University of South Carolina, Arnold School of Public Health, Dept. of Health Services Policy and Management Courses and Curricula
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HSPM J713
Information Systems Management for Health Administration
Fall 2009

Samuel L. Baker, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Office: HESC 121. Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 10am-12m or e-mail for an appointment
Phone: (803)777-5045
E-mail:
For course-related e-mail, please include 713 in the subject.

Classes meet Mondays from 3:30pm to 5:50pm in Wardlaw 116. The classes can be watched online. If you watch during the class, you can participate by live chat. Please see http://blackboard.sc.edu for how to watch this course online.

The required work for you is two take-home essay exams.

Course schedule

24-Aug-09 Class 1
Austin and Boxerman's Chapter 1
Learning objectives: Be able to write about ...
... broadly, the history and current state of health services information systems
... how well health care system challenges and their implications align with health care information system priorities

31-Aug-09 Class 2
Austin and Boxerman's Chapter 2
Learning objectives: Be able to write about ...
... the job duties and responsibilities of CIO, and the CEO and other leaders as they relate to IT
... the key knowledge, skills, abilities that CIO must have
... the various paths to becoming CIO
... an organizational chart for HIT
... the future challenges to the CIO

7-Sep-09 No class

14-Sep-09 Class 3
Guest lecture: Paul Browne, MD, of the USC Medical School
Learning objective: Be able to write about what a leading local HIT innovator thinks is important for you future managers to know.

21-Sep-09 Class 4
Austin and Boxerman's chapter 3
Learning Objectives: Be able to write about ...
... why strategic planning, in health care IM, has become important
... five components of IM governance
... the major elements of an IM strategic plan
... the basics of systems theory, and why you need it for IM planning

28-Sep-09 No class

5-Oct-09 Class 5
Austin and Boxerman's chapter 4
Learning Objectives: Be able to write about ...
... what causes IM project failures
... what differentiates project management, program management, and portfolio management
... project management's five key processes
... project metrics and portfolio dashboards
... the portfolio management office's roles and functions
... what is needed to reach the synchronized stage

12-Oct-09 Class 6
Guest Lecture: Nancy Wilkes, head of IT for the parent company of Doctor's Care, a chain of urgent care centers
Learning objective: Be able to write about what a leader in medical practice information technology thinks is important for you future managers to know.

19-Oct-09 Class 7 Mid-term Exam due
Austin and Boxerman's chapter 5
Learning Objectives: Be able to write about ...
... the justification for government intervention in business.
... five ways government intervenes in the business of health care
... why we need government to invest in IM technology for health care
... eight components of HIPAA
... how to assess an organization's readiness for transactions and code set development
... why privacy and security of data are important issues
... four questions to answer in making privacy policy
... IM leadership's role in responding to legislation

26-Oct-09 Class 8
Austin and Boxerman's chapter 6
Learning Objectives: Be able to write, using technical terms, about ...
... hardware and software
... network pieces and structures
... software types: operating systems, utilities, applications
... telecommunication basics

2-Nov-09 Class 9
Austin and Boxerman's chapter 7
Learning Objectives: Be able to write about ...
... what happens when IM work is unplanned
... process improvement frameworks, and their pros and cons
... the components of one such framework, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and its service support components
... the value of a configuration management database

9-Nov-09 Class 10
Austin and Boxerman's chapter 8
Learning Objectives: Be able to write about ...
... the types of application software used in health care organizations
... the types' functionality and end users
... the evolution of medical records from paper to EHR
... clinical decision support software
... applications for research and medical education

16-Nov-09 Class 11
Austin and Boxerman's chapter 9
Learning Objectives: Be able to write about ...
... how knowledge affects health care quality
... the knowledge vs. information distinction
... Sensemaking, knowledge management, and "Baking" knowledge into workflows
... why an institution should invest in data warehousing, data mining, and data analytics

23-Nov-09 Class 12
Guest lecture: Michelle Edwards, CIO of Palmetto Health Alliance
Learning objective: Be able to write about what the chief information officer of a major regional hospital group thinks you future health care managers need to know about IT.

30-Nov-09 Class 13
Austin and Boxerman's chapter 10
Learning Objectives: Be able to write about ...
... why it's better to make decisions based on realized value than upon anecdote, inference, and opinion
... five changes in health care that make IM/IT decision-making more challenging today than in the past
... examples of IM/IT costs and outcomes changes that always should be adopted and other changes that never should be adopted
... the major techniques for evaluating IM/IT investments
... the steps in cost evaluation
... why certain types of IM/IT applications are less likely to be used
... the value realization and total cost of ownership methodologies

7-Dec-09 Final Exam due
No Class

We will be using Austin and Boxerman's Information Systems for Healthcare Management, Seventh Edition, August 2008. This is the current edition of a long-time standard text in this field. The Health Administration Press website page for this book has a link to the table of contents.

The book is available on Amazon.com (search for Austin and Boxerman) and other online retailers.

The book emphasizes how to organize for IT change in a larage institution. It also has some useful material on HIPAA. I'll supplement the book with other material and guest lectures by local IT practitioners.

The Health Information Technology (HIT) Summit of South Carolina is an initiative that we will want to follow this semester. The state, in collaboration with the major universities, wants to set up an IT extension service, modelled after the Clemson agricultural extension service, to help health care providers implement information technology. The Federal government's early 2009 economic stimulus law includes money and incentives, positive and negative, for health care providers to upgrade their information systems. Expect to be assigned to read materials from this project.

A reading to be scheduled: Measuring What Matters, electronically, automatically, (somewhat) painlessly. A report from the real-world field of innovation and implementation, by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has a three initiatives that we will want to look in to: