NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

WAGNER GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE

HEALTH POLICY AND MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

HPAM-GP 4823 -HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR MANAGERS

Fall 2014

Instructor:Nader Mherabi

(212) 404-4027 (office)

(646) 524-0190 (fax)

Day: Thursdays - October 23rd, 2014-December 18th, 2014

Time:6:45-8:25 pm

Location:Global Center for Academic Spiritual Life (GCASL) - Room 369

Prerequisites: P11.1833, Health Services Management, or permission from the instructor.

Credits: 2 credits

This course is required of all health management specialization students.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will prepare healthcare managers and clinicians to participate in the management of healthcare information technology. Issues related to organizing and managing the information services function in a health care organization are discussed, including the technology selection, acquisition and implementation processes.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK:

Karen A. Wager,Frances W. Lee,John P. Glaser, Health Care Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Care Management, 3rd Edition, Wiley, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-118-17353-4

RELATED HEALTH MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES

Competencies - Course Focus

  • The ability to use information systems and evidence-based management principles for problem-solving, strategic planning and decision-making and implementing and measuring change

Relevant Content for the following competencies is also included

  • The ability to hold people accountable to standards of performance and/or ensure organizational, professional and ethical compliance
  • The ability to measure, monitor and improve safety, quality, access and system/care delivery processes in health care organizations
  • The ability to communicate and interact productively (via listening, speaking and writing) on matters of healthcare with a diverse and changing industry, work force and citizenry
  • The ability to present convincingly to individuals and groups the evidence to support a point of view, position or recommendation

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

  1. State how information systems and technology can be used to implement an organization's strategy;
  2. Identify the objectives of IT governance and the elements (e.g., committees, a Project Management Office) that can increase the value obtained;
  3. Describe a process for selecting an information system or technology to help implement a strategy;
  4. Define how an information system can improve the operation of a service and describe how data mining and business intelligence software can be used to provide useful information;
  5. State why service level agreements are important in assuring that a negotiated level of performance is achieved;
  6. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of out-sourcing IT services;
  7. Describe the steps in effective project management and define the role of a project manager and a project management office;
  8. Define techniques for realizing the value of IT during and after implementation;
  9. State how individual and group responses to information systems and technology can inhibit implementation, and define techniques for increasing the chances of successful implementation.

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS

Roger Kropf and Guy Scalzi, MakingInformation Technology Work: Maximizing the Benefits for Health Care Organizations (Chicago: Health Forum/AHA Press, 2007). For more information, go to

Copies are available at the NYU Professional Bookstore on LaGuardia Place.

All other readings are posted on Blackboard or available on-line as indicated below.

OPTIONAL COURSE MATERIALS

Those of you who feel the need to learn about (or update your knowledge of) information systems topics not specific to health services should review a recent text. An example is:

Kenneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon, Management Information Systems, 12th Edition (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2011, The important thing is to find a very recent text, since this field changes rapidly.

Two excellent reference sources for a range of healthcare IT topics are:

  1. Karen A. Wager, Frances Wickham Lee and John P. Glaser, Health Care Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Care Executives (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009).
  1. Gerald Glandon, Detlev Smaltz and Donna Slovensky, Information Systems for Healthcare Management, Seventh Edition (Chicago: Health Administration Press, 2008).

INTERNET RESOURCES ON HEALTHCARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

  1. HIMSS Health IT Body of Knowledge
  1. Journals and newsletters:

Health Data Management

iHealthBeat

A free daily email from the California Health Care Foundation.

  1. Webopedia, an on-line dictionary for computer and Internet terms.
  1. TechEncyclopedia
  1. American Medical Informatics Association
  1. CMIO Magazine is aimed at Chief Medical Information Officers in healthcare organizations. A free newsletter is available.
  1. Leapfrog Group
  1. Open Directory Project-Medical Informatics
  1. HIStalk offers news and commentary on the healthcare information technology industry.
  1. Connected Health Initiative: focuses on extending the care community beyond the traditional walls of healthcare institutions by bringing healthcare to the everyday surroundings of the health consumer and their families.
  1. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality National Resource Center for Health Information Technology
  1. Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology
  1. Software Advice - Medical Software. A vendor supported directory of medical software.
  1. HIMSS, “Economic Stimulus for the Healthcare IT Industry” (a list of links to resources)
  1. American Telemedicine Association
  1. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
  1. Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Healthcare. “The mission of Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Health Care is to serve as a trusted resource for doctors who are contemplating or are in the midst of transforming their practices or institutions using health information technology to improve health and health care.”

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Assignments, exams, and class participation in the course will assess progress against these competencies, and no student will receive a B or higher without demonstration of satisfactory progress towards mastery of each competency.

The assignments and due dates are:

Assignment / Grade % / Date Distributed / Due Dates
Class contribution and attendance / 10% / -
Quality or Operational Improvement Project / 50% / October 23rd / Part 1: November 14th
Part 2: November 21st
In-class exam / 40% / December 18 / December 18

The Quality or Operational Improvement Project will be to present an information systems or technology plan for improving the quality of a health care service. Students will select a service and define an information system (or enhancement to an existing system) that would improve customer satisfaction, better operations, clinical quality, or all three. The addition of an information technology (e.g., voice data input and output) can also be included.

Instructor will divide class into groups of 2 or more students. Details to follow at a later time.

IN-CLASS EXAM

The purpose of this exam is to encourage you to have an overall understanding of the concepts being presented. Content from the PowerPoint presentations and handouts will be included. This includes those presentations given by the guest speakers. The exam will consist of short answer questions (e.g., fill in the blank or True/False) and will last 45 minutes beginning at 7:40 pm

INCOMPLETES

See the Wagner School’s policy on Incomplete Grades at:

STATEMENT OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

As members of the NYU Wagner community, we are all expected to adhere to high standards of intellectual and academic integrity. You can view our Academic Code at: This is a good resource for issues of academic integrity, especially regarding writing.

COURSE OUTLINE & READING ASSIGNMENTS

October 23 Class 1: Information and Technology As Strategic Resources; IT Governance

  1. “Introduction,” Roger Kropf and Guy Scalzi, Making Information Technology Work
  1. “University Hospitals: IT Governance and Creation of a Project Management Office” from Roger Kropf and Guy Scalzi, Making Information Technology Work: Maximizing the Benefits for Health Care Organizations.
  1. Jeanne Ross and Peter Weill, “Six IT Decisions Your IT People Shouldn’t Make”, Harvard Business Review (November 2002), p. 5-11.
  1. Keith Frey et. al., “The Development and Implementation of a Strategic and Tactical Planning Framework at Mayo Clinic Arizona,” Journal of Healthcare Information Management 19:3 (Summer 2005), p. 39-46.

Additional Resources/Optional Reading:

  1. John Halamka, “The Harvard Medical School FY10 IT Operating Plan”, Life as a Healthcare CIO (Blog), August 25, 2009. Includes copy of the plan.
  1. John Glaser, “Strategies for ensuring an IT project delivers value”Healthcare Financial Management. 2009 Jul;63(7):28-31.

November 6 Class 2: System Selection (Guest Speaker)

  1. Vince Ciotti and William Laker, “Towards Eliminating RFPs,” Proceedings of the 2002 Annual HIMSS Conference, Session 87 (Chicago: HIMSS,2002)
  1. Anne Armstrong-Coben,“The Computer Will See You Now” New York Times (March 9, 2009).

Full-text available at:

  1. AHA/MGMA system selection documents

Additional Resources/Optional Reading:

  1. Tom Vanderbilt, “Data Center Overload”New York Times (June 8, 2009) Describes what a very large data center looks like and “cloud computing”
  1. KLAS Research website

November 13Class 3: Managing Implementation: Outsourcing and Service Level Agreements

  1. “Chapter 9: Service Level Agreements - A Tool for Negotiating and Sustaining Performance” in Kropf and Scalzi, Making Information Technology Work.
  1. “University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) Development and Use of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in Kropf and Scalzi
  1. Rose Ann Laureto-Ward, “Healthcare Information Systems Outsourcing,” Chapter 27 in Kevin Beaver (ed.), Healthcare Information Systems (Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach Publishers, 2003), p. 369-389.

Additional Resources/Optional Reading:

  1. John Halamka, “Service Level Agreements”, Life as a Healthcare CIO (Blog), June 3, 2009. Includes forms used at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

November 20 Class 4:Project Management (Guest Speaker)

  1. “Part Two: Project Management During Implementation,” Kropf and Scalzi, Making Information Technology Work.
  1. Re-read “University Hospitals: IT Governance and Creation of a Project Management Office” from Kropf and Scalzi

Additional Resources/Optional Reading:

  1. Gregg Mohrmann and Roger Kropf, “IT Management and Governance Systems and Their Emergence in Healthcare,” Journal of Healthcare Information Management 21:1 (Winter 2007), p. 33-39. (BB)
  1. Gregg Mohrmann, Craig Schlusberg and Roger Kropf, “Demand Management in Healthcare IT: Controlling IT Demand to Meet Constrained IT Resource Supply,” Journal of Healthcare Information Management 21:4 (Fall, 2007), p.56-63. (BB)

November 27 No class - Thanksgiving

December 4 Class 5: Performance Management After Implementation (Guest Speaker)

  1. “Part III: Performance Management After Implementation,” Kropf and Scalzi, Making Information Technology Work, Chapters 7 and 8.

2. “Banner Estrella Medical Center: Determining the Benefits of Care Transformation and IT Implementation” in Kropf and Scalzi

December11 Class 6: Clinician Acceptance and Use of Information Systems(Guest Speaker)

  1. Eric Poon, David Blumenthal, Tonushree Jaggi, Melissa Honour, David Bates and Rainu Kaushal. Overcoming Barriers To Adopting and Implementing Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems in U.S. Hospitals. Health Affairs, 2(4), ( July/August 2004). 184-190.
  1. William Bria and Richard Rydell, “Chapter 1: A Road Map to a Successful Patient Care Information Systems,” The Physician-Computer Conundrum: Get Over It! (Chicago: HIMSS, 2004), p. 1-21.
  1. Gloria Austin, Stephen Klasko and William Leaver, “The Art of Health IT Transformation” White Paper from the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (November, 2009) Full-text at:

Additional Resources/Optional Reading:

  1. Christine Larson, “Connecting the Dots of Medicine and Data” New York Times (April 11, 2009). Describes the role of the physician health informatics specialist. Full-text at:

In-class exam on the readings

December 18Class 7:Managing Operations, Business Intelligence and Data Mining (Guest Speaker)

  1. KLAS, Business Intelligence: Making Cents of Performance, Executive Summary (August, 2011). (BB)
  1. David Baum, “An Intelligent Patient Focus”. Health Management Technology (April, 2010), p. 13-16. (BB)
  1. Tom Wadsworth, Brian Graves, et. al., “Using Business Intelligence to Improve Performance”. Healthcare Financial Management (October, 2009), p. 68-72. (BB)
  1. Paul Bradley and Jeff Kaplan, “Turning Hospital Data Into Dollars”. Healthcare Financial Management (February, 2010), p. 64-8. (BB)

Additional Resources/Optional Reading:

  1. BusinessWeek Research Services, Business Intelligence for Healthcare (February, 2009) (BB)
  1. Greg Gillespie, Health Intelligence, Health Data Management,Digital Edition (October 21, 2011) (BB)
  1. Gary Baldwin, “Dashboards in Action”, Health Data Management Magazine (10/01/2011) (BB)
  1. Dimensional Insights, “Continuum Health Partners: Automated report generation and centralized information access improves enterprise decision-making” (BB)
  1. Monica M. Horvath, Heidi Cozart, et. al. “Sharing Adverse Drug Event Data Using Business Intelligence Technology. J Patient Safety, Volume 5, Number 1 (March, 2009), p. 35-41. (BB)
  1. Jeffrey M Ferranti, Matthew K Langman, et. al., “Bridging the gap: leveraging business intelligence tools in support of patient safety and financial effectiveness”. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2010;17:136-143. (BB)
  1. Mary Nash, Justin Pestrue, et. al., “Leveraging Information Technology to Drive Improvement in Patient Satisfaction”. Journal for Healthcare Quality, Vol. 32, No. 5 (September/October 2010), p. 30-40. (BB)

Quality Improvement Project papers due December 18th.

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