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Essay Instructions: ASSESSED ACTIVITY - Individual assignment.

Impact of IT/IS in Health sector

Guidelines on the individual assignment.

Undertake an investigation of Health sector and produce a report .
The report must consist of the following:

1. Preface ? Brief introduction on the Health sector .
Real world scenario with IT/IS (Information technololgy/Information systems) as the main function.
Background - description on current health sector set up, it's nature, type of service and line of business, this will include it's IS strategy as well.

Number of words 500

2) Task 1 - External Environment

-Critically appraise the current and possible future technological innovations that are likely to impact the IS strategies for the health sector.

- Identify and discuss between 4-6 technological innovations.

-Discuss the non-technical issues that are likely to have impact on IS strategies (e.g. social, political, economic, global).

- Identify and discuss between 4-6 non-technical issues.

NOTE :
- Ensure all your sources are current and properly referenced.
-This section should be approximately 1000 words in length.

3) Task 2 - Internal Environment
Part of the IS design process is to identify and assess the potential negative scenarios.

- Identify and discuss potential problems in the initial IS design phase.
- You need to focus on the internal issues within the organization during the early stages of IS design.

-Apply consequence analysis techniques, assess and reconcile the possible negative impact of consequences.

Summarize your findings.

Note:
-This section should be about 1000 words in length.
-Identify any assumptions you have made.

4) Task 3 ? Summary
Using your answers from Task 1 and 2 to produce a summary report reconciling the external and the internal environment in IS strategic planning and development.

Note:
-This Task should bring together your findings from Task 1 and 2.
-This section should be approximately 800 words in length.


5) Task 4 ? Reflection
Produce a piece of reflective writing (approximately 700 words), discussing your approach to the above Tasks. Highlight your approach to problem investigation and any assumptions you have made.

Total Number of words (500+ 1000+ 1000+ 800+ 700 = 4000 words)

NOTE :
Report in MS word .doc file
Font size ? 12 - Times New Roman - 1.5 spacing

Essay Instructions: MANAGING OUT: THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN THE COMMUNITY

Process Analysis ??" (2500 words)

Analyse a process of ‘managing out’ that has been implemented or changed in the Australian public health care sector. The analysis should be presented in the formats of an internal report. (REFER UNDER FOR PROCESS CHOSEN FOR ANALYSIS)

The analysis should cover the following points:

1. The context, including any relevant (but very brief) historical background leading up to the process being implemented.

2. Process outline, including a brief description of what was actually implemented in terms of managing out with various parties.

3. The challenges and complexity for management, including but not limited to potential risks or problems and why there might be local variations in service delivery in what is supposed to be a coherent and consistent system.

4. Resource implications, including financial, associated with addressing the challenges.

5. Possible management strategies.

Notes for Assistance

? Include in the report a definition of ‘managing out’.
? Internal report needs to have the scope to cover all five points above. (The 5 points could also be used as headings- demonstrating the requirements).
? Need to demonstrate an ability to cover the appropriate style, content and analysis.

? When management strategies are developed they need to take into account the availability of such resources as:

??key staff with appropriate competencies

??operating funds

??capital funds

??capital equipment

??office space and fittings

??telecommunications

??other related agency needs

??appropriate policies

??standard operating procedures.

The existence and extent of these elements determine whether management has properly designed, sequenced and resourced the strategy.

? The overall aim is to relate contextual understanding of trends in Australian public policy to a particular process of managing out and enable analysis of concrete problems entailed in managing out and to explore potential solutions.

? Need to demonstrate clear understanding of the relationship between the managing out process and some of the main themes, concepts, problems and resources

? Need to demonstrate ability to apply theoretical and contextual understanding to a concrete example.

? Choose a process of managing out that gives scope to raise the issues. It is not the subject of the process that is important ??" it is analysing and managing the issues associated with the process.

? Avoid lengthy descriptions of the process.



Comments
Has the public health sector (agency) ‘outsourced’ a function previously managed in-house?
The ‘outsourcing’ might have been to the private sector, the ‘not for profit sector’ or even to another tier of government.
The assessment task is to identify, within the public health sector, the people and or the records of the outsourcing process.
The selected example then needs to be described, (who did what to whom, when and why and with what results) and analysed, using the 5 points (described above).

THE PROCESS CHOSEN ??" to form the basis of the internal report

A background paper was previously prepared concerning this topic, yet it doesn’t analyse a process of ‘managing out’ ??" see background.doc

Prior to implementation of the National Health Reform (see 7 below) New South Wales (NSW) comprised 8 Area Health Services, including Northern Sydney Central Coast Health ??" in 2009 this Area Health Service undertook an Area-wide VMO Quinquennium Process (see 1 and 2) to reappoint VMOs to Hospitals within the Area. The process involves a required Committee ??"Medical and Dental Appointments Advisory Committee (see 5). VMOs may be considered ‘contractors’, in that they are not employees of the organization.

As a result of the National Health Reform Agreement ??" the former Northern Sydney central Coast Health has been ‘split’ into:
- Northern Sydney Local Health District
- Central Coast Local Health District
With each District now being governed by a Board ??" the Northern Sydney LHD Board has asked for a background paper on the VMO Reappointment process.

Write an Internal Report to the Northern Sydney Local Health District Board (see 10 and 6 below) concerning the Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) Quinquennium (reappointment) Process (to analyse the process used and provide lessons learnt).

To support this task in the former Northern Sydney Central Coast health a centralised unit was formed ??" the Senior Medical Staff Unit. ??" (see attach 1). The process undertaken was compliant with the NSW Health Policy (see 1 and 2 below and attach 2 and 3). From a governance perspective, at the time ??" accountabilities were:
- Director Medical Workforce (reports to) Director Workforce (reports to) Chief Executive (reports to) Director-General.
- Under the new National Health Reform Agreement the ‘future’ of the Senior Medical Staff Unit is still in question ??" staff will have to be split to support the 2 Local Health Districts (no further resources are available). The Unit is currently based within the footprint of the Northern Sydney LHD though.

The process resulted in the appointment of 700 Visiting Medical Officers (Hi Nel, Using the former organisaton configuration (NSCCAHS approx 15,163 headcount) VMO's make up approx 5.3% of the workforce (Headcount, 700 in quinquinnium ??" email from Director Workforce Informatics, 20 July 2011 to Nel Buttenshaw


1. Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) Model Service Contracts - http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/policies/pd/2009/PD2009_052.html


2. Visiting Practitioners Appointment
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/policies/pd/2005/PD2005_496.html



3. Application for Appointment Senior Medical and Dental Practitioners
http://www.nscchealth.nsw.gov.au/employment/documents/seniormedicalpractitione-applicationforemployment.pdf



4. Annual Report ??" NSW Health 2009/10 (pg 293 for Northern Sydney Central Coast Health)
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2010/pdf/annualreport10.pdf


5. Corporate Governance & Accountability Compendium for NSW Health (pg 93 ??" medical & dental appointments advisory committee)
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/resources/policies/manuals/corp_gov_compendium_pdf.asp



6. Local Health Boards Announcement ??" Minister’s Media Release
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/2011/20110701_00.html


7. Background ??" National Health Reform
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/initiatives/healthreform/background.asp



8. Visiting practitioners and staff specialists delineation of clinical privileges policy for implementation

http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/policies/pd/2005/pdf/PD2005_497.pdf


9. Visiting Medical Officers' Fee-for-Service Agreement
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/policies/PD/2005/PD2005_434.html


10. Northern Sydney Local Health District
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/services/lhd/ns/index.asp#

Essay Instructions: Subject: Management, Case Study
Words: 2000
References: 7, Havard

you need to utilise a minimum of five (5) academic journal articles in addition to those sources mentioned previously.

Here the following is to access FinAnalysis database:

Assignment Details

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‘The dynamics among people in groups are largely responsible for both the success and failure of many work
units, as well as the satisfaction of the individuals working in them…Teams are the most popular way of coordinating the activities of people on the job…Knowing how to build effective teams is an essential competency among today’s managers’

Carefully read and evaluate the attached case study (provided below) by addressing the three (3) set questions at the end of the case study. You are required to present your response in a short report as instructed.

Case study
You have been engaged to implement an organisational change programme which focuses on developing interdisciplinary teamwork. The setting is within a mental health service unit that is part of a large hospital. You have a lot of experience as a change consultant in other areas, but this is the first time you have been
involved with the health sector. You want to do the job well because there is a possibility of much more work in this area.


There is a widely held belief within the hospital that multidisciplinary teams provide a framework for bringing together different professional skills and provide an effective model of service delivery. The different professions that typically input into current mental health services are those of psychiatry, nursing, clinical psychology, occupational therapy and social work. Currently, the different professions work very much on their own, although they come together once a week to allocate work and for case referral. No-one says ‘no’to any incoming work no matter how overloaded they are. It is obvious that the current system is fragmented and piecemeal because it is composed of individuals working together on an ad hoc basis.

Collaboration and skill mix is most often influenced by professional allegiances rather than by what is best for the patient. The meetings are usually dominated by the psychiatrist because he is the most powerful individual in the group. Occasionally the nursing group can override him because they have more members in the meeting. Little effective information about patients is exchanged and there is a long waiting list. The situation is widely recognised as inefficient and there is much overlap, replication and frustration.

At your first meeting you establish that only the nurses, support staff and secretaries are employed full time in the service, everyone else belongs to other teams and departments. There is no single overall administrative
system to support the clinicians and little joint discussion of patient needs. Everyone works in their own way and holds their own waiting list. The record keeping systems are highly individualised and there is no team leader, although the psychiatrist occupies the role informally.

The members of the team appear to be disinterested and resentful that money is being spent on a consultant to develop a team instead of buying additional resources to deal with waiting lists. The nurses are antagonistic toward any changes to their role. They have worked the same way for a number of years now and have little motivation to change. Others are interested in developing the team but say they are too busy to do it themselves. There are also significant power differences in the team that need to be tackled.

When you eventually get all the staff together (after some time as they all said they were too busy to meet), they sit around and say almost nothing, just staring at the floor. You have been given a contract to hold six
team-building sessions to decide the best way to develop a multidisciplinary team, but it is difficult to get the members to agree to meeting times and to move their thinking from procedural issues that are mostly small irrelevancies to larger operational procedures.

At one meeting, the psychiatrist became very angry about changes the team was undergoing and how it was no longer possible to offer the clients the service they once received. The usually silent support workers added that they felt isolated and overwhelmed. Everyone seemed to agree, and your sympathetic acknowledgement of their situation does little to sooth them. They complain that management has absolutely no idea of patient needs and money spent on things such as a uniform record keeping system and salaries for support staff could be better utilised funding more beds. The members suggest the team building exercise is just a waste of time
(Source: Dickie & Dickie 2006, pp. 173 ??" 174).

Questions
1. Describe the major impediments to team building that are present when you are first hired?

2. Discuss which stage of the group development model you expect to cause most difficulty and take most time. Why?

3. How will you go about overcoming the resistance of members and build a useful team? What strategies(recommendations) could be used?

Essay Instructions: Fact: I am not really sure what sociological issue can be talked about for this geographical area so I am asking for this help and have provided you with the information I have been given.

Problem: Needed a literature review about a neighborhood issue that is part of the background information presented below. I was thinking single parent families but you may find something better. Use 2-3 outside readings preferable sociological studies about one issue relating to this neighborhood and social mobility (San Leandro, California). Based on the background information I have sent you please focus on one sociological issue using 2-3 sources. This is a literature review only. Perhaps single parent families or if you see a better sociological topic to focus on for this community please feel free to develop a different idea. I just need to have three sources and all need to be APA cited. This is the Literature review part of a big paper.

Assignment: 3 page literature review on one issue relating to neighborhoods and mobility. Use the literature and be sure to cite this using APA.

EXAMPLE: (For example, in my zip code 94109, we deal issues of wealth neighboring urban poverty. I might look up research on segregation in San Francisco. I might also find an article on urban poverty in San Francisco. I will discuss the main point of both articles and relate them to our discussion of racial inequality)

BACKGROUND:
San Leandro is a small suburban city located in the county of Alameda in the American state of California. The city of San Leandro has an estimated population of around eighty four thousand nine hundred and fifty, according to current estimates of the United States bureau of Statistics Census. The city of San Leandro City is one of the major cities in California and has the greatest number of white residents relative to other cities. The average number of Whites (31,946) exceeds the average population of African Americans (10,437), Native American (669), Asian (25,206) and Pacific Islander (642), other races (16, 050) and Latino/Hispanics (23,237 (“American Fact Finder” 2010). For every ninety-three male residents in the location there are one hundred female residents. An average of one hundred females exceeding the age of eighteen match an estimated eighty-nine males of the same age. The average household income for the residents of this city is slightly above fifty one thousand dollars while that of families falls in the region of sixty thousand dollars. The male residents earn an average of forty one thousand dollars compared to females who bring in thirty three thousand four hundred dollars in income. The entire city’s per capita income is twenty three thousand eight hundred and ninety-five dollars, divided between four and a half percent of the city’s families and about six and a half of the city’s population deemed to be living below the line of poverty (“American Fact Finder” 2010). The number of individuals living below the level of poverty is inclusive of 7.3 percent of individuals that are aged eighteen years and 6.5 percent of older people whose age exceeds sixty-five years.
San Leandro has a notable presence of single female householders who have children. The household distribution statistics indicate twenty-nine percent of all households being single person households. Female householders with children make up six percent of all the households in comparison to two percent that comprise of male householders with children. This indicates a financial strain on the part of women who have to single handedly cater for the needs of their families (“American Fact Finder” 2010). These figures also indicate the presence of a flourishing family life in the city with married couples that have children making up twenty one percent of the households and married couples that do not have children being twenty six percent. This indicates that the number of families that practice family planning is significant.
There seems to be a generally equal distribution of resources for both males and females in the city of San Leandro. Although males earn incomes that slightly exceed those earned by their female counterparts, statistics indicate that they earn it the hard way, with a majority of them working in the construction and service industries. There is a slight disparity in the expenditures of males and females in the city. With the presence of single parent households that females head, it is an indication that most of the income earned by females finds use in catering for the family. The statistics paint the city as an area occupied by generally affluent Hispanics, with most of them being homeowners. In terms of economic disparities, the city has a relatively small percentage of people living below the poverty line (“American Fact Finder” 2010). The city also has enough facilities in terms of education and the health sector although this will merit an address in future because of its notable yearly population growth since the year 2000. For San Leandro city to achieve Race, gender and social equality, it needs systemic changes in social interaction modes and in policy at all levels of the city. As the American Fact finder website illustrates, this includes public services, work, home, media and at school. The American fact finder demonstrates that white and black students attending high school in affluent environments have minimal chances of dropping out of school relative to those attending schools in poor environments. Evidently, the most critical element in bearing on the success rate of students was the affluence of the school and not the racial aspect of the student body. Students attending racially mixed schools scored a high performance relative to students attending all-black schools. Therefore, the distances in the quality of school between all-black schools and racially mixed schools are increasing at the higher education level. As a result, it can be arguably said that absence of the spatial segregation of minorities, most social ills characterizing urban poverty in the city of San Leandro would not exist.
With the deep rooted Race, gender and social factors perpetuating ethnicity, economic inequality, ethnic and racial conflict, educational inequalities, the city is in a tremendous need of reframing the issues and create strategies for change. Framing issues of gender equality is reflected through social justice and human rights. It permits men to view participation in gender issues as actions helping to improve human rights at all levels within the city. This framework of human rights offers a solid instrument for fighting ethnicity, economic inequality, ethnic and racial conflict, educational inequalities in the city.


Below are links to signle parent literature studies as I need 2-3 outside sociological studies as part of this literature review. I have included a couple below but certainly you are welcome to find your own or concentrate on a totally different sociological issue that I am not seeing.

POSSIVLE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES to use:
These articles are about Single Parent Families.
The Single-Parent Family: A Social and Sociological Problem
Jane K. Burgess
The Family Coordinator
Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1970), pp. 137-144
Published by: National Council on Family Relations
Article Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/582443
found at
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/582443?uid=3739560&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102799134293


http://www.prb.org/pdf10/single-motherfamilies.pdf

http://ronaldg.bol.ucla.edu/Rons_UCLA_Homepage/Reese,_Balzano,_et_al,_1995_files/Reese,%20Balzano,%20Gallimore%20%26%20Goldenberg,%201995.pdf

http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7493