COLLAPSE Overall Rating: 12345 12345 "Strengths and Weaknesses of Outsourcing Information Technology" Please respond to the following:

• From the e-Activity, create an argument that highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of outsourcing the information technology responsibilities for a health care organization. Support your response with a list of at least three (3) functions that can or cannot be attained in house.
• Discuss the key risks to a health care organization that fails to allocate sufficient support and resources to a newly implemented health care information system. Next, propose one (1) strategy to mitigate the risks in question. Provide a rationale to support your response.

SINCE I DO NT HAVE MY BOOK HERE IS A RESPONCE FROM ANOTHER STUDENT. 

When running an health care organization many aspects must be researched. They are always updating and implementing new things that must be addressed by a health care company. Many areas must be utilized in the actual facility and some can be outsourced to save monetary costs.

The first area that has some outsourcing capabilities is the Information Technology itself. One aspect that needs to maintained in house is server and the mainframe.  If there is a challenge, a company wants to be able to address it easily and quickly. With minor issues, simple resets or wiring can fix the challenge and they are able to continue practicing medicine.

One aspect of IT that may be outsourced is the saved information. With cloud and virtual computation it can easily be accessed anywhere around the globe. It does not necessarily have to be in one central location. If  a physician needs information from an old record, signing in and uploading should be a streamless process.

The staff to fix any potential outages in my opinion can be outsourced and local.  A complex issue may need local IT staff to come and address it quickly, so it does not delay the medical practice.  A more simple issue, if outsourced, can be explained how to fix over the phone.  It would also save the practice money of having the IT specialist come into the office. If a staff member has some base knowledge- it can be addressed quickly and inexpensively.

When a new computer system is implemented one of the most important things is to ensure that the staff is able to work it properly.  Haphazardly clicking or typing incorrectly can cause a multitude of problems.  It might change the way the software works and could cause a delay in treatment or diagnosis.

To mitigate these challenges, one must absolutely put restrictions on the users who access the system.  At my last practice, with the use of EHR/EMR there were many levels of security that were available. As long as passwords were stored, and not easily accessed, most problems were kept away with the simple restriction. The people who did not understand or have a need to change the software, did not have the access to these applications.

Wager, K.A., Lee, F.W., & Glaser, J.P. (2013). Healthcare information systems: A practical approach for health care management (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass