Information Architecture

How do you use health information technology in your daily work activities? Does the CNO (Chief Nursing Officer) in your organization use the same Health Information Technology (HIT) as the nurses at the bedside? What about those individuals who work in admissions? In order to develop an information system that can facilitate the ability to track, share, and analyze patient data, an organization has to take into account the differing needs or views of various departments.

In this Discussion, you consider the differing viewpoints of the professionals within your organization. Imagine what your colleagues’ needs might be and how they might use a HIT system to access and share information to promote evidence-based care. What are the similarities and differences in how this technology would be used by physicians, lab techs, administrators, nurses, informaticians, and others?

To prepare:

• Review this week’s media presentation, focusing on how the VA’s VistA system demonstrates data flow across an organization.
• Reflect on your organization’s information architecture and the various information needs of different groups within your work setting. What constraints has your organization faced with implementing health information technology systems that meet everyone’s needs? Consider speaking with your colleagues from different areas about this topic.
• Ask yourself: How does the flow of data across my organization support, or inhibit, evidence-based practice?

Write a minimum of 550 words in APA format with a minimum of 3 references from the list below which include the level one headings as numbered below:

post a cohesive response that addresses the following:

1)     Differentiate the information needs within your organization. For example, how might the needs of an administrator differ from the needs of a physician or lab tech?

2)     Explain the impact of these different needs on the implementation of HIT in your present organization.

3)     Evaluate how the flow of information across HIT systems within your organization supports or inhibits evidence-based practice.

Required Readings

Course Text: Ball, M. J., Douglas, J. V., Hinton Walker, P., DuLong, D., Gugerty, B., Hannah, K. J., . . . Troseth, M. R. (Eds.) (2011). Nursing informatics: Where technology and caring meet (4th ed.). London, England: Springer-Verlag.

Chapter 15, “Evidence-Based Clinical Decision Support”

In this chapter, the authors discuss the challenges that arise as HIT systems are employed to support evidence-based practices. The authors also provide examples of tools, features, and systems that promote evidence-based practices.

Course Text: American Nurses Association. (2008). Nursing informatics: Scope and standards of practice. Silver Spring, MD: Author.

•Metastructures, Concepts, and Tools of Nursing Informatics” (pp. 2-18

•Functional Areas for Nursing Informatics” (pp. 19-36)

These excerpts differentiate the metastructures (overarching concepts used in theory and science) of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom and examine how they are utilized in nursing informatics.

Alexander, G. L. (2008). A descriptive analysis of a nursing home clinical information system with decision support. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 5(12), 1–22.

This research study examines how data flows through a nursing home’s information system and includes a diagram to illustrate that flow.