Technology in Healthcare Expansion

You are a healthcare professional working in a hospital that consists of 150 beds and 14 primary care clinics. You have been assigned the task of enhancing the electronic solution for your healthcare organization to prepare for the expansion of the hospital network. The hospital is part of a network of 15 hospitals located in several areas in Texas and is also part of a health information exchange (HIE). To fully support the enterprise health information system, you need to find the best enhancements to the current system. To address the expansion of the enterprise, you must consider a few steps by answering the items below:

1. What applications should be added to facilitate the hospital’s expansion? Consider tools such as decision support, encoders, clinical reminders, reporting triggers, and clinical guidelines in your response.
2. Identify a core group of individuals within the organization who should be actively involved in the selection of the expanded systems.
3. Using the information you find in Chapters 4, 5, 9, and 11 of Introduction to Information Systems for Health Information Technology, develop a checklist of five to seven items that need to be considered when choosing the system enhancements. Consider patient access tools such as portals, personal health records, and the use of mobile applications.
4. Using the information available to you in Chapter 5 of Introduction to Information Systems for Health Information Technology, explain what testing steps you would take to evaluate a system prior to allowing it to go into production.
5. Explain how you would use a request for proposal, request for information, and request for quotation in your search for an electronic solution.
6. Discuss how you would ensure the chosen electronic solution supports data exchange. How does the system meet data content, vocabulary, and messaging standards?