Naxvegas Hospital is a non-profit organization with the objective of offering quality care and treatment to those in demand of health services. The 60 members of the staff in the hospital include doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, radiologists, health records personnel, and the subordinates. The hospital can attend to an average of 40 patients in a day. It contains a bed capacity of 100 patients in the wards.
The need for E.H.R system
In the current state, the hospital uses paper records in its operations but there is a need to establish an Electronic Heath Record (E.H.R) system. Since time immemorial, Naxvegas Hospital has been experiencing problems regarding disorganization and inefficiency. The administration faces a challenge to assure patients that their health records are secure and free from unauthorized access. Another problem associated with paper based records is that they requires much office space, they are difficult to document and hard to retrieve from the filing section when not properly arranged. The E.H.R system guarantees efficiency in clinical workflows since it becomes easy to retrieve stored patient information using a computer. The system reduces the waiting time and this increases the confidence in patients (Miller & Sim, 2004).
Goals and objectives
Strategic objective # 1: “Develop high quality and safety regarding our services”
Objectives
- Implement actions outlined in the Quality Improvement Plan to guarantee quality is services offered
- Establish care pathways and quality standards based on the new procedures in treatment of heart failure and colonoscopy
Strategic objective # 2: “Offer new services to take care of the growing health demands in the society”
Objectives
- Evaluate the client engagement strategies and point out the opportunities to promote care services
- Establish a sleep Lab
- Expand the healthcare services offered to attend to the demands of the target population.
BUDGET
Electronic Health Records system resource requirements
The Project Manager is Mr. Terry Williams, the Chief Health information Manager in Naxvegas Hospital. The manager will offer leadership and guides the project team to ensure that the hospital benefits from the implementation of an Electronic Heath system. The team comprises six members as stated below
I prefer an in-house E.H.R system compared to an outside one since its advantages outweighs the disadvantages. In terms of security, an in-house system looks much better. The physical location of the system will be within the hospital and the management will be involved in direct control to keep away any unauthorized access and intruders (Institute of Medicine U.S., 2001). . The Project manager with the entire IT team is charged with the responsibility to offer the right to access information. The system safety depends on the Hospital itself unlike in the outside system that depends on the third party to offer the required security.
Hospitals that depend on outside services are at a great risk of downtime during precarious E.H.R system failures, and this leads to decreased productivity. The IT contactor may take long span of time before responding to system failure and this affects the way care is delivered to the patient. The staff may be disappointed with the hurdles associated with the retrieval of patient information in such times. Therefore, an in-house electronic system is better compared to an outside one.
The Electronic Record System will be implemented in a span of six months before it becomes operational. The timeframe covers the period from 1st June to 31st December, 2014. In early 2015, Naxvegas Hospital will shift from paper-based records to electronic records.
References
Miller, R. H., & Sim, I. (2004). Physicians' Use Of Electronic Medical Records: Barriers And Solutions. Health Affairs. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.23.2.116
