Intermountain Health Care (IHC) is a secular non-profit organization founded in 1975 in Utah with a group of fifteen hospitals. The organization has evolved over the years creating an integrated business in health care provision and health insurance business. By 2002, the IHC had a group of 22 hospitals , 25 health care centers, and more than 70 outpatient clinics in Utah and Southeastern Idaho. The organization has grown in its health care provision strategies and systems as well as their administrative sector.
The executive director, Dr. Brent James, is a core part of the changes in IHC. The core goal at IHC is to provide quality and effective health care services. The delivery system of these services relies on the integration approach of clinical conditions, support services, and the administrative processes. In an argument during a meeting with James, a nurse felt that every patient was unique, therefore, following set protocols would not be effective. However, James explained that patients are unique but the protocols will bring about clinical integration – these protocols are ‘Taylorist’ (Taylor, 1998) . The administrative and medical staff will work together to implement medical data on each patient and use the same to determine the best medical interventions for each patient.
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Information Technology in Health Care Provision
Information technology is a critical aspect of the clinical integration at IHC. Information technology, Health Evaluation through Logical Processing System (HELP) for inpatient services and Clinical Workstation for outpatient, plays a great role in the efficiency of the organization. These two systems, in the clinical integration approach, have allowed IHC easy and effective review and analysis of a patient’s clinical data. The Patient Care Management System (PCMS) could enable a medical staff could view the problems that could affect a patient, determine their dosage, and other care goals they need to achieve (Bohmer, Edmondson, & Feldman, 2013) . The system integrated the goals with different functions or orders for the physician and nursing staff like tests required.
Administrative Efficiency
The clinical integration approach developed a clinical management structure parallel to the administrative structure. The approach gave IHC systems and protocols that led to performance accountability of the health care staff hence IHC was able to achieve their clinical performance goals. The approach was then implemented in all the IHC operational functions using information systems. This implementation rolled out a modern management structure that focused on clinical quality and processes. The parallel structure led to interdependence in all the IHC groups where all information from one group was visible to all other groups for use in their job functions (Bohmer, Edmondson, & Feldman, 2013) .
Conclusion
The clinical integration approach and intensive information systems applied in IHC’s processes improved the care delivery and administrative functions of the organization. All the staff was interdependent in their functions allowing them to effectively review and analyze a patient’s data and offer the best care. The administrative functions enabled medical staff to easily view financial and management information.
References
Bohmer, R., Edmondson, A., & Feldman, L. (2013). Intermountain Health Care. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Taylor, F. (1998). The Principles of Scientific Management. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
