Needs Assessment Meeting with Stakeholders
Health care organizations continue to harness technology to enhance health outcomes, with the application of data-driven care increasing over time. As the health care field transits from analog to completely digital systems, information management has become critical. Health information systems must be highly efficient to integrate data collection, processing, and reporting, among other functions. When making system changes, nursing informatics specialists should conduct a needs assessment to evaluate stakeholders’ opinions and current performance. A shared vision of the new system’s functionality should guide the change process. This needs assessment summary explains my role and overview of the project, needs assessment findings, and a conclusion of the meeting’s highlights.
Part 1: Introduction
A system change is necessary when a health care information system does not work effectively. In other instances, technological shifts prompt impromptu updates of health information systems to optimize their performance and reduce risk. My role is facilitating the change as a nursing informatics specialist manager. Despite my expertise, system change is based on the extent of need. As a result, I will lead various stakeholders in assessing how the system functions currently and the objectives of the change. Stakeholders include the administration, clinicians, front office assistants, head of billing, and information technology department. Since the goal is enhanced capacity, the needs assessment will be primarily a comparative analysis of the current capacity against the desired capacity.
Timeline: the entire project should take six weeks. The needs assessment takes approximately one week, with other phases following in succession. They include resource allocation, relevant system changes based on the needs assessment, evaluation, and corrective actions.
Vision statement for the future: the organization will have an efficient system, highly interoperable, facilitating data capture and data transmission in real-time.
Part 2: Questions and Explanation
Current situation and desired state: As some of the stakeholders’ concerns, the current information system is characterized by four main issues. The first issue includes the system’s interface and design hitches since it does not support a mobile view. A
ccording to Pinem et al. (2020), a mobile view and applications encourage using health information systems due to simplicity. Secondly, the system does not have a function for the biometric identification of users. Thirdly, data cannot be captured in all formats. The fourth issue is interoperability problem. Data transmission and sharing do not occur in real-time. However, the information system still enables data recording, storage, and sharing. It also offers a reliable communication platform that supports data-driven care. To solve the problem, a system upgrade is necessary, as the stakeholders propose.
Risk assessment: Technology use in health care poses a huge risk to patient safety. Afzal and Arshad (2021) found that many ethical and legal risks in health care are technology-related. A universal concern among the stakeholders is accessibility by non-users. The current information system is not entirely secure to prevent unauthorized access. Such vulnerability can expose patient data to unauthorized parties and can be used for non-health purposes. According to Karasneh et al. (2019), patient data access by unconsented parties breaches confidentiality and privacy principles. Information user best practice is to use health care data for primarily health purposes, secure it maximally, and share it as the patient consents.
Technology functionality: The stakeholders want an information system with a biometric function to limit access. They also want a system that can support data capture in multiple formats. The current system does not absorb video files exceeding ten megabytes. Updates should also occur automatically.
Workflow and communication: An efficient health information system has many advantages as far as workflow and communication are concerned. Enhanced functionality, as stakeholders envision, will lead to a more interoperable and convenient-to-use system. Turbow et al. (2021) described interoperability as the ability of health information systems to allow information sharing between health care providers and systems expediently. Convenient information sharing improves the ease with which health care practitioners provide care to patients. Buljac-Samardzic et al. (2020) further noted that quick information sharing improves communication, promoting interprofessional collaboration. Many gains are justifying the system change.
Data capture: the new system will allow data capture and storage in multiple formats. More volumes can be stored and retrieved when needed.
Practice and outcomes: enhanced functionality will improve communication, data storage and retrieval, and the overall speed of patient care. Using efficient systems prevent resource wastage, saves time, and increase patient satisfaction.
Part 3: Conclusion
The meeting was on needs assessment, and the main stakeholder concerns include interface and design problems, interoperability issues, and vulnerabilities that risk patients’ private data. Overall, a more functional system is required to fix performance gaps and ensure that communication, data sharing, and information access is not hampered. During the six weeks’ work, stakeholders should collaborate with the nurse informatics specialist manager and information technology experts to make the necessary system upgrade. Stakeholders will also be engaged in piloting the new system before full adoption into practice. Change management principles relevant in mitigating resistance as the project proceeds include active communication, instant feedback, engagement, and working on realistic goals. All stakeholders should understand why the system change is needed and their roles defined clearly. Conflict should be solved instantly and unclear issues clarified before moving from one phase to the next.
References
Afzal, S., & Arshad, A. (2021). Ethical issues among healthcare workers using electronic medical records: A systematic review. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine Update, 100030. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpbup.2021.100030
Buljac-Samardzic, M., Doekhie, K. D., & van Wijngaarden, J. D. (2020). Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: A systematic review of the past decade. Human resources for health, 18(1), 1-42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-019-0411-3
Karasneh, R. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K. H., Hawamdeh, S. S., & Muflih, S. M. (2019). Patient data sharing and confidentiality practices of researchers in Jordan. Risk management and healthcare policy, 12, 255-263. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S227759
Pinem, A. A., Yeskafauzan, A., Handayani, P. W., Azzahro, F., Hidayanto, A. N., & Ayuningtyas, D. (2020). Designing a health referral mobile application for high-mobility end users in Indonesia. Heliyon, 6(1), e03174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03174
Turbow, S., Hollberg, J. R., & Ali, M. K. (2021). Electronic health record interoperability: How did we get here and how do we move forward? JAMA Health Forum 2(3), e210253-e210253. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.0253
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Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- Student paper example
- Citing Sources
- The Writing Center is a great resource