Peachtree Healthcare, Assessment Example

Prior to the discussion of the proposed solutions by the professionals in the field of health care information technology, it appeared that a reasonable solution to the incompatibility of the technology used in health care institutions across the country could be resolved by establishing technological standards that should be implemented by health care institutions across the board. It would be necessary for this concept to be backed by the major medical associations, such as the American Nurses Association and the American Medical Association so that they could collaborate in a manner that will promote technology recommendations as American standards. This concept would then require the support of legislators in the federal government and in the states to ensure that the technology used is equivalent across the country and that appropriate adjustments and upgrades are made to the equipment when new updates are available. This is necessary to provide the American people an equal access to health care, which is a basic human right.

The commentator that made the most sense with regards to this solution is Candace Markovich, who stated “The company doesn’t have to make a wholesale, knife-edge change. It can chip away at the edges of old systems and replace them over time with SOA-built services” (Glaser, 2007). This is an ideal solution for the technology problems that are being experienced at health care institutions around the United States. Many of the hospitals that are behind on technology upgrades do not have a lot of surplus funds to purchase new equipment, like many of the hospitals located in highly populated and wealthy areas. However, it is important to consider that it is possible to make technology upgrades without investing a lot of funds. Ultimately, these organizations would benefit by employing top notch information technology professionals that could make good purchasing decisions with regards to equipment that could be bought cheaply and then upgraded over time in order to meet industry standards. However, it is necessary for the selected systems to be able to support new software downloads and memory upgrades for this to be possible.

It is important to use a combination of the original approach that I proposed as a solution to this problem in addition to the approach defined by Markovich. It is impossible to solve this technology equivalence problem without considering the different resources that different institutions have available to them. While it would be detrimental to stop the wealthier hospitals from investing in the newest technology, it is important for this technology to be compatible with older models so that health care data is not lost if it is sent from institution to institution. Many health care administrators argue that this loss of data does not matter because these tests can be redone, but it is important to understand that these tests are occasionally time consuming, which could be detrimental to the health of a patient who needs a rapid diagnosis. Therefore, legal standards should dictate the type of compatibility patterns that are expected among the institutions and these requirements should be discussed in a manner that allows them to quickly adjust to changing technological availability and health needs. Furthermore, this legislation must consider how to make the resources available to these health care institutions more equal so that the gap between qualities of health care between institutions could be minimized.

My recommendation is unique in that I consider the necessity for political collaboration in order to resolve this problem. In light of the Affordable Care Act, many politicians are concerned as to whether this plan is working and what adjustments should be made in order to see if this is the case (Health IT, n.d.). Overall, it is necessary to then consider other aspects of the health care field that will establish equality with regards to the patients. There is still a great disparity in the quality of health care that these individuals receive, so it is necessary to take action to mend this gap. Because this gap in technology availability is a problem on the national scale, it will take the collaboration of the federal government and local legislators to resolve the issue. There are many laws that can be made to ensure that health care will be equal across the country, but a lot of discussions between legislators and health care professionals must occur before such an equality can be reasonably achieved.

In order to achieve health care equality, my plan would first involve consulting local hospitals to determine what resources they have available to them in addition to the technology that they currently have available to help support their patients. I would then determine how these systems could be made more compatible on the local level, by assessing how funds to the hospitals are currently distributed in addition to the amount of technology expenses that are currently being made in order to improve upon this technology. These expenses will then be balanced with the availability of the information technology professionals at these institutions to determine whether there is a more affordable way of investing in improved care through technology. It would then be necessary to assess the interest of local politicians with regards to this topic, demonstrating why it would be reasonable to create local technology standards. A discussion should also occur among local health care institutions to determine what these standards should be and why. If these standards are found to be feasible, it would then be necessary to determine whether they are feasible at the national scale.

If this mission succeeds in the local hospitals, it will provide precedent for the need for similar standards at a state and national level. While it is likely that the actual standards will vary based on the needs of the nation rather than the needs of the locality, it is expected that the negotiation process will be similar to that at the local level. It is therefore expected that after achieving success at the local level, these standards will be up for discussion at the state level. Success at the state level may be able to positively influence other states to follow this model as well. Once a majority of states are showing that this model benefits their health care systems, it would then be reasonable to implement this model on a national level. While it is expected that this goal would take a long time to come to fruition, it is likely that these common standards will help boost the viability of the American medical system, which is well worth the wait.

References

Glaser J. (2007). Too Far Ahead of the IT Curve? Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2007/07/too-far-ahead-of-the-it-curve

Health IT. (n.d.). Health IT Legislation and Regulations. Retrieved from http://healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/health-it-legislation