Communications Plan concerning Health Administration in Information Technology

This memo letter outlines a communications plan for the implementation of changes in healthcare information systems, including Mobile Device Management and Electronic Medical Record Software. The plan includes weekly group discussions, team coalitions, and interdepartmental reflective sessions to anchor the results to the organizational culture.

Running head: HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: MEMO LETTER
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HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: MEMO LETTER
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: MEMO LETTER
Memorandum
To: All Staff, Dr. Schwarz, Department Chief
From: Administrator, Orthopedic Service
Date: 17th December, 2018
Subject: Communications Plan concerning Health Administration in Information Technology
This is in with regards to last week’s meeting concerning changes in the healthcare information
systems and to bring to your notice, key highlights of the changes, followed by a
communications plan for their execution.
Firstly for enhancing information technology security in accordance to the Health Insurance
Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA, 1996), the IT department will introduce software
pertaining to Mobile Device Management (MDM), which will comprise of enforcement of
policies on devices such as smartphones. Secondly, for convenience and time-management, the
IT department will launch Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Software to allow physicians to
document patient details electronically. Thirdly, considering the observed lack of nursing
knowledge concerning formulation of appropriate pre-operative care procedures, the new EMR
software will provide nurses accessibility to a patient’s medical history.
Hence, I formulated a communications plan for the purpose of enlightening ourselves so that we
can put ourselves to action.

2HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: MEMO LETTER
1. A group discussion brainstorming session will be every week, where all staff members
are welcome to brainstorm, put forward their ideas and reflect upon recent company
activities, prior to which, our IT Director will conduct a brief session of highlighting key
statistical information of ours as well as competing organizations – for the purpose of
inculcating urgency to implement these changes.
2. The fulfillment of such changes will be impossible without powerful coalitions. Our
organizational directors and department chiefs will modify workforce functions through
novel team division creations. Our staff will be divided into key teams of ‘nursing’,
‘physicians’, ‘pharmacy’ and the like, with appointment of team leaders who will be
responsible for change implementation.
3. Our implementation of changes will be incomplete without visionary amendments and
hence, this week’s brainstorming session will also incorporate staff suggestions to
reformulate our organizational visions and policies, which will be directed towards the
above changes.
4. Team leaders will now be responsible for conducting weekly communication sessions for
staff to voice their concerns regarding the new changes, as well for evaluation,
monitoring and repeated communication of changed visions to eradicate doubts and any
incompetency.
5. The IT department will also conduct weekly feedback sessions after change
implementation to further evaluate the presence of facilitators and removal of obstacles to
new organizational policy improvements.

3HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: MEMO LETTER
6. Our new weekly discussion meetings will also evaluate and appreciate short term wins by
the teams in their attempts to meet these changes, which will be featured in our company
bulletin with the aim for further improvement.
7. Successful changes can only be undertaken through continuous buildup of the suggested
changes. Hence, team leaders will also be responsible for presenting every week’s
performance reports, shortcomings and reformulated objectives of their teams.
8. We can successfully undertake these changes if we engage in anchoring the results to our
organizational culture. Along with our new weekly discussion session, team leaders will
also be responsible for conducting interdepartmental reflective sessions, where staff will
be trained for further improvements as well as given the opportunities to elect new team
leaders.
Attachments: Attached to this memo is the timeframe of the proposed communications plan
(See Appendix).

4HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: MEMO LETTER
Bibliography
Jones, S.S., Rudin, R.S., Perry, T. and Shekelle, P.G., 2014. Health information technology: an
updated systematic review with a focus on meaningful use. Annals of internal medicine, 160(1),
pp.48-54.
Kotz, D., Gunter, C.A., Kumar, S. and Weiner, J.P., 2016. Privacy and security in mobile health:
a research agenda. Computer, 49(6), p.22.
Pollack, J. and Pollack, R., 2015. Using Kotter’s eight stage process to manage an organisational
change program: Presentation and practice. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 28(1),
pp.51-66.
Valentino, T., 2017. 5 myths about the HIPAA privacy rule: Debunk common misperceptions
about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule, specifically related
to mental health information. Behavioral Healthcare Executive, 37(1), pp.51-52.
Van Driest, S.L., Wells, Q.S., Stallings, S., Bush, W.S., Gordon, A., Nickerson, D.A., Kim, J.H.,
Crosslin, D.R., Jarvik, G.P., Carrell, D.S. and Ralston, J.D., 2016. Association of arrhythmia-
related genetic variants with phenotypes documented in electronic medical
records. Jama, 315(1), pp.47-57.

5HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: MEMO LETTER
Appendix: Timeframe of Proposed Communications Plan
Tasks 1st to 3rd
week
4th to 10th
week
11th to
13th week
14th to
17th week
18th to
21st week
22nd to
23rd week
24th week
Creating
Urgency:
Weekly Group
Discussion and
Implementation
of changes

Formulation of
Team Coalitions  
Creating new
visions for
change
 
Weekly
communication
of changed
visions
 
Weekly feedback
and removal of
obstacles
 
Appreciation of
short term wins  
Weekly
presentation of
performance
reports for
change buildup

Draft Formation
 
Weekly
interdepartmental
sessions for
change
anchoring
