Poor healthcare IT infrastructure has contributed to patient care problems at Indian Health Service (IHS) hospitals, concluded a recent report by the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The report found that the IHS had insufficient healthcare IT infrastructure to maintain quality assurance and monitoring at its hospitals.
In addition, the OIG cited a report by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), which found deficiencies in infrastructure updates at IHS facilities. Other problems found by the council included failure to segregate staff responsibilities and maintain records.
The report identified other issues at IHS hospitals that contribute to substandard patient care. These included:
- Lack of formal structure, policies, and roles: IHS officials said that they were uncertain about their roles and those of other officials, including the authority to act in correcting problems. This leads to no accountability and inadequate patient care. This was particularly problematic regarding roles and responsibilities of IHS headquarters and area offices.
- Lack of a clear view of hospital performance and problems: OIG found that IHS headquarters lacked awareness and insight about area office activities and hospital performance. In addition, the organizational culture at HIS did not encourage candid communication, with what one official called a “culture of niceness” that sometimes impeded useful discussion of problems.
- Lack of confidence in IHS’s ability to succeed: IHS officials expressed a commitment to and passion for the IHS mission and patients. However, officials doubted that the agency could make sustained improvements.
To tackle these issues, OIG suggested that IHS develop powerful organizational structures that are sustained throughout leadership changes, gain a thorough and candid perspective of performance and problems, and leverage official and staff commitment to promote higher confidence in the agency’s ability to improve.
“To make meaningful and lasting improvements, IHS needs to overcome underlying organizational problems that have hampered its success,” the report stressed.
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Photo courtesy of: HIT Infrastructure
Originally Published On: HIT Infrastructure
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