Healthcare Informatics: Collaboration, Costs, and Informatics Role

This assignment delves into the critical role of healthcare informatics in enhancing collaboration among healthcare providers, patients, and their families. It defends the use of computing and informatics to manage complex healthcare operations, emphasizing the benefits of web platforms, analytical software, and data storage systems in improving data handling and information dissemination. The assignment addresses the challenges of data overload, security breaches, and the importance of training healthcare professionals to effectively use and protect patient data. It also discusses the impact of Clinical Information Systems (CIS) on nursing practices, highlighting improvements in data management and error reduction. Furthermore, it emphasizes the necessity of comprehensive training programs for both existing and new healthcare workers to ensure the successful implementation of new technologies and processes, ultimately transforming average healthcare workers into more efficient and capable professionals. The paper also touches upon the involvement of nurses in the implementation of computer systems and the prerequisites for successful projects.

Running head: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS
Healthcare Informatics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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1) Attack or defend the following: “With growing complexity and costs, a new and better
collaboration is needed among various healthcare providers, patients, and the family and
friends of the patients. Enabling this collaboration will require true life-long learning for
all of the groups and mechanisms to facilitate communication and informed decision
making. This is where computing and informatics can play a major role in healthcare
improvement.”
The following answer to the above question would be in defense of the subject
mentioned. The question lies about whether or not informatics and computing play a major role
in improving the quality of operations in healthcare. The answer would depict in defense of the
subject matter.
Computing and informatics can be considered as a better way of handling the otherwise
complicated working structure of the healthcare industry involving the patient data and handling
the collaborations between various healthcare providers, patients, and their family and friends.
This is because; the technology controlling the computing and informatics are guided by web
platforms, analytical software, data storage systems and numerous others help in making the
complex structure of healthcare operations easier. The computing and informatics system
provide critical information amongst a pile load of raw data generated everyday in the healthcare
industry, whereas it also helps in speedy broadcasting of information.
It has also been found that though there had been initial criticism about the technology
implementation, the vast amount of productivity that informatics and computing has provided
resulted in the prompt adaptation of the technology into the healthcare industry and its

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operations. The implementation has also resulted in effective decision making in the industry as
all the necessary data was readily available given the speed of the implemented technology.
2) When so many people focus on cost of Smartphone, computers, and tablet and appear to
ignore the total cost of ownership, the cost to train those who use them and support them
until they can realize the benefits even in time of stress and overload, as well as the impact
and consequences of viruses, malware, and data theft, what do you believe healthcare
providers should do to properly evaluate alternative solutions and why?
The data flow in healthcare industry is found to be of enormous amounts each day. The
technology has enabled accessing these data through various connecting devices, like the
Smartphone, computers and others. However, the ownership value is often found to be
disregarded in this matter. It is often found that data has been mishandled when there has been an
issue of overload of data or an impending stress factor working behind. In addition, there have
been incidences of malicious hacking and virus attacks to breach the intricate and confidential
data that have been generated.
However, there have been protective measures introduced in the healthcare industry that
has helped in offering a protective measure for the data overflow and breach incidents. It has
been found that the EHR machines that record patient data along with their personal information
is mostly vulnerable to these kinds of threats. Tools have been implemented to protect devices
from being defenseless against malwares and virus attacks. Since 2015, the patients have also
been given access to personal healthcare information management so that they can view and
protect their personal data which would be inaccessible to any unauthorized user for the presence
of passwords and protections. In addition, there are strict laws implemented that enables the

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healthcare providers to mandatorily use protective measures and tools. Furthermore, the industry
had been training the workforce for handling the generated data and maintaining its dignity.
3) Consider a major change in your professional life (or the life of someone you know). To
what extent do you feel the change was well conceived and handled as a well-managed
project as outline in Chapter 4? Think about each of the major aspects of the project raised
in the chapter as you reflect on the change. Attack or defend the notion that the process
outlined in Chapter 4 is generically wise and should be at the heart of major changes in the
domain of healthcare.
According to the outline described in Chapter 4, there have been changes implemented in
the working structure of nurses in their professional life. Since, the amount of data generated
within the healthcare industry has been huge and the amount increases exponentially every
passing day, it has been found that it is humanely impossible to perform any task with these
generated data without making an error.
The changes that have been introduced in the profession of nurses were well conceived,
therefore, the following topic would be discussed in favor of the changes. Of course, it had
changed the manual way in which nurses used to perform their day to day task, but it had
reduced the errors that occurred in the handling of data. Mostly, the data breach and mishandling
has been found in the Electronic Health Record or EHR systems, therefore to handle the data
generated by these machines, Clinical Information Systems or CIS has been implemented. This
forms the foundation of the EHR systems. The change has brought about proper management of
data and has been effective in finding out the system faults. In addition, it has provided the
healthcare industry with clear documentation, accessing of data in real-time, order execution in

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time and consistency in operations maintaining the best quality. Thus it can easily be said that
the changes in the profession of nurses, as depicted in Chapter 4, have only improved the
operations in healthcare industry and reduced the occurrence of errors.
4) It is common for organizations to invest in training workers during major process
changes, but the amount of training given to support the organization’s processes and
procedures, especially to recent hires, declines over time. Attack or defend the notion that
any organization that claims to be above average must carefully ensure that newcomers are
successfully transformed to perform in ways that are consistent with the values, processes,
and procedures of the organization before they are assigned regular duties.
Any changes in the major working process of any industry requires the existing and
newcomer workforces to be trained impeccably well to the new system so that occurrence of
errors are less. More errors force the fail of the system with gradual decline of work quality over
time. In addition, it decreases the quality of work in the healthcare industry and the organizations
associated with them (Evans, 2015). Training the workforce happens to be one of the primary
strategies that help in adapting any change in industrial processes in a proper way. The notion
thus works in favor of the discussed issue of training workforces to the latest adoption of
technology.
This does not include the training of only existing workforce but also the newcomers that
handle the introduction of a newer process. For example, the implementation of the CIS process
in handling EHR by the nurses has to be trained to just not the existing nurses but also the nurses
that are introduced recently in the industry. This helps in maintaining the dignity of the processes

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as well as the value of the processes, also to the recent entrants during the organization
procedures before they are assigned with the regular duties.
5) Attack or defend the following statement and then explain what you would do, in
concrete terms, to improve things in your involvement or what you have observed. “It
seems that the people behind the new computerized systems perceive that the people who
work here and the roles they play are to make the computer’s job easier as opposed to the
systems being here to help transform average healthcare workers into super workers."
In the recent time it has been seen that the people who are behind the computer
technology thinks that the people working in the computer are providing the computer help to do
its job in easier way but they do not think that the computerized system rather provide the help to
the health care system to transform. By using the computerized system the workers that are
average can do some serious works beyond their capability. If I was behind the computerized
system then I would take help from the computer to provide better performance in the healthcare
system. For individual purpose I can improve my own knowledge and skills by using the
computerized system. I would like to involve more with the system and observe that how the
health care workers are doing their job using the computerized system and how the computer
system making the average workers into super workers. I can say that the workers are not
helping the computer for doing their job easily rather the computers are providing the support to
the workers of the health care for doing their job more efficiently and effectively.
6) It has been argued that getting nursing involved in the implementation of all of the
computer systems in healthcare is a good thing, but doing that is in conflict with current
patient care and the reality that many nurses are uncomfortable with some of the changes

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they see and would rather not be involved. To what extend does this resonate with your
personal experience? What do you believe are the key prerequisites that must be addressed
before enough of the right nurses and other key role players in the healthcare process and
what concrete steps would you recommend to address these and why?
The involvement of the nurse in the health care system is a good thing as it enhances the
effectiveness of the system. The nursing is an essential clinical input which is required for the
success of the automation system in the health care process. In 1992, the Department of Clinical
informatics of New Jersey has seen the success of including the nurses in development process
of the healthcare information system (Hanin, & Kessler, 2015). However, it has been said that
the involvement f the nurses may lead to the conflict with the current patient care. Some of them
may not feel to get involved in the development process. These issues may be raised in some
cases. Some of the nurses feel that the main objective of the nurses is the caring of the patients
which is being neglected due to the involvement in the process.
However, this problem can be solved through the selection of the right nursing candidate
in the development process. The main objective of involving the nurses in the health care system
is that their opinions and the observations about the conditions and consequences in the medical
care can be treated as the valuable input. The professional back ground of the nursing staff along
with the experience can become the selection criteria before selecting the nursing staff for the
involvement. The involved nursing staff should hold the American Nurses Credentialing Center
certification, and the project management certification. The selected staff should have the
knowledge about the common skill of nursing practice. All theses knowledge will help the
selected candidate to contribute effectively in the development of the project regarding health
care sector. The knowledge about the basic of the nursing will help to give them the valuable

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inputs on the other hand knowledge about the project management will help them to understand
and cooperate with ongoing project.
7) Chapter 5 in the text provides a perspective for implementing Clinical Information
Systems. From your experience, what are the more critical issues or concerns you have
with the material presented in this chapter and what would you advocate should be done to
improve the likelihood that such projects would be successful. (You can address technical
issues, skill issues, change and fear issues, as well as business and/or leadership issues.)
In chapter 5, the perspective of the implementation of the Clinical information System
has been discussed. The discussion covers the various perspectives like involvement of the
physicians and the nurses in the development of the system and considering both the business
and clinical perspective of the proposed system. However, there are certain issues like privacy
and the security of the proposed system are not covered in a large scale. The privacy and the
security of the system can be regarded as the technical issues. The information the proposed
information system is sensitive and confidential. Hence the security of the system is needed to be
maintained in a proper way (Fortino et al., 2015). To enhance the usefulness and improvement
of the system the encryption of the data, and usage of the passwords for accessing the contents in
the system can be implemented. The accessibility of the content can be restricted for users of
different level.
The issues regarding the skill of handling the system may arise. In this case, this problem
can be solved by giving the proper training to the staffs. Apart from that the staffs may feel that
the change in the system will reduce the value of their professional skill. The administrative can

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take initiatives to bring down these wrong concepts and can spread awareness about the good
impact of the health care information system.
The business perspective has been described in a proper way in this chapter. However,
the discussion says about the participation of the project manager and the physician for the
leadership of the project. The conflict between these two leaders can be happened. In this case,
the management needs to resolve the problem in a proper way.
8) Chapter 6 focuses on the Electronic Medical Records and physician adoption and
utilization. Reflect on your experiences with physicians and other key, scarce, and
therefore costly healthcare professionals. How well do you believe these professionals
would react to the kinds of changes and approaches covered in the chapter? Have the
authors done a good job addressing the really key issues and concerns? If not what did they
miss? To what extend do you believe what is advocated would work in your environment or
healthcare facilities with which you are familiar? Sketch what you might propose be done
differently, if anything.
The electronic health acre record and its adaptation results the well managed workflow
and provides the flexible health care system for the patients. The electronic health care
information system will manage and record the data centrally. These health care records can be
accessed by the medical care providers and the doctors. Another advantage of this electronic
healthcare is that it will reduce the cost of the medical services and the fees of the doctors. Some
of the expensive medical professionals are not interested to join in this electronic medical record
system. However, majority of the physicians and the medical providers are willing to join in

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electronic medical record system as the system is flexible to use and availability of the system is
high (Gu wt al., 2017).
In most of the cases it is expected that most of the professional medical professionals and
the physicians will appreciate this facility. Apart for that the pharmaceutical companies are also
willing to collaborate with this system.
The key issues in this system are discussed under the section named challenges. The
issues covered by the author are the legal issues regarding the use of the electronic medical
information system and challenges regarding the knowledge translation. These two issues are the
significant issues for the implementation of the electronic health information system. However,
there are other issues regarding this context. One of the important issues is security and the
privacy issue, technical issues which were not mentioned by the author in this context.
The discussed electronic healthcare management systems will effective help to bring the
flexibility in the current healthcare system. The availability of the system will make the patient to
reach to the doctors any time of the data through online. Apart from that patient health records
can be accessed through online, so there are a little chances of the loss of those records.
9) Advocates of computers and these online systems speak about the benefits in glowing
terms, but few seem to address the changes in workflow and the impact on production
during the time it takes to learn and then become skilled at using these systems. Healthcare
workers are being asked to do more in less time under the justification that the computer
will speed the process. Describe your personal experience with automation and new
information systems. How true are the claims about the benefits and the impact on the

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professionals? (E.g. did the system turn a world-class healthcare worker into a data entry
clerk?)
The use of the advanced technology along with the computers and the online system in the
healthcare sectors has brought certain benefits. The healthcare sectors are using the data mining
and data analysis in order to identify the flaws in the process. The managing of the data and the,
enhancement of the production and positive changes in the workflow brings the changes in the
processing system of the health care sector. However, there are certain issues arise in the context
of application of the advanced technology in this sector. The use of the technology in a proper
way needs the training of the staffs who are handling the system. In this case, the staffs in the
healthcare sector are required to do more work in less time. It has been argued that the
automation and the implementation of the advanced technology delivers flexible system,
however, the healthcare staffs are not getting the chance to show the desired skill as in most of
the cases the automated process needs the entry of data in a correct way to operate in a right way.
It can be said from the experience that the automation in the health care system has helped in
managing the data and the information processing in an effective way. This application has
enhanced the accountability and the flexibility of the whole system. The new technologies like
data mining and the data analysis has provided the limitations and the opportunities for the
healthcare sector. However, from the observation it can be said that the claim about turning of
the world health care worker is turning into the clerk is not acceptable. The decision making
process form the information used by the automated system need the sound knowledge of
healthcare sector. In order to operate the automated system technical knowledge is needed which
can be gained from the training, however, understanding the processed data needs the knowledge
of the healthcare sector.

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10) How often are the challenges the authors discuss on page 195 and 196 actually issues?
If you were to rewrite that section, what challenges would you include? Be concrete and
give examples.
There are certain issues discussed by the author in order in the health care information
technology. Some of these issues are the cost issues, lack of resources (Reddy et al., 2015). The
community hospitals are using the advanced technology which has the focus on the overall
improvement of the system. However, it has been seen that the use of the advanced technology is
increasing the cost of the medical services. Some of the hospitals are also facing the lack of
resources which is leading to the degradation of the health care service.
In case, if there is a chance to rewrite this section some other issues can be included along
with the discussed issue. Some of these issues are the security issue, and the technical issue. The
breaching of the security in the system can lead to the leak of the information. On the other hand
technical issues can be raised due to the managing of the large information system.
11) Perform a critique of the three case studies from Chapter 8. How believable are these
case studies and the results? What are the key lessons you took away from these case
studies and why? (None is an acceptable answer, but you must be explicit about what you
found troubling and/or unbelievable about each.
The case studies described in the discussion is reliable and is effective for achieving the
adjective. The physician led informatics system helps to identify the areas of improvement and
involve physicians and consumers to involve in the improvement of the system (Arias, Wilgus &
Wickramasinghe, 2015). The implementation of the physician led informatics has helped to
reduce the cost of the medical bills. Apart from that the feedback system in the process has