Analyzing IT Implementation Challenges in San Fernando Hospital

This report examines the implementation and impact of Information Technology (IT) within the healthcare context, specifically focusing on the San Fernando Hospital in Trinidad and Tobago. The executive summary highlights the role of Health Information Systems (HIS) in managing healthcare data and facilitating information exchange. The report delves into critical success factors, such as system quality, service quality, and data security, while also identifying risk factors like patient safety concerns and data management issues. It explores the challenges faced by San Fernando Hospital, including inefficiencies in data sharing, managing large data volumes, supply chain management, and telemedicine access. The report then outlines how HIS can provide solutions to these issues, such as facilitating quick information exchange and improving patient data management. Recommendations are provided to address the identified challenges and improve the healthcare system. The report concludes with a summary of the findings, emphasizing the crucial role of IT in modern healthcare.

Running Head: IT in Healthcare
IT in Healthcare
Report
System04104
5/17/2019

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Executive Summary
A Health information system helps the healthcare centre or any organisation to manage
healthcare data and exchange crucial information from one person or party to another person
or party. As medical and healthcare technologies are advancing every day and becoming
more commendable, the use of information technology in the backend healthcare operations
is also increasing every day. The major role of Health Information System is to collect, store,
and transmit valuable information related to patient health and treatment. Apart from this, it
also helps in creating healthcare policy decisions and operational management of the
organisation.
San Fernando is a large healthcare organisation in Trinidad and Tobago that is facing
numbers of issues in using information technology. One of the major issues in the
organisation is managing human factors in the organisation, as they do not use the
information system properly. Data theft and unauthentic use of information system is also a
major problem for the organisation. However, if the organisation takes control over its
information process and will provide proper training to its employees (nurses, doctors, drug
storekeepers etc.) most of the issues related to HIS can be eliminated from the hospital.
However, the organisation also required proper manual guidelines for the use of Information
technology in the organisation.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................3
2. Analysis..............................................................................................................................3
2.1 Critical Success Factors for the San Fernando Hospital..................................................3
3. Risk factors affecting health Institutions............................................................................4
3.1 Major Challenges in San Fernando General Hospital......................................................5
3.2 How Healthcare Information System provide solution of these Issues?..........................6
5. Health information Technology System and Issue of Management...................................8
5. Recommendations...............................................................................................................9
6. Conclusion........................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

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1. Introduction
The role of information system in in modern human life is so vital. Information technology
not only changes the education pattern in healthcare industry, it also helps to eliminate the
patient and organisational risk factors with relevant information and data (Didham, Martin,
Wood, and Harrison, 2014). Information technology helps the healthcare organisation to
improve the healthcare operations and reduce the various risk factors in the organisation.
Today’s information technology plays a vital role in every part of human life and it has wide
range of usage in various fields, but one of the important field in which IT gives its precious
contribution is medical science or healthcare industry. Information technology is known as
the Health Information Technology (HTI) in healthcare sector (Whiddett, Tretiakov, and
Hunter, 2012). This report is based on the San Fernando hospital of Trinidad and Tobago.
This report helps to understand various risks and its impact on healthcare organisation.
Further, it helps to understand that how information technology helps to reduce these risk
factors and ensure a safe healthcare work culture in the San Fernando. It helps to understand
that what are the challenges and management issues to handle these risk factors with the help
of information technology. In the end of the report, few recommendations, and a short
conclusion has been added that represents the entire study report in form of a short summary
of the report.
2. Analysis
Information system plays an important role in healthcare organisation’s success factor s. Use
of information technology in healthcare organisation narrowing down those factors, which
affects the critical success factors of the healthcare organisation.
2.1 Critical Success Factors for the San Fernando Hospital
The major critical success factors of San Fernando hospital are as follow:
1. System Quality: Success of any organisation depends on how well the organisation
uses the system and what are the qualities of system. If the system is good in quality
wise, it will provide appropriate information and data to the San Fernando hospital.
Therefore, the organisation should endure that implemented system in the
organisation properly working or not and if it is working then it should be ensure

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whether it provides all the relevant information to the hospital department (Liang,
Xue, and Byrd, 2013).
2. Service and information quality: The quality of information that is generated by the
information system should be appropriate and relevant. If information system is
providing irrelevant data and information about patient disease report, medicine
storage report, or information related to patient health and safety, then it definitely
creates problem for the organisation (Cresswell and Sheikh, 2014).
3. Support of the top management leaders: Support of the top management in
implementing information technology and proper usages of the information system in
the organisation is necessary. A leader can play a vital role in in guiding people and
technician that how they should use the information technology for proper health
information. It also helps in the organisation to remove the health risk of patient
during treatment or diagnosis of the patient (Epping-Jordan, Pruitt, Bengoa, and
Wagner, 2014).
4. Proper Utilisation of information: Proper utilisation of information is an essential
factor in organisational critical success factors. Proper utilisation and use of
information required during the analysing the data related to patient care and
treatment, medicine availability, employees/nurses schedules, and other healthcare
information.
5. Data security: Data security is a major concern in the San Fernando hospital and it is
one of the most important factors in using information system in healthcare
organisation. Treatment and other secret information are stored in the system and if
any people breach the security, it will be a major risk for the hospital. Data security is
primary concern and one of the most important success factors in the healthcare
organisations (Heeks, 2016).
6. Ethical considerations during using Information technology: Using information
system with proper ethics is compulsory in the organisation. If any person theft the
data or misuse the information in the healthcare organisation, it will create many risks
for the organisation such as leak or personal issues, disclose of secret information
related to patient treatment etc.

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3. Risk factors affecting health Institutions
There are many risk factors that can affect the health organisation. These factors can be
explained in below points:
Patient Safety and security: The major risk factor in the health care organisation is patient
safety and its security. While a healthcare specialist diagnoses a patient, the doctor needs all
the relevant and required information about the patient at the right time. The role of
information system is so crucial in such circumstances. HIT has potential to improve the
patient safety in the healthcare organisations and it will help some pre-existing risk factors in
the organisation. However, the major concern is that implementation of technology creates
some new problems like data breach, theft of information, maintenance failure etc.
Improper arrangement of patient records and information: One of the major risk factor
in the organisation is to arrange the information and data related to patient treatment and abut
their personal information. Use of information system reduces these types of risks from the
organisation. San Fernando is a large hospital where thousands of people are taking treatment
and persuasion of doctors every month. Therefore, it is necessary for the health organisation
to maintain, manage, and store the information and data related to every patient with at
centralise place. However, the miss-management of data or poor arrangement of information
may lead to patient risk and safety concerns in the organisation (Magrabi, et. al., 2015).
Potential Medical Error: It is the common risk factor in any healthcare organisation. San
Fernando is also facing such problems in the organisation. This risk factor can be a major
cause of poor health diagnosis of patients or any misshapen with the patient health and safety
care. The patient can be offered a wrong medical prescription or drug medicine from the
drugstore if proper information was not added in the personal file of the patient. Although,
the information system can help the organisation to avoid such type of problems and helps
the health practitioners to prescribe better medicine or treatment to the patient.
3.1 Major Challenges in San Fernando General Hospital
As medical and healthcare technologies are advancing every day and becoming more
commendable, the use of information technology in the backend operation is also increasing
every day. Information technology not only makes the life of patient easier in the hospital but
also provides some crucial solutions of problems for the healthcare providers. These are the
five challenges in the San Fernando General hospitals:

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1. Inefficiencies and Errors in Data Sharing: In the modern era, where technology
plays vital role in every industry, it has been seen that low quality technology can
create problems like inefficacy in data sharing and errors in information
dissemination. The pen-and-paper approach is still used by many healthcare
organisations and it is still a major problem. These manual works on paper may lead
to inefficiency in data sharing and proper dissemination information (Andersson,
Hallberg, and Timpka, 2013).
2. Managing Massive Data Volumes Related to Patient Healthcare and Treatment
Procedure: A huge amount of data is generated by the San Fernando every month
and every day. San Fernando dealing with a huge amount of patients and it is essential
for the organisation to manage the data volume appropriately. There are many
information and data related to various parties, patients, pharmacies, lab reports, and
healthcare consumers stored in the information system. The major challenge is not
only to store these huge data and information rather making these data usable is also a
major challenge for the organisation (Cresswell, et. al., 2017).
3. Wasteful and Un-optimized Supply Management: Tradition supply chain
management in the healthcare organisation were so inefficient and time consuming.
The traditional supply chain management also generates wastages and the operating
cost was very high of such supply chain management. The information technology not
only overcome these issues rather it also decrease the financial losses of organisation,
cost-efficient, and provide very speedy data and information related to inventory and
other healthcare resources in the organisation. Misplaces of inventory and untimely
delivery was some of other challenges for the organisations if organisation is not
implementing proper information system in the organisation (Lee, Lee, and
Schniederjans, 2011).
4. Difficulties in Remote access of Telemedicine and Mobile Healthcare: Making
telemedicine accessible remotely is also a major challenge for the San Fernando.
Actually telemedicine helps the patient to access the information related to healthcare
from anywhere through the mobile phone or web access. Without proper
implementation of information system, it is not possible for the San Fernando General
hospital to provide such type of services to the customer. Therefore, it is also a major
challenge for the San Fernando to provide remote access of telemedicine healthcare
facilities to the users without proper implementation of information system.

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3.2 How Healthcare Information System provide solution of these Issues?
There is no doubt that healthcare information system helps the San Fernando to overcome
these issue and continues to play an important role in this industry in future as well. The role
of information technology helps the patient and healthcare providers both to provide better
healthcare services to the patients. It also helps to access the information on the fingertips
because of centralise storage of data. The HIS will help in following ways to overcome these
issues in the San Fernando:
1. Proper and quick exchange of information: Information technologies help various
parties and individual to share their data with doctors, patient, healthcare scheme
providers, insurance providers etc. It also provides secure exchange of information
between two or more than two parties. Using cloud based data management system
and storage of data as a centralised location can easily provide relevant information
about the patient safety, prescribed drugs, and treatment procedure at any time on the
system (Bell, Tanner, Rutty, Astley-Pepper, and Hall, 2015).
2. Managing mass volume of Patient Data: The healthcare information system will
help to provide cloud based data storage and instant access of information at anytime
from anywhere. These facilities of Information system help the organisation to access
the data and information related to patient registrations, appointments, treatment,
diagnosis process, prescribed drugs, and medical history etc. Through HIS,
information can be avail to both patient and doctors at any time they needed for the
healthcare.
3. Reduces the waste and cost of supply chain management system: Healthcare
Information system helps the organisation to reduces its supply chain management
cost and reduce the losses that occurs because of poor inventory system and
unnecessary spending on delivering products from one place to another place. The IT
bases supply chain management system helps the organisation to predict its need of
medicine and other requirements in advance and stock the inventory at appropriate
level in warehouse (Currie and Guah, 2017).
4. Role of information technology in telemedicine and mobile healthcare services:
The role of information technology in telemedicine care is increasing every day as it
supports the patient to access the required information from anywhere or contact the
doctors through online or video calls. The healthcare practitioners or patient can
advise the patient from miles away, or from different countries or continent. Space

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does not matter in the healthcare services because of Information technology
(Khoumbati, Themistocleous, and Irani, 2015).
5. Health information Technology System and Issue of
Management
Health Information Systems are used in the organisation for easy access of information,
improvement in healthcare operational work, and in reducing the paper work in the hospitals.
However, there are many barriers in the organisation that create barriers for the proper
utilisation of these information systems in the organisation such as lack of training of
employees, employee resistance, and some other management issues. San Fernando General
Hospital is also facing same type of issues in utilising information system in the organisation
(Car and Sheikh, 2014). The major issues for management is to handle the human
environmental factor that has a negative effect towards using the HIS in the organisation.
However, the hospital management faces several issues while implementing the HIS in the
organisation. Ensuring the safety and health care in the hospital organisation is not an easy
task without technology. Technology helps to improve the workflow and reduces the chances
of error during healthcare process (Police, Foster, and Wong, 2010). Management is always
looking these issues more deeply as it is related to patient safety and care. Some of the major
issues for management are as follow:
1. Proper Utilisation of HIS system: The tough challenge for management is to ensure
proper and safe operation of information technology in the organisation to improve
the information flow in the organisation (Hendy, et. al., 2017). In San Fernando, the
large number of people is working and most of them are not experts in the
information system. Therefore, people who are old age or tech-savvy people create a
major problem for the management. The top management of the organisation should
consider these facts and should provide appropriate training and development
program about the use of Health information system (Edejer, 2010).
2. Resistance of people: It is human nature of people that people always resist change.
Proper utilisation of information technology in the organisation needs proper
knowledge and acceptance of people who will operate the system. People, who do not
have any idea about the modern technology, will resist the changes in the

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organisation. However, it is a major concern for the top management to implement
technological changes in the organisation (Ingebrigtsen, et. al., 2014).
3. Proper training and development program: The top management should provide
proper training and development program to those people who lacks in using modern
healthcare equipment of information technology. The management should also ensure
about the ethical and proper use of information system and no person will unethically
use the HIS for any fraud or cheating (England, Stewart, and Walker, 2018).
4. Privacy concern: Theft of data or unauthentic use of information about the patient
treatment procedure is the major concern for the management in managing health
information system in the organisation. However, paying attention to these concerns
may help the top management to avoid these types of issues in the organisation.
Although misuse of personal data of patient or theft of personal information related to
diagnostic, process some of the major management issues in the San Fernando
General Hospital (Mantzana, Themistocleous, Irani, and Morabito, 2017).
Therefore, it can be said that most common challenge in front of management is to dealing
with human environmental factors. Managing and securing information is still a major
concern for the healthcare organisation because technology makes every organisational
process much easier, but it also increases the risk of misuse of information or theft of data.
Apart from this, failure of system may cause a huge loss for the organisation but it can
happen only when proper maintenance work was not done by the organisation.
5. Recommendations
To improve the organisational effectiveness and improve the information sharing, every
healthcare organisation needs to implement Health Information Technology in the
organisation. It not only reduces the cost of operation but it also provides easy and instant
access of information and data related to patient disease or treatment. Although,
implementing information system in the healthcare organisation also increase the problems
for the organisation and for the management both. Proper utilisation of information system in
the organisation need following recommendations:
1. The San Fernando General Hospital should ensure the security of patient and should
ensure data can be exchange in proper manner from one party or person to another party
or person.

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2. The San Fernando Hospital should ensure that people would use the information system
under the ethical considerations.
3. Managing large volume of data is a tough job for the organisation. Therefore, it should
focus on a centralised data storage facilities to retrieve the information from anywhere in
the World.
4. The role of management in proper use of information technology is crucial. The
organisation should focus on providing better training and development programs for the
healthcare people who will use information system in the organisation.
5. To avoid data breach and insecurity of secret organisational and personal information, the
organisation should create a proper guide and regulations for the users of HIS.
6. Conclusion
In conclusion, as per the findings it can be said that information technology plays a crucial
role in the organisation. However, use of information technology also creates some new risks
and challenges for the organisation. Loss and theft of data, maintaining of large volume of
patient related data, and preparing people for adopting new technological changes in the
organisational some of the major concerns for management and organisation. If the San
Fernando General Hospital will provide proper training to its IT users (Such as nurses,
healthcare professionals, store manager etc.), these issues can automatically be resolved.
However, the major problem in utilising the Information system in health care organisation is
human environmental factors rather than other factors.

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