UMUC Family Clinic - Case Study Example

UMUC Family Clinic Case Study - Plan Proposal In the current speedy and constantly advancing technological world, healthcare stakeholders are fighting tooth and nail to ensure they adopt the best innovative technologies. This is aimed at playing a significant role in promoting efficiency, accuracy and effectiveness in the delivery of Medicare services. To be precise, adoption of quality technologies has been one of the most crucial subjects of concern in delivering the best Medicare services (Rodrigues, 2010). Furthermore, one of the most recent technological innovations that many healthcare centers are going after is the implementation of Electronic Health Records System (EHR). In order to make sure that the implementation of this targeted system is successful, it is important that major emphasis is laid on planning. In this sense, this paper focuses on coming up with a plan on how and which electronic health records (EHR) system will be implemented via an account of the UMUC Family Clinic. Delivery of high quality Medicare services has always been at the forefront of the UMUC family Clinic’s operation goals. To achieve this objective integration of most recent technologies is the key to ensuring that the goal is achieved and promoting competitiveness of the centre in the healthcare industry. Among the key concerns is increasing efficiency, accuracy and effectiveness in the delivery of healthcare services at UMUC Family Clinic. On this basis, this proposal focuses on coming up with a technological solution that will play a significant role in improving the quality of care, safety and financial incentives for the Clinic (McCormick & Gugerty, 2013). It is very essential to clarify that the implementation of a high quality electronic health records (EHR) system is a fundamental subject in ensuring that UMUC Family Clinic ends up delivering high quality services. In this sense, the key business process that needs to be improved is as stipulated below (Scarlat, 2012). This is the patient check in process, at the front office nurse. Currently, the UMUC Family Clinic maintains a paper-based check in system, which has proved to be a significant challenge in promoting the day-to-day operation goal at the Clinic. This has resulted into a lot of overhead on the Clinic staff, time wastage, poor billing procedures and stressful to patients (Saba, 2012). It is in this regard, the following Electronic Health Records System is proposed to aid in solving the aforementioned business process challenges experienced at the Clinic. In simple terms, the Agility EHR 10 (Electronic Health Records) system has been proposed as the solution. It is essential to clarify that the Agility EHR 10 entails a set of well-integrated components that will add immense to the day-to-day operations of the UMC Family clinic. In essence, the system will play a very important in streamlining the check in process and also ensure that almost all the key operations at the Medicare centre are executed efficiently. With the installation of the Agility EHR system, the clinic will benefit a lot from three key areas of information processing, which are data confidentiality integrity and availability (Sinha, 2012). Product name is Agility EHR. The product version number is ten (10). It is crucial to specify that in order to gain the best operations out of this product, there is great need for additional software to be integrated in the day-to-day operations. The additional software includes Cerner Multum, Multum VantageRx version 3, Elsevier and ExitCare version 7.5. The certifying body for the Agility EHR is the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology. Lastly but certainly not the least, the CHPL Product number is CC-2014-615770-1. Capturing of the above information has been considered as one of the fundamental subjects in coming up with the proposal. This is because it aids in providing the head of the UMUC Family Clinic, Dr. Martin, with the main descriptive data of the system. It provides a bird’s eye view of the key attributes of the Agility HER 10 system (Rodrigues, 2010). Upon a thorough analysis of the Agility EHR 10 as the proposed solution, it is important to list out the set of software and hardware components necessary for its implementation at the Healthcare setting. To be precise, in order to execute smooth implementation of the targeted EHR system at the UMUC Family Clinic, the following hardware and software components have to be put into close consideration (Lighter, 2011). In essence, there is a substantial number of hardware required for implementation of the Agility EHR 10 system. These include five personal computers for the UMUC Family Clinic each with an internal hard disk memory of five hundred (500) gigabytes, a minimum of twenty one-inch TFT screen, core i3 Processor, four gigabytes (4gb) in random access memory (RAM). Furthermore, an inkjet or a laser-colored printer is a key requirement as it aids in generation of clear reports about different aspects of the daily operations at the health care centre McCormick & Gugerty, 2013). It is important to clarify that the above hardware specifications are for the personal computers to be used by the UMUC Staff mainly, the two nurses, Dr. Martin, the targeted pharmacist and an extra PC for use as a server. To ensure smooth storage of data it is important a database storage system preferably Microsoft MySQL server with a minimum memory space of five terabytes is made available for the Clinic. This will create a quality platform for secure storage of system and hospital data (Scarlat, 2012). Other hardware needs are also important for the implementation of the Agility EHR 10 system. They include an electrocardiogram simulator for measuring and recording a heart’s electrical activity. The integration of this data to the Agility EHR system is another vital feature in the ensuring that it delivers quality services necessary. This is to enhance effectiveness of the system in promoting competitiveness of the UMUC Family Clinic. Alongside this is a holter monitor for determining the heart rhythm of the patients and Spirometers for measuring lung functions (Rocker, & Ziefle, 2012). In the current technology driven healthcare world, the success of any new technology is the ability to perform operations over the internet. In this regard, the other hardware requirements are computer-networking devices necessary for promoting internet connectivity. These hardware requirements are twisted pair internet cables, a switch, a router and cloud network connectivity storage centre (Sinha, 2012). In essence, they will aid Dr. Martin and other authorized staff members to execute online management of the key operations of Agility EHR 10 system (Lighter, 2011). In terms of software requirements, it is essential that each of the personal computers is installed with Windows 7 Professional or newer versions. This will provide a quality platform for the integration and management of the data stored in Microsoft SQL database. A firewall and the latest copy of Kaspersky antivirus is a crucial need for smooth implementation of the Agility EHR 10 system (Wager, Lee & Glaser, 2013). However, the antivirus will have to be configured in a manner that it will not detect the EHR system as a malicious software. In essence, the antivirus along with the firewall will act as a set of key tools in ascertaining that data access and system operational manipulation by unauthorized users or applications is prevented (Skolnik, 2011). It is vital to note that one of the key aspects in reduction of number of staff and cost of a new software installation, is to adopt in the mode of software-as-a-service. However, in the case of the UMUC Family Clinic, the Agility EHR 10 is proposed to be installed on the client computers at the centre. This is a very important as it will pave way for the care centre to practice stepwise growth in terms of adoption of information technology. To be precise, the installation of this system on the personal computers at the centre will aid the centre in the following ways (Rocker, & Ziefle, 2012). Firstly, when adopted in the software-as-a-service mode, it will mean that the care centre stays in an unclear and worried information environment. This is staying with the fear that an employee with own motives at the third party company can easily alter the data values (Busch, 2008). Hence, this will, again provide negative effect on the subject of integrity, which has always been a very fundamental requirement in promoting the success of the centre. Therefore, installation of the software in the client computers will play a significant role in guaranteeing data confidentiality, integrity and availability (Rodrigues, 2010). Secondly and most importantly, a key requirement by Dr. Martin is to have a staff base that can progressively learn key technological aspects of the Medicare industry. In this sense, with the installation of the system at the client computers, it will be very easy for them to learn and share new ideas as they interact with the available information technology staff or representative. In other words, the main concern in the implementation of this proposal is that technology is adopted in a manner that it paves way for systematic advancement. Stepwise implementation of information technology is the building block to ensuring that employees can learn and benefit from it. That is, if the employees at the UMUC Family clinic are not given time to have adequate hands on experience with the system, then, it can easily end up being a failed project. It is hereby crucial that the Agility EHR 10 is installed in the client computers for them to practice effective use (Skolnik, 2011). It is important to make it clear that, as stipulated earlier, there is great need for the UMUC Family clinic to install the proposed Agility EHR 10 system in the client computers. The operations and data should be stored in an internal data storage centre with a minimum of five terabytes. Furthermore, internet connectivity to a cloud network should be enabled to ensure that the system key operations can be accessed by the predefined users even when at their respective homes. This will play huge role in easy management of the care centre at all times. In addition, cloud network connectivity will promote the idea of having a secure secondary data storage centre. Cloud network storage can aid the Clinic in situations of need for data recovery. In general, as soon as the proposed Agility EHR10 is implemented, the current business process challenges experienced at the Clinic will be brought to an immediate halt. It will not only enhance the standards of healthcare delivery but also play significant role in increasing the profit levels and meeting most of the key operational goals at UMUC Family Clinic. References Busch, R. S. (2008). Electronic Health Records: An Audit and Internal Control Guide. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Lighter, D. E. (2011). Advanced performance improvement in health care: Principles and methods. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. McCormick, A & Gugerty, B. (2013). Healthcare Information Technology exam guide for CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician and HIT Pro certifications. New York: McGraw-Hill. (Accessed on: 28 May 2014) Rocker, C & Ziefle, M. (2012). E-health, assistive technologies and applications for assisted living: Challenges and solutions. Hershey PA: Medical Information Science Reference. (Accessed on: 25 May 2014) Rodrigues, J. (2010). Health information systems: Concepts, methodologies, tools and applications. Hershey PA: Medical Information Science Reference. (Accessed on: 27 May 2014) Saba, V. K. (2012). Clinical care classification (CCC) system, version 2.5: Users guide. New York: Springer Pub. Co. Scarlat, A. (2012). Electronic health record: A systems analysis of the medications domain. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis. (Accessed on: 28 May 2014) Sinha, P. K. (2012). Electronic health records: Standards, coding systems, frameworks, and infrastructures. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Skolnik, N. S. (2011). Electronic medical records: A practical guide for primary care. New York: Humana. (Accessed on: 27 May 2014) Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2013). Health care information systems: A practical approach for health care management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Read More