Note: This assessment will support your work in Assessments 3 and 4. Therefore, complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.
Preparation
In this assessment, you will assume the role of a mid-level administrator within the Vila Health system. Vila Health is a medium-sized system of health operating facilities in the Minnesota and Wisconsin area. They have recently acquired two smaller systems: Delaware County Regional Health System and Red River Rural Health System.
As a member of the transition team, you have been asked to review the current health information management (HIM) systems at Independence Medical Center—the largest hospital among the new acquisitions—and analyze the roles of key personnel and stakeholders.
Complete the Vila Health: Systems and Stakeholders interactive simulation, linked in the Resources. Familiarize yourself with the organization and the people within it who have a stake in the creation, use, and protection of health data.
Requirements
Identify the health information management systems in use within the hospital and analyze the roles of key personnel and stakeholders. Investigate the personnel and stakeholders in each department that use health information technology. In your position, you will need to know whom to talk with to find out who does what, who has control of which resources, and who can give you the information you will need.
Use the Stakeholder Matrix template, linked in the Resources, to document your findings.
Note: Remember that you can submit all—or a portion of—your draft stakeholder matrix to Smarthinking for feedback, before you submit the final version for this assessment. If you plan on using this free service, be mindful of the turnaround time of 24–48 hours for receiving feedback.
Supporting Evidence
Use credible scholarly or professional evidence to support your findings and conclusions.
Format all citations using APA style. Remember that an APA citation includes both the in-text citation (the author’s last name and the year of publication) and the full reference for the source.
Conducting Your HIM System Review and Analysis
Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your stakeholder matrix addresses each point, at a minimum. You may also want to read the HIM Systems and Stakeholders Scoring Guide to better understand how each criterion will be assessed.
- Analyze the effects of advances in technology on the health care environment.
- How has health informatics affected the delivery of health care over time?
- What evidence do you have to support your assertions and conclusions?
- Explain how external and internal changes in the health care environment, related to health informatics, create challenges for health care managers.
- What environmental changes do you see?
- What effects have environmental changes had on health information technology?
- How has reliance on health information technology changed the internal environment?
- Differentiate among the roles and responsibilities of HIM professionals.
- Consider the positions and departments of key personnel and their roles within the HIM system.
- What management and supervisory relationships exist within the organization?
- Identify the HIM system stakeholders
- Who has a stake in the creation, use, and protection of health data? Note: Not everyone on the organizational chart is a stakeholder.
- Match the different HIM system functions with the correct departments and professionals.
- Consider the information needed to support system integration.
- Write clearly and concisely, using correct grammar, mechanics, and APA formatting.
- Express your main points and conclusions coherently.
- Proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on the substance of your analysis.