Electronic Health Record Project Management - Essay Example

Electronic Health Record Project Management al affiliation Qualities of a personal health record It should have all the relevant data of an individual. The personal health record should provide perceptible user value. It should not be cumbersome to learn and use. Elements of the vendor selection process Cost-benefit analysis will help put the relevant costs and benefits on a general temporal footing by considering the time for money calculations. Considering the cost-benefit analysis, it will enable the project management team know the needs of the patient; thus, knowing what vendor best suites the needs stated by the patients and the cost of implementing the system (Coplan & Masuda, 2011). Request for information is a process in standard business, which helps in the collection of information which is in writing about various capabilities of vendors. Its format helps in making comparisons, while the request for proposal is a binding process issued early during procurement, where according to Coplan & Masuda (2011) vendors get invitations to tender a proposal on services or commodities. One is preferable because the request for information and request for proposal aim at getting the right vendor for a project. The project management team may choose both to provide a large ground for selection using the request for information, while the request for proposal will give details on what the vendor has on offer. There are elements to consider including; the background of the organization, project description, requirement for the design, infrastructure, functional and technical requirements, the estimated duration of the project, the agreement and assumptions, submission information and the anticipated selection schedule (Coplan & Masuda, 2011). The managing director would be the best contact person because the director is the principal signatory and has access to information relating to the organization. The information technology manager would be a contact person on functional and technical requirements, while the project manager would be the contact person on project description and requirement for the design elements. To establish a formal relationship with the vendors, ensure that the procedure for selection is ethical, and maintain a professional relationship with the vector by providing all the information and materials needed to foresee the project. In the words of Coplan & Masuda (2011), so as to create a genuine relationship with company representatives, it is vital to take them as colleagues and involve them in decision making. This will indeed help to avoid collision of ideas and interest. Electronic health record (EHR) applications They include; MediTouch EHR Electronic Health Record application, Allscripts Professional EHR application, eClinicalWorks EMR application and Greenway PrimeSUITE 2011 EMR application (Coplan & Masuda, 2011). The greenway prime suite application can be used to integrate the delivery networks of patient in the acute care for fast services. It creates regional extension centers, so as to serve as many patients as possible who require immediate action. It exchanges health information between the centers (Coplan & Masuda, 2011). The Medi touch EHR Electronic health record application finds its application in making health charts, medication management, checking for allergy and document management for patients in the acute care unit as it is fast; it operates under the touch screen user interface (Coplan & Masuda, 2011). The Allscripts Professional EHR application functionality in the acute care section by clinical end-user is; keeping health records, e-prescribing, patient scheduling and making medical bills for patients. The application is crucial for clinical end-users to help serve a large number of patients (Coplan & Masuda, 2011). The eClinicalWorks EMR application facilitates integrating and tracing statewide health record networks throughout the centers such that patients can get treatment from any centre. It helps address the needs of most specialties. The application also helps give a patient portal for direct communication with the health care center. Human resources needed in the acute care setting They include nurses who administer the recording of information and retrieval from the applications in the acute care section. An information technology specialist would help train the nurse on how to use the applications and also for repairs to the system. The new technology should have almost the same interfaces as the old technology to enable interlocking of interfaces. This will ensure both technologies are running concurrently (Amatayakul & Lazarus, 2005). Functional applications needed by clinical end-users in the outpatient setting The functional applications needed by clinical end-users in the outpatient setting include; the aquatics therapy applications, the balanced training and the Neurorehabilitation application. The aquatics therapy applications functionalities include rehabilitation of outpatients; it is efficient with a combination of other traditional therapies of outpatients. The balanced training applications provides extensive and individualized assessments on the reasons for decreased balance that increases the risk of falling including strength, posture and coordination of outpatients. Coplan & Masuda (2011) indicates that the Neurorehabilitation application is essential in specialized stroke treatment, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury in outpatients. The human resources needed in outpatients include; neurosurgeons, nurses and aquatic therapists. Models used today in health information exchanges. In the centralized model, there is the collection of medical data from local sources, which gets keyed in to the repository. In this model, the patient data get routing through the central repository. The local entities are able to maintain autonomy through cooperation and provide data at a regional or local level. The decentralized system provides organizational control of the records available in the healthcare and provides the framework for sharing data to the enterprises widely distributed across the nation or regions. In this model, Amatayakul & Lazarus (2005) argue that the local entities possess their data while the record locator services are the manager of pointers to information. Benefits of health information exchanges They help in centralizing and consolidating data making data request quick. They help reduce medication errors and help reduce redundant testing. Health information exchanges help save costs of an EHR and puts value of completeness of medical records thus ensures quality patient care and saving lives. Factors to be considered by an organization in providing a personal health record to patients The organization should consider the number of patients attending healthcare. If there are few patients then the organization should choose a simple record keeping system, and if the patients are many, then the health record system should be complex to accommodate all of them. The security and privacy of health record is crucial. This is because the health records of patients is and should remain a secret between the medical practitioners and their patients. Accessibility of health record is a Herculean consideration. This is because the information should be easy to access in case of an emergency like during blood transfusion. The organization should consider a system which ensures fast access of health records (Amatayakul & Lazarus, 2005). Other organizations offering personal health records include the Medem Company and the Tennessee Blues which are government certified. Challenges in implementing health information exchanges The system requires Herculean fees associated with electronic transmission of information. The vendors of the systems pit the interests of hospitals and physicians against each other. There are competition relations that pose problems due to the limitation in the amount of information exchanged. References Amatayakul, M. & Lazarus, S. (2005). Electronic health records: Transforming your medical practice. Englewood: Medical Group Management Association. Coplan, S., & Masuda, D. (2011). Project management for healthcare information technology. New York: McGraw Hill. Read More