Prompt

Imagine you have been contracted to consult on the recent developments at the Featherfall Medical Center. Featherfall has been struggling of late; it has had a series of problems that have prompted your hiring. It has faced the following issues:

1. Featherfall has recently violated several government regulations regarding the current state of its technology and how it is being used. The technology system is vastly out of date, and staff are not always using the technology that is in place or they are using the technology inappropriately. These problems have lost the institution lots of money for not meeting government regulations and have caused operational and ethical problems from inefficient and ineffective use of technology.
2. The staff at Featherfall are not well-trained on the use of technology and do not communicate appropriately about technology use. The roles that pertinent to your consult are the health information management team, the clinical staff (doctors, nurses, etc.), and administrative staff. The health information management team uses proper coding practices, and the current technology system serves them well, despite its age. However, other roles in the hospital have had issues with the system. Clinical staff, for instance, have had record-keeping issues both due to lack of training on the system and the system itself being out of date. Administrative staff within the organization have taken issue with the lack of communication about the technology and its use between the various roles. When the current technology system was chosen many years ago, the needs of these various roles were not considered.

You will begin by preparing for your consultation. You will analyze the history of the field as well as determine standard guidelines for technology use and standard technologies used in the field. You will also prepare information for Feather fall regarding the ramifications for violating health laws and regulations. Finally, you will use this information to review technology options that could be implemented at the institution.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

1. Preparation for Consult: In this section of your final project, you will prepare for your consultation on the organization’s technology choice. To prepare, you will analyze the field of health information management for determining standard technologies and guidelines related to technology use in order to inform your technology selection.
   1. Analyze key historical events in the field of health informatics for how technology has been used that could inform the management of health information. Be sure to support your response with appropriate examples.
   2. Determine guidelines for technology use in the field of health information management that Featherfall could implement. Be sure to support your response with research.
   3. Determine the standard technologies currently used in the field of health information management. Be sure to support your response with research. For example, what record-keeping technologies are typically used in the field?
   4. Develop an overview of how the pertinent roles described at Feather fall would interact with technology.
   5. Describe the process you would use to evaluate new health information technology systems. Be sure that your process will evaluate new systems based on how they meet the needs of the organization and how they are compliant with health regulations and laws.
2. Health Regulations and Laws Ramifications: In this section of your final project, you will finish your preparation by reviewing and explaining the ramifications for the organization if it decides to wait on addressing its recent violations regarding technology use.
   1. Determine how violating health regulations and laws regarding technology could impact the finances of the institution if these violations are not addressed. Be sure to support your response with examples.
   2. Determine how violating health regulations and laws regarding technology could impact the daily operations of the institution if these violations are not addressed. Be sure to support your response with examples.
   3. Determine how violating health regulations and laws regarding technology could impact the security of the health information in the institution if these violations are not addressed. Be sure to support your response with examples.
3. Technology System Recommendations: In this final section of your final project, you will review the provided technology options and make informed recommendations to the organization regarding which technology it should choose.
   1. Determine the needs of the various roles of the organization in a new technology.
   2. Recommend a new health information technology system that meets the following criteria. Be sure to justify how your recommendations meet the criteria. The new health technology must:
      1. Abide by provided health regulations and laws
      2. Align with the needs of all staff members of the previously described organization
      3. Ensure the ethical management and use of health information
   3. Determine how the organization could more effectively invest its financial resources into the recommended technology system. Be sure to justify your response.
   4. Determine how the organization could monitor the use of the new health information system. Be sure to justify your response.
   5. Determine how the organization could effectively invest its time into the implementation of the new health information technology system. Be sure to justify your response.