Answer

Week 7 and 8 Discussion

 Week 7: Making Changing Stick

Two of the reasons why it can be difficult to make change stick include inadequate staff resources and lack of performance indicators and measurable benefits

Proactive actions to solve the problem of inadequate staff resources

The first step is to assess the root problem. Armstrong and Taylor (2014) state that holding a discussion with employees can be a great way of learning the various inadequacies that may arise in the human resource department such as poor training, insufficient resources as well as personal problems and lack of motivation. Another way of preventing this problem is by ensuring that the culture of honesty and integrity is adopted in the organization. This means people will be open and specific when it comes to addressing the weaknesses and shortcomings of an employee by objectively pointing out the inadequacies of the employees and how this affects the different modes of operation in the organization.

Focusing on the company’s policies and procedures makes it clear on what should and should not be done against employees as it gives specific guidelines with regards to the job descriptions together with the employee policies and procedures. This creates a sense of responsibility where the staff is aware of what is expected of them hence allowing a smooth flow of events (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

Proactive Actions to Address the Problem of Lack of Performance Indicators and Measurable Benefits

The first step is to redefine the organization’s goals and objectives. Prior to taking steps towards effecting change, is important that the organization clearly states the purpose and motivators behind the implementation of the high impact change. According to Kerzner (2017), this will allow an organization to measure the actions directed towards achieving the set goals and objectives.

The next action is establishing the critical success factors as influenced by the set objectives: These provide a restricted set of activities which individuals, departments and the entire organization should focus on in order to achieve success. They set conditions that evaluate and facilitate the achievement of the set objectives and goals within the set time window.

Establishment of key performance indicators as guided by the critical success factor is a proactive strategy as the CSFs provide a framework for the calculation of the measures that are used to enable for the measurement of a strategic performance.

The course of action is to collect all the measures which have limited usefulness but require interrelation to each other so as to extract a meaningful and resourceful information. Calculation of metrics from the measures by an organization act as useful guidelines in effectively adopting effective performance indicators as well as measurable benefits (Kerzner, 2017).

                                     Week 8: Reflection

Health Information Exchange Policies

One policy that a healthcare organization should include in their information governance program with regards to Health Information Exchange is that of patient participation and choice. According to Downing et al. (2016), policies on health information exchange serve to clearly define the procedures that ensure the patient comprehends how their data will be used through Health Information Exchange and must be allowed the right to consent or not to consent to share their personal information. This policy includes:

Automatic Inclusion:

This is whereby any data which is made available through a patient’s participation may be shared through the information exchange as long as the patient has not opted out of the participation program and has provided full consent. This data shared through the information exchange will not allow automated permission to access all the information shared by the authorized users and participants. The policy only allows the authorized users and the participants to access the data in accordance with the set laws and policy manuals.

The Policy also Covers Patient Education and Consent

Healthcare professionals are in this case tasked with ensuring that opt-out option provided to the patients has educational and public awareness materials with regards to all that pertains health information exchange together with an extensive explanation on how their data will be used and shared among the authorized group of people.

The participants, in this case, will be expected to keep and avail the HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) and the consent required as per the existing laws outlined in the Health Information Exchange policy manual. Availing a list of the health care providers who are involved in the program through a formal database is done to ensure that the patients are facilitated to understand everything from where the information is generated, stored and made accessible for exchange purposes.

On the Opt Out

The patients who seek health care services from an authorized healthcare provider shall have the option and chance to decide to not avail their data for access or through the health information exchange. The patients have the right to be exempted from the program and opt out. The withdrawal shall be durable and can be established or revoked only through writing. A participant that receives the opt-out request shall make sure that no information about the patient will be accessible.