Management Information Systems questions

Management Information Systems

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Question 1

The computerization effects have affected every department and institutions in the world as people use computers in everything they do. Hospitals have not been left behind and this has led to the computerization of all their activities such as decision making. The hospitals have embraced the information system, which helps the hospital personnel to gather, process, create and interpret data (Wager et al, 2009). One of the most helpful computer-based information systems to a hospital would be the management information system, which primarily deals with information that would help in the managing of the hospitals.

The management information system uses the gathered data to create a report, which a hospital manager can easily use while responding to various problems arising in the hospital. The most important management information system to a hospital setting would be the decision support system, which is crucial in supporting any decision making activity (Wager et al, 2009). The challenges that the decision support system would help address are largely related to data. The system would deal with the recording of inappropriate data in the hospital, which leads to complications during decision making as it focused on the collection and recording of appropriate data.

Hospital managers also face problems in relating the data provided by the junior officers pertaining to any transaction they make for the hospital. This has led to fraud particularly in big hospitals which have numerous transactions as the managers can’t know the transactions that don’t add up or are not included in the data (Hebda & Czar, 2013). Hospitals are faced with the relaying of crucial information such as the work schedule and change in their operational areas. This problem mainly affects the junior officers whose duties are delegated to them by the senior officer or managers.

Management decision making functions would greatly improve as the decision support system provides a report of all the necessary data pertaining the hospital. The report contains data got from the different departments in the hospital making it easy to make the correct decisions that would help improve their operations. For example, the manager can decide to allocate more funds to the departments, which are producing poor results due to the minimum funds allocated to them (Hebda & Czar, 2013). The decision support system helps managers to deal with the fraud cases in the different departments and this would be possible as the system keeps track of every data submitted from different people and departments in the hospital. After receiving such information, the system summarizes it in a report and it would be now possible for a manager to note any inconsistency in the data.

The decision support system would help transform the hospital’s efficiency as the manager can now make informed decisions based on accurate data. The efficiency of the hospitals helps in the better provision of services to the intended people in turn giving it a good image. The key organizational barrier would be the manipulation of the data feeding into the systems by the hospital’s personnel (Wager et al, 2009). This creates the possibility of imputing the wrong information in order to cover their tracks for other people in the organization.

To be in line with the hospital’s strategic goals, the stakeholders and management come up with a proposal of regular auditing of the system. This is because the managers greatly use the information provided in the reports to make decisions that affect the hospital. This helps in ensuring the stakeholders that the decision support system is always reliable and that a manager can use it during the making of an urgent decision that helps the hospital to achieve its short term goals.

The outbreak of Ebola happens it different places at different times. People who reside in the region where the disease breaks out fast mostly lead to the spread of the viruses to other people they come into contact with (Wager et al, 2009). The integration of data of the various local hospitals and its presentation to the Information Technology Collaborative online Public Health Catalog where every person can access the data helped deal with the spread of the epidemic. Health officials would check on the recordings made by the different hospitals noting its trend and the most vulnerable areas. To deals with this, health alerts and emergency clinics were set up where people with the disease would be confided in to prevent is report.

This application had a positive impact on the public health as an individual could log into the application and search for a health facility that treated any aliment. This would save them time going to the health centers that did not offer the intended services. Government officials related to the health department used this application to check the areas that needed more attention from the government in terms of manpower and financial boost improving the public health sector.

Question 2

The Information Technology Collaborative online Public Health Catalog is helpful to the public in that a person with a certain illness can use the records stored in the application to check on the public health facilities that deal with such illnesses. This makes such persons not to spend a lot of money trying to get the right hospitals for their illnesses. The government uses such records to curb an outbreak of certain diseases and this is helpful to the unaffected people who are threatened to get the disease.

The application has a negative impact to people as their privacy is not upheld. To represent the data on the application, extra details about certain individuals are given and a careful look into them results to the revealing of their identity and crucial information. This exposure damages the reputation of such people. The application is also costly to maintain, as it requires a system analyst who keep an eye on the changes and new events recording them into the application (Northern Ireland Audit Office, 2007).

Hospitals have a role in the application of the health-related IT application by providing data to be stored and processed by the system. The hospitals also contribute as they are the ones who can decide to use IT applications in their operation. To ensure that the application is run properly, they should ensure that they hire an expert in the related field to help in the managing of the application. Hospitals can give input on the specifications that the health related IT applications should have. This makes it easy for the application developers when coming up with the application programs.

The Information Technology Collaborative online Public Health Catalog application will affect the recording of data and the structure of health care organizations. They will have to change their mode of operation to a more computerized one to accommodate the application. It will now be a requirement of the entire staff working in the health facilities to be computer literate to be in a position of applying the program. The health facilities might be negatively impacted when private information about patients gets into public hands (Hoboken, et al 2010). This will result in damaging their reputation and the cases of civil suits made by these patients will be on the increase. The system can be hacked into leading to the exposure of private information.

Data security in EHRs in outpatient clinics

Information and data security is the main concern of all the users of the new technology since the stability of any organization depends on its information security detail. An organization with less measures put in place to guard data are prone to the information attack and misuse, which may lead to the collapse of such organization. In order to maintain a strong powerful security measure to guard the security of all the company’s data. In this section, the research study describes the measures necessary in maintaining the security of information of the outpatient clinics. Such measures include the installation of firewalls, installation of antivirus softwares, and use of security clearance for the access in specific location holding sensitive information (Smith, 2013).

Installation of firewalls help guard the information stored in such systems since it only authorize users with the required clearance to access sensitive information stored in the systems. This ensures that users who do not have the required clearance do not access such information. Such initiative prevents the wrong use of the information when they fall in the wrong hands. It also ensures that privacy is maintained at all times. Use of firewalls also ensures that in case of fire information stored in such systems do not disappear due to fire. This is another vital security measures aimed at maintaining and protecting information stored in the EHRs in outpatient clinics (Hoboken, et al 2010)

Installation of updated antivirus software: this helps in ensuring that all the data and information stored in this system are secure and free from malicious attacks. Most computers used by outpatient clinics use active software, which prevent the loss of information, which may result from malicious attacks from unauthorized software. By maintaining the security of the information, this step ensures that not all the vital information held by the hospital gets lost due to virus attacks.

Security clearance level: by deploying the use of security clearance, the management of outpatient clinics control the movement and access to certain locations within the facilities. Only people with the required security clearance to access sensitive information stored in the systems. This ensures that users who do not have the required clearance do not access such information. Such initiative prevents the wrong use of the information when they fall in the wrong hands. It also ensures that privacy is maintained at all times (Wager, et al, 2009). 

Implications of security breaches of its health care data

Some of the implications of security breaches of health care data in these clinics include misuse of information by the employees, selling of patient health information to organizations, publicity of information, which is supposed to be private. The employees of the clinics or persons who may have gained access to such information commit all these breaches. This has led to the violation of information privacy since data, unauthorized users access which is meant to remain private. Authorized personnel should only access information about patients and access to such information infringes the rights of the patients (Smith, 2009).

In order to curb this practice of information breach by the employees of outpatient clinics ought to up certain measures. These measures include tough penalties for the violators of the information security keeping, and employee trainings aimed at educating the employees on the importance of maintaining the security of such information. These measures will ensure that the privacy and security of information are maintained at all times (Northern Ireland Audit Office, 2007).

Question 3

Secure sensitive data falling into the wrong hands can occur in any health care department and in the event it happens, many people are negatively affected. One challenge that can make it hard for the workers in the dialysis department to secure sensitive information is the physical environment where they are kept (Wager et al, 2009). Any sensitive data kept for example in computers that can be easily accessed by anyone visiting the department are bound to be accessed by unauthorized people. The hospitals that have little space in which they operate from are the ones faced mostly by this challenge, as they can’t afford some extra inner rooms to keep the computers or sensitive data.

A major challenge with the securing of sensitive data for people in the dialysis department is the unauthorized personnel working in the department having access to the sensitive information. The malicious workers in turn use this information for personal gains like selling it to the people who would require the information to damage the patient’s image. This mainly occurs in the department, which has no personnel clearance to their system that helps in ensuring that only the authorized personnel access data (Wager et al, 2009).

Hackers also form part of the challenges that the department face in securing sensitive information. They gain access into stored particularly the data that is not well protected with encryptions. Virus attacks on the systems leads to the loss of clients’ sensitive data that may not be recovered. In the dialysis department, the progress of the treatment is recorded and the loss of such data may be dreadful to both the patient and doctors.

In the event a security breach occurs on the sensitive data of the patients, sensitive information may that may negatively affect their family may be exposed. The doctors are also affected by this breach of sensitive information in that their reputation can be damaged. The affected patients can sue the doctor and the department for violating the code of conduct.

Some of the implications of security breaches of health care data in these clinics include misuse of information by the employees, selling of patient health information to organizations, publicity of information, which is supposed to be private. The employees of the clinics or persons who may have gained access to such information commit all these breaches. This has led to the violation of information privacy since data, unauthorized users access that is meant to remain private. Authorized personnel should only access information about patients and access to such information infringes the rights of the patients (Smith, 2009).

References

Hebda, T., & Czar, P. (2013). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. (2010) The next wave of technologies: Opportunities from chaos.

Northern Ireland Audit Office. (2007). Outpatients: Missed appointments and cancelled clinics : report. London: Stationery Office.

Rowland, H. S., & Rowland, B. L. (1997). Nursing administration handbook. Gaithersburg, Md: Aspen Publishers.

Smith, D. A. (2009). Healthcare solved: Real answers, no politics. Indianapolis, IN: Global Health Press.

Smith, R. E. (2013). Elementary information security. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2009). Health care information systems: A practical approach for health care management (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Wolf, J. A. (2011). Organization development in healthcare: Conversations on research and strategies. Bingley: Emerald Group.