Katrina Health Case Study Analysis - Paper Example

Katrina Health was a program devised to help Katrina evacuees access medical care and health prescription through the use of an online platform. Through the aid of the federal government, states and private businesses, the online platform was made accessible through katrinahealth.org, where all evacuees could access a single platform for medical services. The concept came about from the idea and also the fact that evacuees would lose all their personal medical records. A reconstruction of the medical records was done, and later, the acute and chronic patient case files were recovered. Medical assistance was of critical importance considering that many of the evacuees needed help with medication considering that they suffered emotional and mental stress (Carando, 2017). Also, they suffered from the lack of food, water, and shelter. Katrina health contributed to fill in some of the lost information from the first medical records and help patients recover and gain access to the medical services they were in need of.

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The centralization of data meant that the data access was highly controlled and once in a decade the American Medical Association had developed a single platform for information storage.

The security in data access was done through a secured IP with the physician, and patient identification was verified before access to patient records is authorized.

The query of data and the use of single snapshot capture helped in the development of an information storage and retrieval system.

Weaknesses

The program was highly complicated during physician and patient verification; time consumption became a major issue leading to delayed services.

The program covered over 50 states including the affected states like Louisiana, in a big way coordination of activities was a major problem.

Dispensation of drugs posed to be a challenge since most of the regions was inaccessible for a long time; patients had to wait on medical deliveries.

Opportunities

Katrina Health program has the possibility of being scaled up to cover all the states of the United States through the use of a unique patient identifier. The advantage of this technique is that all patient data can be scaled to other nations.

The cost of implementation of the program was covered by a multifaceted team made of the federal government, state government, private businesses and the American Medical Association.

Threats

The use of a centralized system of conducting transactions poses a risk of data loss or hack. It is critical that the information is not stored in a centralized repository, it increases a risk of hacking and eventual data loss/corruption.

The opposition of the proposed program by freedom activists claiming that it is a tool of exercising control over people's freedoms and rights (Carando, 2017).

Cause and Effect Analysis

The use of a cost and impact analysis tool is aimed at generating ideas that would help in developing a solution to a problem. The problem, in this case, was the development of a uniform and single point of service that could serve millions of evacuees to access medical prescriptions after the loss of medical records with Hurricane Katrina (Frank, 2017). The following posed as challenges in the implementation of Katrina Health.

Manpower- Shortage of workforce during the implementation of the project posed as a great problem for the annexation of the program. Lack of access to doctors on the ground as most of them were also victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Methods-. Privacy rules posed as a detrimental factor in the implementation of a full-scale Katrina Health program. Bringing in technical and business experts in the implementation of Katrina health too much more time than anticipated hence it slowed down implementation of the program.

Machinery- Katrina health could only serve doctors one-third at a time, while a big number of doctors needed to use Katrina health system almost immediately

Money- Funding became a problem during the implementation of a nationwide Katrina Health-like program.

Materials- The lack of access tools such as computers and internet connections to Katrina Health program after the loss of all connectivity as an aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Process Decision Program Analysis

The process decision program analysis involves the mapping out of all conceivable events and contingencies that may occur during the movement from a problem definition to solution finding. It serves the purpose of analyzing any possible problems that might arise during the implementation of the program (Frank, 2017).

During the implementation of Katrina Health, there is need to analyze the issues that might arise up during the implementation of the program.

Problems and solutions that might have arose included:

Lack of skilled manpower in the implementation of the program. This challenge was abated through the maximization of hours in the implementation of the program.

Lack of doctors within the affected regions. This problem seemed much like an issue that could be abated through the coercing doctors to come back to service of patients despite the harsh conditions after the hurricane strike.

Lack of internet connectivity. This case scenario calls for a development of newer connection links with areas that lost connections to the web

References

Carando, G. (2017). FEMA: Hurricane Katrina Case Study- Communications Focus. Psucomm473.blogspot.co.ke. Retrieved 11 February 2017, from http://psucomm473.blogspot.co.ke/2008/11/fema-hurricane-katrina-case-study.html

Frank, B. (2017). The Health Effects of Hurricane Katrina. Case Studies. Retrieved 11 February 2017, from http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/hurricane_Katrina.html