Currently, health care infrastructure is made up of silos of system functionality that requires multiple point to point interfaces that enables easy data sharing and intersystem communication. This kind of architecture mostly leaves important data stranded, adding unnecessary time to the end to end business and clinical processes. This problem becomes more complex as more system is added to the inflexible architecture. Another problem with the current environment is that it cannot scale to meet the forth coming prescribers demands for wireless connectivity to emerging clinical information system.
Therefore, the organizations that provides with health care services need to change their existing environment architecture into one that will be able to integrate new systems faster without sacrificing the existing IT investment in legacy systems. This can only be achieved by deploying an Enterprise Information Technology Acquisition (EITA) (Nas, 1996). EITA is a central Communication platform that is able to interconnect all the systems and allows them to use and speak the same language. Communications within the systems in the EITA is provided by a “middleware” software product.
The middleware system will always act as the message broker between all applications that are connected to it. Any system can be able to communicate through the middleware by the use of a standardized message format and a software adapter. Adapters allow any system to listen to data messages that are published to the middle ware system. Messages that have data appropriate to a system are subscribed to for system processing. Depending on the rules and regulations of a business the system can store the data or publish new data messages for other systems to utilize through the middleware.
Adapters need to be developed for the legacy application for them to be able to speak the middleware language. The advantage is that the cost of developing and maintaining an adaptor for legacy system is considerably less than the cost of developing and maintaining the point-to point interfaces (Spewak, 1992). The real supremacy of EITA is that it provides health care organizations with the ability to remove latency or lag times from the major business processes and procedures to be able to access real time managerial, financial and operating data.
This nimble business posture institutes and sustains a real-time enterprise that can be able to optimize its information assets for a strategic advantage in a very aggressive healthcare market. Vendors of the health systems should develop adaptors that can support most f the middle ware vendors. If your CPOE system does not locally enable middleware communication, you should revisit the strategic direction of the vendor and the system Enterprise architecture consists of various processes and structures of any organization.
An enterprise Architecture model is therefore a representation of these processes and structures. A good EA model will depict the organization both as it appears today and also how it will be in the future, and will map the various perceptions representing the architecture to another. Those perceptions will include both technical perspectives as well as business-oriented perspectives. In most cases the EA models acts as a communication bridge between senior IT professionals and business stakeholders (Mukherji, 2002). Enterprise Architecture has become a very common practice for larger IT and other organizations.
For the first time in history there is a methodology to include all of the different IT aspects and processes into a single practice. Realizing the full potential, of Enterprise Architecture (EA), however, can be challenging. There are different aspects of EA, which includes architecture planning, taxonomies governance, and ontologies; all of which affect its success without the right guidance, frameworks, tools and methodologies EA can quickly become unwieldy (Spewak, 1992). Health involves centralized programs and activities that ensures and provide for the health and well being of the people of general public.
This involves the direct provision of health care services and immunization programs as well as tracking and monitoring of public health indicators for the detection of trends and recognition of wide spread diseases/illness. It also comprises of both earned and unearned health care programs. Access to care It focuses on the access to the suitable care. It includes reorganizing the efforts to receive care, ensuring care is appropriate, in terms of type, location, care intensity and availability; providing seamless access to the knowledge of health care, enrolling providers; performing eligibility determination and managing patient movement.
Population Health Management & consumer safety Accesses health indicators and products used by consumers as a means to protect and promote the health of the general population. This comprises of health planning, monitoring of health and health management of humans, animals and animal products, and plants as well as tracking the spread of deadly diseases and pests. It is also involved in evaluating consumer products, food and drugs to evaluate the potential dangers and risks; education of the consumers and the general public; and the facilitation of health promotion and prevention of diseases and injuries (Nas, 1996).
Health Care Administration It ensures that the centralized health care resources are expanded effectively to promote quality, safety and efficiency. This includes the management of health care quality, cost utilization workload and abuse efforts. Health care delivery services It provides and supports the delivery of health care to its beneficiaries. This includes evaluating health status; ensuring quality services; planning health services and managing clinical information and documentation.