Happy Health is a large health system with three hospitals and 15+ ambulatory clinics that is considering adopting an enterprise content management (ECM) solution

Happy Health is a large health system with three hospitals and 15+ ambulatory clinics that is considering adopting an enterprise content management (ECM) solution. Describe key technology components of ECM and any special considerations for adopting these technologies.  What approach should Happy Health consider?

My Answer: According to the article “What is Enterprise Content Management?” by Hyland content service provider, Enterprise content management (ECM) is “the process of managing the entire lifecycle of an organization’s content, including documents, spreadsheets, contracts, scanned images. The goal of ECM is to reduce the risk, improve productivity, efficiency, and customer experience by eliminating paper-based tasks and enhancing process visibility”. ECM not only focuses on transactional content management but has transitioned into a content service approach. This helps keep the organization updated with any technological changes, it eliminates information silos by delivering the right information to the right people at the right time [1]

            Workflow is the key functionality of the ECM systems. It enables the documents to be proactively sent from one department to the other thereby enhancing interoperability. It refers to the sequence of tasks that need to be performed within a process. Cross-department communication among providers can be aided with this tool. It assists with planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of the workflow. It helps determine who performs each task, and what would be the next step in the plan of action. Workflow acts as a road map in providing direction to the organization in following the right path in the sequence of priorities. The workflow technology gathers all the information needed to perform a task. It provides guidance for performing the task. It guides and directs the information in the right direction. It also speeds up the process by dividing the tasks into parts and reassembling the parts to complete the original process (Amatayakul pg. 584)

            Happy Health is a large healthcare system with three hospitals and 15 + ambulatory clinics. In order to ensure its smooth functioning and enhance interoperability, adopting an ECM will be very beneficial. The workflow functionality will provide several benefits to Happy Health. This feature will help the organization perform the task in an organized manner, and retrieve and share information /data regarding patients within departments. This will make the process more time efficient, reduce wait time for the patients and also help increase patient-provider cycle time. Electronically transferring and retrieving information will minimize errors and also ensure patient privacy and protection.

References:

[1] “Hyland.” What Is Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?, www.hyland.com/en/resources/terminology/enterprise-content-management/what-is-ecm.

Amatayakul, M. (2017). Health IT and EHRs: principles and practice. American Health Information Management Association.