National Network of Libraries of Medicine
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The newly-revised information management standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) are such a change; with opportunities and challenges that may profoundly affect what health sciences librarians do for years to come. Considerable vision went in to the standards revision: that health care is an information intensive process; that information management is a process critical to the functioning of the organization and should be managed on a par with other critical resources; and that librarians are members of the information management team, as are information systems managers and medical records managers.
This potentially opens roles that haven't been available to many librarians -- substantive participation in institution-wide planning processes, for example. There are tremendous opportunities there and also challenges: library services will come under increasing pressure to demonstrate value toward furthering the organization's mission. And there are risks: will the librarian have an opportunity to be heard equal to that of the systems manager and the records manager? And, will the information management process be conducted in a collaborative spirit without debilitating internal strife? Different situations will result in different answers to these thorny questions.
To be successful one has to recognize and accept the realities of this landscape -- pursue the opportunities while embracing the risks. The two are not only linked, they are two sides of the same coin.
What can the RML do to help cope with these changes and increase librarians' chances of success? The answer to this will evolve and perhaps take a number of different forms, many of them familiar. It is not our job to ameliorate the force of change as it affects librarians. But it is our job to facilitate the management and exchange of knowledge-based information on behalf of health professionals in this region. To that end, and resources permitting, it makes sense to provide support to those librarians adapting to the realities of the information and health care environments into which we are entering.
The RML is at its best when it brings people together and catalyzes fruitful discussion. This process involves a kind of educating: raising issues, pointing the way, exhorting, and making connections for others to pursue. You are probably aware that there are experts in the health sciences library community who have done excellent work in the area of JCAHO information management standards. We are learning from them just as you may be doing. We should all avail ourselves of the work they have done.
Some helpful examples of this work have appeared recently. For example, the November 1993 issue of Network News (the newsletter of the Hospital Library Section of the Medical Library Association) includes a draft of the Library and Information Services Standards recently revised by the HLS Standards Committee under the direction of Connie Schardt. A detailed link between JCAHO and MLA standards is provided, along with a standards glossary, evaluation checklist, and an extensive standards resource list. This issue is a valuable resource in itself. At a more conceptual level is an excellent article by Christiane Jones in the October 1993 issue of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association entitled "Charting a path for health sciences librarians in an integrated information environment." Jones credits the JCAHO standards with ushering in an environment in health care settings much like that envisioned by the IAIMS initiatives in academic settings and she develops a vision of the librarian's role in that environment.
We have undertaken a modest assessment of this region's health care organizations to determine which of them are accredited by JCAHO. We will be contacting librarians and/or administrators at these organizations (first those scheduled for a site visit this year) to offer additional information or support regarding the revised information management standards and their implications for planning and organizing information services to meet organizational needs. If you have questions about your role in the management of information at your organization, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
We will keep you informed of other approaches we plan in this effort to prepare for our future. We are interested in your ideas and invite your comments.
