M5 Case Study: Data Exchange (MLO3)

The year is 2020, and you have been hired as the project manager by a newly formed regional consortium formed to implement data exchange within the community, including the residents. The goals of the consortium are to: improve health outcomes, deliver healthcare services more cost-effectively, implement provider access to patient records and decision support at the point of care, enable sharing of information among health professionals, provide consumers and patients with access to their own (digital) data, and establish safeguards to ensure patient confidentiality and access only to authorized users. Integration of evidence-based decisions support will enhance patient safety and care outcomes by reducing errors, fraud and duplication of treatment. Three of the healthcare systems are in varying stages of deploying different vendor EHR and associated PHR products. The fourth hospital system continues to maintain a legacy HIT system. The consortium will solicit provider input to ensure usability and functionality. Financial incentives will be offered for participation in the system and improved patient outcomes. Because an overall goal is to ensure long-term viability of the system, an appropriate organizational and governance structure need to be established. The consortium is exploring financial incentives for providers who demonstrate improved health outcomes using HIT. The consortium is composed of: Physician: 2,500 Pharmacies: 35 (4 large chains), including 10 onsite retail clinics Laboratories: 2 national plus 5 hospital-based ambulatory labs Hospitals: 20 (grouped in 4 systems, including 2 rural hospitals with telehealth programs) ACOs: 2 PCMH: 2 Hospice: 2 Business Coalition(s) on Health: 2 Labor Unions: 2 Utilizing your decision matrix, answer the following questions supporting your reasoning:

1)How would you proceed?

2)What are the challenges regarding systems design and implementation are you faced with?

3)What strategies will you use to plan to implement future HIT systems?

4)What are the possible ethical challenges in managing health data in this context?

5)What steps do you take to assure personal, professional and organizational integrity?