Implementing an Electronic Health Record at the Central City Medical Group
Implementing EHR in CCMG
Undoubtedly, computer technologies are immersed almost in all spheres of human activity. For this reason, healthcare is not an exception. Despite this fact, many organizations encounter considerable difficulties with implementing information technologies in their working environment. However, the shortage of funds for sustaining the sector is not the primary issue that thwarts healthcare companies from a relevant reaction on the tendency. Instead, organizational, strategic, and methodological issues usually emerge. One of such cases can be presented with Central City Medical Group (CCMG), which made a decision to incorporate an electronic health records (EHR) system. The organization launched a meaningful project that was actually hard to finish. Although C CMG has chosen the most valid dimension of leadership in healthcare services, the institution has to consider multiple methodological factors.
Case Study Analysis
In light of the case study of Central City Medical Group, the decision-making of its leaders should be considered foremost. The organization has chosen an adequate response to a trend on information technologies in healthcare practice, which is why overall vision of leadership in healthcare is relevant. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that the implementation of EHR will make daily operations easier and more feasible (Ciampa & Revels, 2012). As a result, the serving capacity of CCMG will dramatically increase, and the organization will be able to fulfil its primary mission. Additionally, deployment of EHR will facilitate provision of healthcare services for specific groups of patients.
To be more specific, the organization will be capable of provision healthcare services for elder patients with chronic diseases. Many senior patients receive a doctoral consultation via the telephone. For this reason, nurses and administrative personnel often confuse data reported by their patients. The incorporation of EHR will simplify these processes and minimize human error, which is totally unacceptable in the healthcare sphere (Ciampa & Revels, 2012). Apart from advanced accountability, information technologies may provide a more flexible payment system for the patients as means of contemporary IT include forecasting and business intelligence models .
Such objective factors as human errors in the institution are another challenge for delivery of quality care. The case study reports about all procedures have to be conducted manually, and this circumstance makes a high probability of human error natural. On the other hand, use of information technologies is an adequate solution to the arising issues. Doctors and nurses do not have to recognize this approach as an attempt to substitute them by computer technologies, as long as they are still the main executives and decision-makers. Likewise, their experience is beyond a doubt, while a need to undergo additional training is a result of external changes in healthcare. As a consequence, the requirement for compulsory training of all workers caused typical resentment within the personnel. Employees are likely to change with a dramatic unwillingness, which is why such a scenario should have been predicted. At any rate, awareness of this tendency does not make the problem less serious since some physicians and nurses refuse to take training as an obligatory process for updating operational environment of the organization. They claim that they were not taught working with computer technologies that are not their professional duty. Hence, the company leaders obviously failed to promote more liberal change management in order to ensure that its personnel satisfied with working conditions.
In addition, resentful workers expressed a reasonable concern regarding technical perspective of the project. Evidently, the suggested methodology for implementing EHR does not contain major gaps and complies with the objectives of the organization. At the same time, CCMG did not consider the risks that emerge with deployment of information technologies. Better opportunities are always associated with exposure of a company to serious risks In this regard, CCMG should have evaluated available technologies. Consulting of IT providers does not mean a complete guarantee of quality services (Ciampa & Revels, 2012). Thus, the institution encountered the absence of costs allocation. The organization did not decide distinctly how far the project should go. A common practice of project management suggests that projects with unallocated budgets and vague objective criteria are usually never finished because numerous issues arise on a regular basis. Central City Medical Group seems to have a similar problem as it unreasonably relied on advice of IT providers and information technologies themselves. Information technologies are an up-to-date practice in healthcare services, but this framework still has to comply with the same rules of risk and change management.
However, taking these points into account, the organization does not have to close the project of EHR implementation. The healthcare provider is facing considerable problems and present in a situation that leads to substantial losses. Therefore, CCMG still needs to allocate costs and simplify the adopted information system to the extent that ensures accountability and effectiveness. In other words, the organization should make its project more feasible from technical as well as expenditure perspectives (Ciampa & Revels, 2012). Central City Medical Group is recommended to implement the EHR on the basis of healthcare companies that have already managed to succeed in similar projects; otherwise, probability of a new failure will be dramatically high.
Nevertheless, CCMG will has to allocate costs and terms of its updated project. The project should result in distinct objectives. What is more, the project is supposed to be finished in accordance with a specifically settled deadline as long as the project may face the same problems again. On a similar note, a sophisticated methodology suggested initially is quite applicable to the organizations priorities, which is why any changes in this aspect are not needed. Moreover, this factor is essential for initiating an acceptable change among the workforce: strong participation of leaders will produce a positive influence on workers, who are unwilling to adjust to new peculiarities of the workplace. As soon as the company manages to launch an adequately scoped project, the change management will accordingly succeed. As for the claims concerning irrelevance of information technologies in a healthcare environment, they can be also explained with unwillingness to change. In this context, Central City Medical Group is advised to invite healthcare representatives that already have experience in implementing EHR. A persistent influence of information technologies is not a personal preference of the organizations heads, but the evidence of objective reality (Ciampa & Revels, 2012). A timely response to a trend will be transformed in a competitive advantage, while the professional duties of the workers will be facilitated.
Conclusion
Summarizing the findings of the analysis, it is appropriate to make a general comment that Central City Medical Group has initially chosen an adequate response to a trend on information technology. The motives of the leaders to incorporate EHR are apparent and relevant. The institution needs to gain a competitive advantage and enhance its operational capacity. By the same token, all procedures were conducted manually, so the probability of human error was high. The organization chose a proper orientation but failed to consider such factors as personnel unwillingness to change, the technical feasibility of the project, and allocation of the expenditures. In this regard, the paper recommended simplifying the project and distinctly establish a budget and deadline of the project. Resentments of the workers are natural. However, they do not have to feel concerned as long as the deployment of EHR does not depreciate their role in healthcare processes.
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