Week Five

In the recent search for empirical articles, I found similarities amongst the readings. While nothing directly speaks against the rise of Health Information Technology (HIT), the direction is a cautious one that speaks to HIT being ineffective if not properly implemented. Although, this might seem as if this may be off topic of my research question, it is actually in alignment to providing further insight by way of bring focus to the things that are ineffective. Technology in the healthcare industry is only as useful as the effectiveness of the process, people, and quality of data. With a solid partnership between all stated the implementation of medical informatics would streamline the beginning to end process and effectively reduce costs.

Compared to the searches conducted prior, I believe I have landed on great insight by negative researching—what does not work, or what makes it ineffective—oppose to the straight forward approach of what makes it good.

Week Four, Assignment Two

This week, my research conducted was more or less the same as the previous week; however, instead of searching for e-Books, I searched for peer reviewed journals. My search tactics where continuing to use the "AND" and the "*" search functions to aid me in narrowing down my results to be more driven towards my interests. I performed my search with "Medical Informatics" AND "*Improvement" AND "Health*. One thing I did take note of while searching for peer reviewed journals, was that the results were on the subject all around the world. Since every country
has different healthcare structures, I had to redo my search with the above keywords and the addition of United States. The business processes I imagine with differ greatly in other countries, so this was important to specify.
Interestingly enough, I found an article that started off almost Anti-Medical Informatics, which I thought was pretty interesting. Essentially, it uncovered a lot of Health Information Technology that has been implemented simply just to "keep with the times" and actually did not have any added value, and sometimes caused additionally costs and rework. While my focus has been on Medical Informatics to improve the healthcare experience, I turning away from the fact that, a value added process implemented along side with Health Information Technology is essentially to allowing a system to run smoothly.Medical Informatics is not a stand alone fix to any process.

Week 3, Assignment 2

Based on the reading assignment in Badke’s book, I learned a few new search methods that proved to be quite helpful. My research topic is basically, “know-how” to begin process improvement on the business side of managed healthcare. Utilizing the keywords in combination with “AND” and “OR” searches helped to filter out the information that didn’t necessarily apply to my research. Additionally, understanding the hierarchy of information reduced the results further.

My first search was simply: “Process Improvement” AND “Healthcare” OR “Health Administration”

This brought up fewer results than the original search for the entire topic; however, there were several eBooks that were completely off target from what I was seeking.

My next search was: “Improvement” AND “Health*” AND “Process”

I came up with even fewer results that seemed to be targeted to what I was looking for. One keyword I noticed that kept reoccurring in my searches of related topics was “Medical Informatics”. While I am familiar with Medical Informatics, it didn’t occur to me to utilize this as a keyword.

My final search was: “Improvement” AND “Health*” AND “Medical Informatics”.

Trying to come up with other keywords proved to be the most frustrating initially, but I was able to actual find what I was looking for by way of the broader searches, eventually narrowing in to what I was seeking. With the new search, I found two useful eBooks that are right on track. Although, one encompasses healthcare as a whole, there is a specific chapter that references tools, and applications that are useful in identifying process improvement.

LBSU 302_Assignment 2

Initially, when researching on process improvement, I discovered how vague of a search that was, as I ended up with every subject under the sun. Eventually I narrowed my search down to business process improvement, data collection process improvement—healthcare, process improvement, and quality improvement is where I landed. Ultimately, I was able to identify specific steps and strategies to analyze when and where improvement in processes and quality can be made. I can probably afford to narrow this down a bit further, but because I want to be able to utilize these findings industry wide and not limit it to a specific department; I am aiming towards researching the matter as it pertains to managed care as a whole. Some of the documentation reviewed has been useful in outlining the quality and process improvement initiatives that need to take place among several smaller subsystems rather than a process from beginning to end, as there are so many moving pieces involved. The initial documentation found was sufficient enough to identify the direction I want to research, but further research would prove beneficial to drill deeper into specifics. I am hoping for the end result of being equipped with the knowledge to identify tools, tactics, and the most efficient routes to streamline a process with quality results within the various subsystems in a managed care setting.