I was recently asked about an MPI issue and how can the IT team analyze the reason why there was so many duplicate medical record numbers. After a very short conversation it became obvious that the issue had to more with policies and procedures, rather than software functionality. This seems to be a recurring theme. Far too many Operations Directors will be quick to turf issues having to do with any information processing to IT. They want to focus on personnel, budgets and other management issues and are in the mistaken belief that everything else has an IT solution.
IT can not drive policy; and procedures are derived from operational policies. So why do we still see a hands off approach at addressing the accuracy and quality of the data at the user entry level? Why is it still acceptable for Directors and VP’s to admit that they really don’t understand “all that computer stuff,” when Healthcare Operations depends so much on the systems crunching their data?
I would love to collect a list of horror stories from folks that have had similar experiences and have spent hours trying to dissect an issue that should have been handled in an operations meeting and not by IT Analysts.
