefit of our stakeholders and examples of these benefits gives proof that the move to a new system is beneficially for us all. That being said the belief is that a new system is necessary and needs to be implemented soon. Employees have the important part of implementing the changes that will take place. They are to try and show how using the new information system will benefit the organization, and possibly save money. Investors relay information between the other organizations. The community within which an organization operates shows support to the organization and allows the community to make their decisions, what they want to take place, and what they know about the new technology. References Wager, K. A., Wickham Lee, F., & Glaser, J. P. (2009). Health Care Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Care Management (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. Doebbeling, B.N., & Pekny, PhD, J. (2008, April). The Role of Systems Factors in Implementing Health Information Technology. Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM), 23(4), 500.