An importance of informational supply

The relevance of information supply in the work of any company is crucial. Vulnerabilities and flaws in informational system architecture can result in fatal errors as well as a chronic deterioration in the effectiveness of business processes inside the organization.

A case study illustrating system organization and faults

A case study illustrates an example of a hospital’s wrong informational system organization or a specific fault that can occur in such a system. The fault in the system could be related to the hospital’s identification procedure and customer information-keeping methods. As a result of this issue, the client’s information is attached to the file of the other client (no data if it is namesake). The possible roots of the situation may be in the sphere of “human factor” (just verbal acknowledgement of the demographic data, errors in a process of data entering) and/ or database structure and usage practice (organization of database keys makes it possible to mix namesakes, users do not know how to use unique keys for correct clients identification).

Correcting the situation

To correct the situation I would define all diagnostic information inserted by mistake to the other client’s file and rewrite it to the correct one. To distinguish that data I would use types, dates and hours of diagnostic procedures as they been planned for Ms. Gibson. For the realization of this procedure should be informed an administration of the hospital as it should have information about all serious errors in the organization processes. The possible positive changes the administration may construct in response includes the crosschecking of the client identity during the diagnostic procedures.

Informing relevant personnel and departments

I would, in addition, inform the doctor of Ms. Gibson as he can provide detailed information on the procedures’ timeline, clerks (nurses) as they will do information transition. I would also inform radiology and other departments providing procedures to clarify if any information from wrong client’s file is used for procedures organization. That way I can evaluate the reliability of diagnostic results.

Preventing future occurrences and training personnel

To avoid such situation in the future I would inform IT department about mistake and request details about database architecture. After an investigation, it should become clear which specific detail or principle of data entering, editing, rewriting, and keeping the lead to the possibility of using the wrong file after application of verbal data acknowledgment. As the result of this process, some changes should be done in the hospital information system, in particular, it may be another windows design including reminds for the personnel about the importance of client’s documents checking, numerical id and unique keys usage and so on. For example, it may prohibit next forms filing until strong procedure of verification is applied (with numeric codes).

HR department should also receive detailed information about the case to develop new training on information security and database usage for the hospital personnel. Those way employees will get directions on the full procedure of the clients’ identification that will prevent such cases in the future through clerks fault. The other bit of knowledge employees working with hospitals’ database need to learn includes possible errors in the process of files rewriting and editing (however, their possibility should be minimized mostly through IT technologies, not a humans control).

Informing the hospital lawyer

Finally, the hospital lawyer should be informed about the case to analyze and evaluate risks and losses for clients and hospital, as personal data require safekeeping and should not be shared with people outside very specific group of users, while in the case it could be compromised and shared with the wrong client.