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Informatic Needs Assessment

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Informatics Needs Assessment
HCS/482
December 22, 2014
Matthew Taylor

Informatics Needs Assessment
Electronic charting is the move from paper charting to electronic charting. Soon all hospitals and physician offices will make this transition. When an organization if ready to make this change they should consider a needs assessment and use the recommendations made based on the results of the assessment. The purpose of this paper is to explain how and why a needs assessment must be completed before a new electronic health records may be selected. This paper will describe some of the factors that need to be considered in the needs assessment. I will also explain what data should be collected and how or where I can access it. The last thing I will describe is who I would consult and why.
The purpose of the needs assessment is to define the gap between an organization’s current state and the needs of the organization with specific attention to the strategic plan (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 155). The needs assessment will assist in selecting the electronic health records that will fit the needs of the organization or practice. The process of the assessment should start with the development of a steering committee which should be multidisciplinary. The committee should use the mission and visionary statements to determine the goals. The members of each committee should state what they need from the system (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 158). I will discuss the processes that take place during each step of the assessment in further detail a little later.
All disciplines that will be using the new system should be included in the steering committee as their input will be valuable when selecting a new system. As the transition from paper to electronic charting is an expensive undertaking, the needs of all disciplines should be taken into consideration (Saleem, Jones, Van Tran & Moses, 2010, pp. 22-31). Factors that should be taken into consideration when going through the needs assessment are technical, administrative, and reporting criteria, merge capabilities should also be taken into account. (Hebda & Czar, 2013, pp. 158-163). The technical factors include hardware and software components for the level of system performances including, computers, personal assistive devices, as well as smart devices. The administrative factors include how the system will control appropriate and effective use of information, including payroll, scheduling, and registration. The reporting criteria ensures the accuracy of physician orders are accomplished in a timely and efficient manner, which will result in improved patient care. Another factor that should be explored is the merging capability of the system, this addresses what data will merge into a new system, as well as how it will interact with the new system (West, 2013).
Considering the plethora of data to be collected during the needs assessment, it will be necessary to pick and choose exactly what the faculty’s needs when switching to a new electronic health system, this should also support the faculty’s mission statement. The next step is to consider the type of hardware preferred, as well as settings and features needed for the new system. The next mission for the office would be to consider how much old data should be merged into the new system and how much will be stored for future retrieval (West, 2013). The current data will need to be merged onto a secure server then merged into the new system. The physicians should also consider remote access of data if they want the ability to access the patient charts from home.
A consulting specialist on the steering committee can also be beneficial with the needs assessment as they have the knowledge to lead the practice in selecting the proper hardware and software the facility will need, as well as have the knowledge to steer the committee in the right direction when speaking to vendors during the request for information and proposal request (Hebda & Czar, 2013, pp. 157-165). At this time the information department, as well as the chief financial officer should be consulted, as the information department will need to understand the technical end of the system and the chief financial officer will need to do a cost-benefit analysis (Hebda & Czar, 2013, pp. 141-143).
The completion of the needs assessment should be done prior to consulting with upper management this will ensure all question presented by management can be addressed appropriately. The needs assessment will help identify all problems to be identified as well as solutions. The team can then lay out a plan to address the needs of the practice. The practice can then develop a win-win situation with all the employees involved in the process.

References
Hebda, T., & Czar, P. (2013). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Saleem, Jones, Van Tran & Moses, (2010). Forming design teams to develop healthcare

information systems, 4 (81), DOI:10.3200/HTPS.84.1.22-3. Retrieved from

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3200/HTPS.84.1.22-31?url_ver=Z39.88-

2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed&#.VJcku8CfI

West, S. (2013). Need versus cost: Understanding EHR data migration options. The journal of medical practice management. Retrieved from http://www.ehospitalistnews.com/

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