Application Assignment: Addressing Challenges through Management Information Systems

The types of management information systems used across health care may vary by the setting, but they have in common the objective to streamline and enhance administrative processes and thereby support the institution's ultimate goal of delivering optimal patient care.
In this Application Assignment, you will explore ways that technology might help address health care management problems with which you are already familiar from past coursework and/or professional experiences, such as issues in human resources, operations, organizational management, or financial management.

Prepare for this Application Assignment as follows:

• Identify a specific management challenge in health care that you have learned about through coursework or professional experience. This may be an issue you have researched for an assignment in a previous course, but it need not be. (This week's Learning Resources include numerous examples of these challenges; review these, as needed, for ideas.)

• Conduct an online search to identify and learn more about one management information system (or application) that can improve performance in this area. Find out about challenges to adoption that this technology might pose.

• Keeping in mind Chapter 13, "IT Alignment and Strategic Planning," from the course text Health Care Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Management consider the various steps an organization would need to take, and the various stakeholders who would be involved, in planning for this system. What would be some of the barriers in planning for this system?

Then write a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:

• Briefly summarize the nature and purpose of the management information system you selected, and identify the specific health care setting in which it might be used.

• What challenge(s) would this system address? Describe how this system would lead to improvements in particular managerial functions. How would you expect this system to transform the organization?

• What are key organizational barriers to adopting this system?

• Discuss the ways in which this system might align with an organization's strategic goals, the processes by which an organization would strategically plan for this system, and the primary stakeholders who would be involved.