Management of Information System Change - Essay Example

?Management of Information System Change An outbreak of a pandemic causes severe human resource and economic loss to any country. Developed countrieslike the US and UK consider human loss superior to all collateral damages to the state. In this context they designated several systems of information and administration of medical emergency management. The following text is the review of a very popular and effective information system developed by the US and its functional failure in managing information centers during early 2000s. 1. Risk in the BioSense Project The widespread impact of continuous spells of pandemics and other biological attacks alerted the authorities of need for introducing and action plan against the emergencies related to all epidemics and pandemics. The foundation for BioSense was formulated as a national action aimed at improving the bio-surveillance facilities in the country with the amalgamation of existing resource data from all health care organisations and national agencies of data collection. The operation of BioSense is a great advantage to the emergency management system as it enhances the intensity of early detection of health related issues and the acceleration of remedial proceedings. The total action pack of BioSense is framed for simultaneous execution of collection, analysis and evaluation of public health care data from all sources specifically. The case contexts and beneficiary zones of BioSense’s services are DoD and VA hospitals, ambulance clinics, and large clinical laboratories apart from the direct live-wire data collection centers such as local hospitals, healthcare systems, and syndrome-surveillance systems. The functioning of BioSense has brought revolutionary changes in the effect of bio-emergency management systems with the implication of its uses in disease trend monitoring and tracking potential disease cases for synchronizing access to existing health surveillance systems. The initial plan of installing the system was on the ratio of one for each ten cities in the country in 2005. Later with years passing on, BioSense established monitoring centers at a number of data sourcing hospitals and continued operating a surveillance network. The question of its proficiency creates a confused opinion, and in most cases, its prominence was seen to be nullified for lack of support and acceptability from larger hospital units and local health care providers. After evaluating all the points discussed in the journal, the eviction of such a system can be justified for many reasons described in the explanation that are to be read on. 2. Challenges for Implementation BioSense represents the proficiency of the web-based application of the software monitoring inter-hospital health and disease assessment. However, it is obvious that the operation of BioSense is a high profile deal with many professionals is required to access the conditions every moment. Detecting the early symptoms of a bioterrorist attack was the aim of CDC’s proposal for the installation of this system. It was also aimed at providing standards, infrastructure and data acquisition for early detection of every unfriendly situation. The introduction of new software was largely expensive for its operation. As evident from the details of the US Government Accountability office, BioSense acquired the financial aid of over $200million till 2006. The managerial challenges faced by BioSense were attributed to the functionary units in association with data collection. Majority of the questions were about the proximity and accuracy of the data collection from the three appointed sources namely, Department of Defense (DOD) Military Treatment Facilities, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) treatment facilities and the Laboratory Corporation of America (LAbCorp) as to how timely were the data based on emergency situations. This question was supported by the irrelevance of the resource data as it took longer time to cover the concerned regions than the time required for emergency procedures of precocious measures. In most of the cases, the investigation was not well aided enough to negotiate the required levels of attention. Another operational constraint was its lack of capacious facility for documentation and resourcing network. Since the data coverage area was limited to city-based hospitals, large amounts of actual data were ignored and the reports made about them were merely based on assumptions and estimates. Also, there was a substantial amount of data manipulation witnessed in the outcome of the operation as the system was not intelligent itself to detect the human interference of manipulative data. Ascertainment of fraudulent entries as well as duplication of data was totally difficult and often the records produce confused effects. Recommendations can be made that the system was not perfectly applied and the reward of technology was not fully met because of the lacking supplementation of technical support from the national health strategy as offered by Public Health Information Network (PHIN) under CDC. More expectedly, as this system was on the verge of underuse, any existing surveillance system could act as a substitute duplicate with the investment going in vain. The presence of false positive also forced the management to think differently from continuing with BioSense. Interim alerts by the system against serious outbreaks of Congo fever, cryptosporidiosis, typhoid fever, pneumonic plague and Russian encephalitis failed to prove the existence of any such syndrome and thus leaving the management in a great loss of remedial actions. Hence, BioSense was still far behind its target of accomplishing accurate alerts as “its half step toward nationwide surveillance do little at this point to mitigate the threat from a biological attack” (Ryan & Glarum, 2008 ,p. 267). 3. Justification of the Liberal Reform The consolidation of different spheres of operation encouraged the well being of BioSense in the initial phase since its inception. However, the challenges were huge as the system has a limited access to remote locations of the case reigned clinical conditions. With “Real-time” clinical surveillance in focus, CDC introduced this elaborate system of supervision in hospital emergency room, intensive care units and laboratories to inform the concerned authorities about the intensity of disease infection. As a basic advantage, the motto of the instrumentation was good enough to facilitate comprehensive medical surveillance because the software had facilities to access detailed database of the patient. As a result, absolute perfection of the source data was maintained and transmitted to healthcare authorities for the estimation of prompt remedial actions. It also had a better edge than the traditional practice of passing pandemic identification reports in which more documentation were made manually. Despite the advantages of this system in saving time and accuracy of detailed examination of the case, it was showing a diminishing tendency among hospitals in corporate sectors. Some of the eminent doctors were of the claim that surveillance of a computerized system had little to do with the outbreak of a pandemic as they had to start the treatment procedures much before the system would locate any such case. Larger hospitals and health service providers disliked the operation of this system, though it was mandatory in their clinics. They believed that this new system would interfere in the freedom of their operation and thus government authorities would encroach on their domain. This ideological conflict was difficult for the CDC to manage and it gradually realized the falling usage of the surveillance system. Every probability was that the intervention government authorities in local health providers and hospitals would result in a strategic dispute and thereby ending up with a more volatile manipulation of the data. Keeping all this in focus, in order to consume the benefit of capital funding meant for the hospital surveillance, it CDC formed new strategies of continued appraisal for hospitals by allotting them liberty of operation with the new networking system being guaranteed as a tool in action. On the basis of balanced negotiation, the government’s decision to affiliate the operation of the system with the existing encoding systems of the hospitals and local healthcare providers has to be seen as an effective option for the benefit of crisis management and improved conditions of health care warning application. In an overview of the entire context, it can be assessed that the implementation of BioSense was largely less effective than it was expected and a reform of the warning system to amalgamate with the regular stream was highly essential. 4. Proposal for Advanced Medical Pandemic Surveillance System Health care and human resource management strategies are the primary concern for most developed countries in the present –day-world. A disease outspread may result in serious health issues and the management of risk becomes out bound. As an impact of severe avian flu or other pandemics of virus infection and sometimes, a biological or chemical attack, several millions of lives are lost every year globally. Unlike natural calamities, government authorities and organisations can have their role in better handling the situation, if they are identified well in advance. With a view to forecast the scenarios and act precociously, the government appoints councils and deputes organisations with public health care assignments. A large sum of money is invested for the computerised analysis of these situations and development of applications for statistical assessment of area-wise target groups for the grass root level investigation and emergency management thereby. These panels in turn, assess the conditions and report it at regular intervals to concerned departments for the facilitation of prompt actions to subdue the conditions. This proposal is submitted with absolute reverence to the reputation of the organization and the people at its helm of affairs for the best scrutiny. This elaborate note of suggestion is on the light reports and referrals of case assessments on risk control measures operated by the US authorities to check the spread of various issues of pandemic deaths and biological and chemical attack fatalities in the country in the wake of a social emergency forecasting and management system against all sorts of wide range infections and causalities in the country. A number of factors have to be investigated and a detailed assessment of the conditions needs to be made for the effective evaluation of the issue. Magnitude of the Pandemic Despite the glorified achievements in the inventions of new medicines for chronic diseases and effective vaccines against most of the infections, influenza pandemic still remains a challenge to scientists and medical experts. Infection of flu and related ailments has been common among human since medical sciences emerged as a branch of study. The advancement of medical literature, however, is not in a solid stature to provide valid suggestion against the infection of this issue. Scientists are keen to alert the fact that we live a life exposed to the horrifying presence of disease causing microbes that can force a piratical settlement in our body. According to the expression of Bethe, (2006, p. 122) Influenza viruses have notable rate of ‘resilience and adaptability’ and are largely invincible to the trails of vaccination. The graduation of a minor influenza with general symptoms of cold and fever to a dangerous condition of pneumonia is the reason for a greater concern. This is the fierce form of the infection that takes the lives of millions of people before health management system of any country can do anything in support of the patients across a target region every year. Medical and health care organisations have defined the terms ‘epidemic’ and ‘pandemic’ with different strategies based on their nature of their implication. While the former is the severity of prevalent existence of a communicable disease , the latter is the similarity of such a condition with a higher intensity with rapid growth in number of victims over a large area or several unitary and independent regions of a single or several continents simultaneously. Researchers point out the fact that migratory birds are the carriers of the microbes which infects the live stock of any human inhibited region. The infected animals then easily transmit the disease to human being and with the human host in a more viable medium of growth process; the germs complete their life cycle and burst out through social habitat of mankind taking air and water as their primary passage. Whatever can be the scenario, effective management of health related risk is very essential for the assurance of public welfare and thereby capturing the confidence of the people. Awareness Activation and Accreditation Any information system of new management strategy needs timely pattern of presentation. Even for the most developed nations, health care awareness is found on a depleting trend owing to lack of time and intensified velocity of lifestyle adaptation problems. The effectiveness of a healthy networking for surveillance of medical emergencies such as pandemic outbreaks is assessed as to what extend it reaches out in predicting the symptomatic situations taking the conditions under control. In my view, socialised patterns of awareness would be more effective than the direct intervention of health care experts or voluntary activist’s on-field in the operation of an assessment system. As the world today is largely after social networking services, it is advisable to harvest the unlimited scope of internet for the awareness and alerts. They can also be considered as the source data portals for rather accurate and generalized information on early symptoms of any pandemic. A national wide alert is required for all reasons, but the insensibility of acknowledgements based on inaccurate information always poses a serious threat of social panic. According to the suggestions of famous health science critics “An alternative to the current strategy may be to bring forward public information about pandemic influenza to lessen its sensational impact” (Bennett, Clman, & Curtis, 2010, p.158). As such, the magnitude of presentation of the alert can be reduced by personalizing the information. Now that everyone uses a mobile phone or that they are accessible to internet, it is easier to post such indications and warn them more friendly and comfortably. My focus will be on how effectively the pandemic alert can be facilitated with the help of web based application of software supporting the system of administration. Thus the software developed for the new information system should be sufficiently supported with accessibility links on a one-touch answer mechanism. As a consolidation, new ventures in social networking sites like Facebook and Google can favor this prospect and ensure a smooth system of medical crisis management with utmost individual concern for the perfect show of the operation. From the view of expert opinions, I believe that an effective information system of pandemic surveillance and early detection needs to be installed in socially and economically backward countries which are largely located as the original platforms of the infection. Unhealthy and clumsy living conditions owing to substandard social set up leads to early health challenges in such vulnerable communities and societal living models. Continuous overseeing rehearsal of doubtful conditions can result in the early detection of a widespread viral infection that may in turn become a massive blow to the human dynasty in the form a pandemic. As Mott and Jani (2009) point out, activation of a strategic team is the best sorted suggestion for the promotion of a health care and emergency management system; and they suggests that the establishment of a strong influenza surveillance system will support the enhancement of laboratory capacity for specimen testing. It can be of a great security if we propose a well equipped laboratory in remote and unexposed regions of the threat to logistically promote operations and categorically identify the kind of the virus. If such a proposal is materialized, a team of experts can be trained specifically for pandemic management in emergencies. These teams so trained as a cadre for rapid action, can be transported from place to place as a paramilitary troupe and immediately take actions to bring the conditions under control. The operation this information system must be designed as a coordination of web-based survey portals, analytical centers with advanced medical laboratories and a special wing of personnel training department. The surveillance is to be carried out regularly by sending SMS on mobile phones or Pop up alerts on social networking sites. All the users of this Information System must be operationally aided through digital messages. This web-link must also have an access window using an individual signature decodable by the central analytical unit in the administrative hub. Further development of the portal designs can be made more people friendly and catchy. Effective use of media art application and game based surveys can also bring forth credulous results in the data collection. This data should be analysed and decoded according to the nature of result and a generalised assessment of the condition should be formed thereby. Efforts should be made to trace the locations of high vulnerability and the expert team must rush to the spot, and if needed, with mobile units of isolation ward facilities for immediate medical attention. The department of training should be such capable that each member of the team is vigilant and virulent like a commando in a rapid action force. More significantly, all the operation and entire working mechanism should be independent of government interference and away from media interaction. There should be provision for ensuring the secrecy of administration from beginning to end; and at the final stage of the operation, the data can be revealed as a case history. With all this in practical application, I believe, the new system can achieve desired result and hail accreditation from legal bodies as well as international health organisations with a separate identity. References Bennett, P, Calman, K, Curtis, S & Fischbacher-Smith, D 2010, Risk Communication and Public Health, Oxford University Press, New York. Bethe, MR 2006, Global Spread of the Avian Flu: Issues and Actions, Nova Science Publishers, New York. Mott, JA & Jani, A 2009, ‘Influenza surveillance systems’, Case Studies in Applied Epidemiology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pp.1-21, Viewed 16 Aug 2011, Ryan, JR & Glarum, JF 2008, Biosecurity & Bioterrorism: Containing and Preventing Biological Threats, Butterworth-Heinemann, USA. Read More