The healthcare sector is critical to the delivery of high-quality, safe medical care to patients. The understanding that many intriguing things happen behind the scenes makes it necessary to investigate the characteristics that form a good healthcare setting. The management guaranteed that all concerns involved behind the scenes mattered since it comprises the coordination of work by others so that it is completed completely and effectively. It is on this basis that the paper is founded as it seeks to determine the way in which the core principles involving strategic planning, performance improvement, and information technology are interrelated (Baack & Fischer, 2013). It is worth noting that the definition of what constitutes a quality healthcare and the components that characterize it include being efficient and reducing on waste while ensuring that effectiveness is key. Other considerations are that timeliness is an essential factor, the adherence to patient-focused care enhances the significance to meeting patient needs, while maintaining that safety is the ultimate goal (Cruchelow, 2014). Overall, strategic planning, performance improvement and information systems are all essential components of a working healthcare structure that are directed at ensuring quality healthcare through more efficient and reliable management of patient records to warrant quality and safe health outcomes.
The Role of Strategic Planning in Healthcare Delivery
The definition of strategic planning entails the process of planning for future goals and examine the issues that are likely to arise regardless of whether the systems are in a profit or non-profit organization. The main characteristics of strategic planning include: analysis and diagnosis, the establishing of appropriate alternatives, the evaluation phase that involves making choices and the implementation stage (Colmera, Sanpei, & Gorder, 2017). According to Baack and Fisher (2013), strategic planning is a top level management function that integrates and coordinates all the organization activities. There are four major tasks involved in the process of realizing strategic management with the role of developing, maintaining and revisiting through amendments, the organization vision and mission being primary. The other role involves the need to create and establish working goals and engage in strategic planning to ensure the realization of the set objectives. Another key task involves the oversight process for the implementation of the plans that are both tactical and operational (Baack and Fisher, 2013). The realization of these objectives requires that the top management establishes the elements at which the organization is operating as defined by the operations and external environment.
The manager that needs to factor that the strategic management ensures that that the process of achieving strategic planning objectives that are agile and in-depth. Many successful leaders in the healthcare industry consider this factor from the apprehension that healthcare is turning out to be a nimble institution where the diurnal operation require that the services are geared towards meeting the small needs. For example, for Dean Sanpei who is the vice president at Intermount Healthcare the ability to use a strategic planning initiative ensures that thee institution was able to shift to value based initiatives that enabled the organization to make use of opportunities as they arose. It was thus easy to restructure Medicaid following the reforms that were undertaken on the Affordable Care Act.
Another key features in strategic planning is that it embodies the goal of attaining adequate input and buy-in. it involves the appreciation of input from the peers and throughout the organization so that the people, the patient-centered care, education, and integration form the core features that define management. Through the process of updating of the planning process and ensuring that the needs of the institution are met, many top managers have used strategic planning to realize the goals of the healthcare organizations they are mandated.
The process of making strategic planning a necessity and the center of health institution goals is also a crucial feature that determines the level of success of a manager in the healthcare institution or other organization as well. It is important that the manager sets a workable plan within a specified period within which it is updated tactically to ensure that it is fats paced with the market demands and trends. such measures require a critical analysis with consideration factored up-to the unit level.
It is also worth noting that strategic planning in the healthcare context is best described through the ability of overcoming the associated challenges. It is critical that the manager demonstrates the ability to identify the current and the future environment upon which the institution would be operating. Usually the greatest challenge that many CEOs face is the problem of getting followers to strategically look up for their daily endeavors towards getting the view of their status towards the horizon (Colmera, Sanpei, & Gorder, 2017). The feature is particularly relevant for managers who are operating under a decentralized system where everyone is required to agree on the principles and priorities that the culture of the organization nurtures. Overall, therefore, the ability of the manager to strategize their working and align the goals of the healthcare facility will help in streamlining personal objectives to the organizational context.
The Role of Performance Improvement in Quality Healthcare Processes
In this approach to the success in the management of healthcare process, it is affirmed that it is the role of the leader and manager in ensuring that the proposed strategic planning objectives are in line with the needs to improve service delivery. The primary requirement in the build-up to the success of this objective is centered on the ability to describe the scientific definition of quality improvement. Usually, it is critical to appreciate that the scientific perspective is preferred in the context of healthcare issues because they are inherently complicated in nature. However, they tend not to differ much from other industries and with this background information the CEO is better placed to realize the objective of process improvement. The manager is mandated with the role incorporating the thousands of processes involved into a unified whole to reduce the complexity of managing each as an individual entity (Haughom, 2010).
It is further critical to highlight that performance improvement relies on the manager’s ability to carry out performance improvement quantification and measuring. The overall assumption is that when the CEO is not in a position to quantify the unit they are trying to improve it will be impossible to execute the improvement process. the primary goal for the leader should be to ensure that the variables are data driven and in this manner, it will be possible to measure progress by examining the trends as they apply in the given context. Successful managers believe that one is virtually dead if they attempt to work in the healthcare setting without quantifiable data as it is the general trend that the great leaders identify themselves with in executing managerial functions (Haughom, 2010).
It is further emphasized that the leader should be in a position to display an understanding of the concept of managed care as a basis for quality healthcare. It is one of the most misunderstood aspect of process improvement because rather than imply the management of the nurses and other healthcare provider, the concept implies the management of the process of care delivery. It is thus a different process from the one that featured in the 90’s US healthcare context where the physicians and nurses would be told what to do. The critical aspect, however, is that to realize process improvement in this perspective, the manager should demonstrate the ability of engaging the physicians as the already understanding what is expected of them (Haughom, 2010).
The other suggested way of improving the performance of the institution is through the ability of exercising effective management of data services through proper dispatch of medical information. The idea of smart cogs is quickly becoming an issue that is appreciated as a core of medical functioning. Many healthcare institutions are privileged in the manner in which the workers display competence in their respective positions. It is thus important the leader ensures that the same motivation is translated in the perspective of data handling do that the commitment, intelligence and education levels are all geared to bettering the functioning of the overall healthcare process (Haughom, 2010).
Lastly, it is worth emphasizing the role of engaging physicians in quality health processes because it stands out as the ultimate goal of professionalism in healthcare provision. Studies have demonstrated that a majority of healthcare providers are more willing and cooperative to efforts that entail changing the production process and care deliver (Haughom, 2010). Based on the finding that 84 percent of the healthcare professionals are willing to engage in positive transformation efforts, it is the role of the leader to ensure that the physicians realize their goals. To reconcile this objective, it is suggested that the leader should be in a position to help the physician to create and sustain their future goals.
The Role of Information Systems with Providing Quality Health Services
The understanding of the idea of information systems in organizations entails the concepts that are founded on the idea that with advancement in technology and more research in place, expectations become greater. It is, therefore, essential that the healthcare systems are adaptable to the need demands. It is thought that the ability of the executive to adjust and incorporate better information management system will mean that the overall problems of safety and quality will be addressed. One significant approach involves the measurement of the injuries that are caused by the management on the patient rather than focus on the underlying diseases that is causing distress
It is thus states that leaders should display an understanding the concept of data management and information systems. The manager can only be in a position to appreciate data if they identify that its transparency is crucial to regain trust in any setting. The understanding thus involves the consideration of the role of HIM in the stewardship and promotion of the adoption of the suggested guidelines to ease access and control of the specific information. The understanding also features the capability of expending the IT system and improving the documentation process to limit the likelihood that the safety will be compromised (Berretoni, Bochantin, & Brown, 2011).
Thus it is the role of the management to appreciate the features of an efficient healthcare information management. The first criterion is the consideration of the role of data standardization that is an important element in the stewardship and management of quality and safety. The leaders, as the HIM steward, should be in a position to advocate and get the endorsement for leadership to warrant the standardization of data content as a strategic plan of the organization (Berretoni, Bochantin, & Brown, 2011).
The other element of HIM as a core of the integration of information technology in the healthcare setting is the idea of data governance. As a foundation of the information management rule, data governance involves getting a group of dedicated individuals and use the group as the platform for making important decisions pertaining technology training and auditing processes. It also involves following up the inventory of the organization to ensure there is relevance of the identified rule in the broader context (Berretoni, Bochantin, & Brown, 2011).
The data capture processes is also significant as a core of information management because it ensures that the executive involved builds their critical thinking capacity in the institution. It parallels the process of measuring the content and using is as a criterion for determining the patient care accuracy process. The adoption of improved systems that places professionals in the setting where they can assess the patient outcomes amicably. These efforts thus prove to be significant in the data analysis stage that ensures the information is better interprets in the context of the overall healthcare system (Berretoni, Bochantin, & Brown, 2011).
Lastly, it is worth noting the relevance of healthcare information management is to ensure that there are safe and improved health initiatives. Usually, this feature is described through the ability of healthcare information management to adjust to trends. Data specification changes and the payment system developments are noted to be the ore to the realization of this goal are they maintain the relevance of data delivery process (Berretoni, Bochantin, & Brown, 2011). For example, the professional are in a better position to better advance the care delivery through the use of personal health records as the basis for health information advocacy.
Conclusion
It is thus critical to emphasize the role of the healthcare leader to plan for the facility, align measures to ensure that the process of care is improved while using the most appropriate technology systems in the management process to ensure there is both safety and quality care. The association of strategic planning, performance improvement, and information technology s thus perceived in the context of being targeted at ensuring quality healthcare through more efficient and reliable management of patient data systems. The relevance of changing systems of healthcare is thus note to boost the ability of adjusting to new demands in the diverse healthcare profession. The future trends in the delivery of quality and safe healthcare are thus poised to better handle patient information while striving to improve every aspect of the healthcare setting.
References
Baack, D., & Fischer, A. K. (2013). The Essentials of Managing in the Healthcare Industry. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Berretoni, A., Bochantin, F., & Brown, T. (2011). HIM Functions in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety. Journal of AHIMA, 82(8), 42-45. Retrieved from http://library.ahima.org/doc?oid=104841#.WO5Hm9KGOM8
Colmera, J., Sanpei, D., & Gorder, C. Van. (2017). Healthcare strategic planning in today’s dynamic environment. HFMA Learning Solutions, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.hfma.org/Leadership/Archives/2015/Summer/Healthcare_Strategic_Planning_int_Today_s_Dynamic_Environment/
Cruchelow, A. (2014). Quality Healthcare - Strategic Planning, Performance Improvement, and Information Systems. Prezi. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/fzqbk82us6ky/quality-healthcare/
Haughom, J. (2010). Five Deming Principles That Help Healthcare Process Improvement. Outcomes Improvement. Quality & Process Improvement. Retrieved from https://www.healthcatalyst.com/5-Deming-Principles-For-Healthcare-Process-Improvement
