Common Models in Health Informatics Evaluation

Have you ever watched a movie in which the same scene was shown several times but as viewed by different individuals? Or, have you watched a detective show in which the witnesses all had differing accounts? The same can hold true for conducting an evaluation of a health information technology project. How you plan and conduct the evaluation is largely dependent on the viewpoint you assume and the perspective with which you approach the evaluation.
Consider a new patient discharge protocol at a small hospital. Do you want to know how the patient feels about the process? Do you want to gather the opinions of nurses who are using this process? Perhaps you want to determine if it is saving the hospital money by freeing up bed space in a more timely fashion. Obtaining each of these viewpoints would require a different approach. Depending on the goal of your evaluation, the model and viewpoint you opt to use will likely vary.
In this Discussion, determine which evaluation model would be most effective for evaluating the health information technology described in one of the scenarios below. Your Instructor will assign a specific scenario by Day 1 of this week.
Scenario 1: You have recently provided a training program to help nurses and physicians become proficient in the use of a new bedside medication verification (BMV) system.
Scenario 2: The Chief Medical Officer at your hospital is interested in finding out the impact of a new decision support system on the number of adverse events occurring in the past year.
Scenario 3: You are helping with the design of a new outpatient surgery center to be built adjacent to the hospital. You are tasked with evaluating the opinions of physicians, nurses, and the general public toward this facility.
To prepare:
Review the information on the types of evaluation models covered in this week?s Learning Resources.
Determine which model would be most appropriate to use for evaluation in the scenario to which you were assigned.
Consider why the viewpoint of the scenario or situation would impact the model used.
View the scenario from a different viewpoint, and consider how a different model might be used.
Reflect on the importance of basing an evaluation on a model.