Report On Healthcare Organization Analysis And Interview
This paper is divided into 2 sections – section 1 is the healthcare organization of my choosing and section 2 is the interview. The healthcare organization that I chose is Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). This organization was first mentioned to me by Ms. Christy Bolick whom I interviewed. She is associated with HIMMS, North Carolina Chapter. She spoke very highly of it and encouraged me to join the organization. I have written the summary of the organization mainly focusing on its history, background, organizational governance, their services, programs and activities. I have also touched on how we as students can be associated with this organization. For the second section, i.e. the interview portion I interviewed Ms. Christy Bolick who is the Director of Health Informatics at Catawba Valley Medical Center. She is very passionate about her job especially regarding health informatics and the best part of interviewing her was the knowledge she imparted to me.
Section 1- Healthcare Organization
The healthcare organization that I chose is Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
History
In the year 1961 a non-profit and independent organization in Hospital Management Systems Society or HMSS was formed as a voluntary association at Georgia Institute of Technology. Later in the year 1966, HMSS became an affiliate to American Hospital Association (AHA) which gave the organization stability and strength. It was in the year 1986, during a conference and meeting held at Lake Buena Vista, Florida that the HMSS added professionals of information systems and telecommunication and changed its name to Healthcare Information and Management System Society or HIMSS.
It was only in the year 1993 that HIMSS became an independent not-for-profit organization. By the end of the year 1993, there were around 40 HIMSS chapters. The first student chapter was however added only in the year 1996 as a model. In the year 1999 the first international chapter was added in Canada named as Ontario Healthcare Management Information System Association, but, it was in the year 2006 that HIMSS became global and opened HIMSS Europe, Middle-east, and Africa or HIMSS EMEA office in Belgium. In the year 2012 HIMSS launched the mHIMSS which focused on Mobile Health.
Now HIMSS has more than 70,000 individual members globally with 630 who are corporate members and it also encompasses non-profit organization which counts to more than 450.
Introduction
The organization HIMSS is a not-for-profit organization that is focused on optimizing health engagement, improving health of not only the individual but the whole population using innovative digital health and by improving information and technology. They also work towards cost-effectiveness in healthcare as well as to improve the access to proper healthcare.
They offer expertise and support services to market place suppliers and healthcare system. The HIMSS develops and designs predictive analytic tools and models to help stakeholders, global leaders and various influencers in healthcare field to have proper information and guidelines to make an informed decision.
It has a research arm which is called HIMSS Analytics and has HIMSS Foundation which is the philanthropic group HIMSS organizes a conference annually that include the stakeholders in the healthcare IT. These conferences are very useful in education and networking opportunity.
Vision – “Better health through information and technology”.
Mission – “Globally, lead endeavors optimizing health engagements and cure outcomes through information and technology”.
Organization Structure
HIMSS members elect a group to volunteer as the Board of Directors. The board includes the Chair that comprises of a Chair and Vice Chair, the Board Members, Chair Elect and Vice Chair Elect.
Revenue
The revenue for HIMSS comes from educational events, exhibition, publication sales, advertisings, memberships etc. This revenue further helps the organization to arm the stakeholders with knowledge, education, resources and tools needed to transform the healthcare sector. The HIMSS publishes about 200 new resources annually and holds educational programs through the various chapters not only regionally but also internationally.
Collaborations
The HIMSS provides a platform for members to collaborate on initiatives and programs which is useful for everyone and works towards their mission. They also fund activities that help arm the members with knowledge regarding best practices, give stakeholders the resources and tools to healthcare within their care setting and it also creates opportunities through which the members can learn from each other and create positions for them.
A few collaborations mentioned on their website are-Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI), American Bar Association (ABA), College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, CommonWell Health Alliance, etc. According to them “HIMSS recognizes the importance of collaboration to better health through information and technology. HIMSS actively seeks collaborative opportunities with like-minded associations. By working together, we can optimize health engagements and care outcomes”.
For Students
There is a student membership that we as graduate students can get. The value the membership at $30, the regular price of which is almost $200. After going through all their programs and the educational workshops, seminars offered I fell it would be great opportunity for students to be associated with them. They also provide scholarships. They have various services like- career services, professional certifications etc. which is easily accessible through the professional development tab on their website.
Conclusion
After researching so much about this organization I am glad that Ms. Bolick suggested informed me regarding her association with this organization. They have provided all details regarding why we should be members and after seeing the help provided by them for education and career advancement I am now interested to join.
Section 2- Interview
For the second part in our assignment I chose to interview Ms. Christy Bollick who is the Director of IT at Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, North Carolina.
Introduction and Background
Ms. Christy Bollick is the Director of IT and has been serving in this position for the last 5years. She used to be a Registered Nurse at the very same facility and became involved in the IT division when she was included as a member of the team of Super User Sqoop for EMR. This was her first taste with the informatics portion of healthcare. This Super User Sqoop was only used for nursing division mainly for trouble shooting purpose, bills etc. It was in the year 2004 a Nursing Informatics division was started only they used EMR. She then became a patient care coordinator so that she could be involved with informatics section in addition patient care. It was only in the year 2010 that EMR became full-fledged. She was asked to the Clinical SME because of her unique background. She had to coordinate with physicians and the informatics team to set up the physicians’ model for EMR in their facility. She also helped physician in the documentation process in the early stages. She was in short, the liaison between the physicians and the informatics department. Then there was a Ro funding project which was very huge, and she was a member in this team as well. This is where she really wanted to leave the clinical side and join the informatics team. As the project was winding down everyone in the nursing went back to their usual duties but she stayed back and became the Physicians’ Care Management Team Lead. When the then Director of IT retired she was asked to step in as the Interim Director. But later, she herself interviewed for the position of Director and she was hired.
She is very happy at her current position and one day hope when the 3 division of the Informatics sector merges she could head that department.
Structure of IT Department
At her hospital there are 3 division that help with the informatics which are- IT division, Clinical Business Intelligence and the Health Informatics. She is the Director of the Health Informatics department.
Role and Responsibilities
Her department consists of 9 employees under her. Each of them has different responsibilities. The EMR in their facility has different modules which include- Nurse, Physician, ER, Pharmacy, Laboratory etc. So, each morning she holds a meeting with her team and they discuss which module should be taken by whom. Her department is also responsible for managing the Clinical Support line, Physician Support line, she helps resolve issues over a call or goes in person. She is also responsible for the administration of the department and helps with the budgeting, and planning strategy for the department. She is also responsible for any new intake which includes creating the job profile, description and also serve on the hiring committee. Her duties involving informatics involve- setting the electronic quality measure and make sure they are being followed, mapping and making sure the background of EMR is accurate, making sure the data received from the IT department is good. Further responsibilities involve- overseeing the smooth function of her department by means of delegating duties, manage any updates that come, prioritize and work with the issue and problems that develop. Due to her unique background she is gets involved when a clinical problem crops up. Throughout the day she has to part of various meeting, most important being the Joint Committee meeting- which involves discussion specifically around betterment of the Informatics Department.
Challenges
As expected from her title I knew the most interesting question would be regarding the challenges she has to face. She thrives during challenges to quote her “my best day would be when something breaks, and I am able to fix it”. The part of her job that she finds challenging is keeping up with the regulatory requirements. The changes are so rapid and unpredictable that the documentation of these becomes hard at times. They have a Psychiatric wing in their facility and there are additional requirements and protocol according to the HBIPS (Hospital Based In Patient Psychiatric Services). To tackle all these policy and regulatory requirement updates she works with the Clinical Business Department who help keep her up-to-date.
Applications Used
She was very informative regarding the application they use on the day-to-day basis. They use more than 200 applications since they are a HIMSS stage 6 facility. There is only the Bedside Medication Scanning is the only thing left for them being a stage 7 facility. A few from the applications she mentioned are- Service Now, BM ware, Meditech (EMR), Dr. Hurst’s Electronic prescribing, Iatric System, IMO (which maps terms that are in the EMR- to give a standardized nomenclature) Pixes (medication cabinet that interfaces with EMR i.e. patient name with the drugs used by them), Optirx (staffing software), PAX (for visual imaging like X-Ray etc.) etc. She had mentioned a lot more applications which she though would help me in future.
Professional Associations
Ms. Bolick is involved with 2 associations. She is a member of American Nurses in Health Informatics and the North Carolina Chapter of HIMSS. She explained that NCHIMSS is more focused on the technical aspect of informatics and it helps her stay informed regarding the IT developments. She attends all possible conferences to keep her abreast on the latest developments. She also uses the HIMSS website for seeing sample job descriptions that help her in the recruiting process at her Center. She has encouraged me investigate the HIMSS and be a part of the organization and going through the details I feel that was an excellent advice.
Conclusion
I feel I chose the best person to interview since she was so forthcoming and helpful. She gave me an in-depth detail of her job duties, her institute, how her career developed. Her passion for her job and health informatics is contagious. After all her duties she has now joined UNC Charlotte to receive more knowledge regarding the HIT since she feels she learnt everything on her job and she requires a professional training for it. She feels this has led to better understanding of the technical aspects and get more knowledge. She feels it has helped her communicate better with the other 2 departments at her center. She advised me regarding what I could do in future that would help my career like taking a PMP certificate which she feels would help with the managerial duties and improve communication. She has done this, and it was very helpful. I also learnt that communication is one of the most important part her job. She has inspired me to keep learning, as she even with her such busy schedule, school still finds time to read blogs and attend conference and keep herself up-to-date in every aspect of health informatics. She has inspired me so much when I was interviewing her that she is someone whom I look up to now and aspire to become someday. Her passion for her job is what makes her tick and what gave me such great content for my assignment. The main thing that stuck with me was what she finds her best day would be “my best day would be when something breaks, and I am able to fix it”.
