Understanding health care information systems planning and implementation is an important skill for health care leaders. Technology is advancing and the adoption of information systems in healthcare has progressed from being just a cool tool to a must have in terms of quality, access, profitability, and competitiveness. It is inevitable that managers and/or leaders will be faced with technology changes and/or upgrades; making the need to understand the basics of health care information system development and the standards required fundamental.  Health leaders are charged with mandating and facilitating set data/information standards (classification, codes, data, etc.) set forth by the HITECH Act and HIPAA. One such standard is the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) which enables health information exchange on the worldwide web.  In a 300 word initial response, address the following points:

• What processes are involved in a systems development lifecycle?
• Explain each process and how they relate to one another.
• Next, apply each process.
  • How are the processes used in health care information system development?
  • What are the four methods of development of health care information system standards?
• How do these methods affect interoperability?
• Name three organizations as well as the roles they play in standard development

Discussion Question 2

Acquiring health information systems requires astute leadership. An acquisition is migrating from one system to another. The imposition and realization of applicable standards, system requirements, legalities, finances, human resources, and need must all be considered before an acquisition can be successfully executed. Review the case, Acquiring an EHR System, from pages 215-218 of your course text.  In a 300-word initial post, discuss the pros and cons of the case by addressing the following questions:

• What was the main concept of the case?
• Who was involved in the acquisition?
• What system was acquired?
• What were the identified positives (pros) with the acquisition?
• What were the identified negatives (cons) with the acquisition?