Family clinic case study

Purpose of this Assignment

This assignment gives you the
opportunity to apply your analysis and research skills and your knowledge of
technology solutions and EHR systems to evaluate technology solutions in the
health care industry.  You will identify
and Electronic Health Record (EHR) system that would improve the processes and
the quality of care at the UMUC Family Clinic. This assignment specifically
addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:

• Evaluate
  technology solutions in the health care industry to improve the quality of
  care, safety, and financial management decisions.

UMUC Family Clinic Medical Practice

In your
Stage 1 Project, you analyzed the patient visit process and modelled the AS-IS
process. You then optimized the process/workflow and modeled the TO-BE process.

For your
Stage 2 Project for the Case Study, you
examined the need for information exchange between the UMUC Family Clinic and
other organizations.

For this Stage 3 Project, you will
evaluate EHR system solutions and propose a technology solution that will
improve the patient visit process you modelled in Stage 1 and improve the
quality of care, safety, and financial management decisions for the UMUC Family
Clinic. 

Assignment

As the EHR consultant to Dr. Martin, you will write
a paper to propose to him which EHR system you recommend; what it will
do; what hardware, software and telecommunications components he will need to
acquire; whether the system will be hosted locally or in the cloud; and explain
how the proposed technology solution
will improve the patient visit process, and the quality of care, safety, and/or
financial management decisions at the UMUC Family Clinic.  Create
a document that includes the following:

1. Select and propose a specific EHR system for the UMUC
   Family Clinic.  The system should be one that would
   improve the patient visit process as described in the case study and as
   modeled in the Stage 1 assignment. 
   You will want to propose a system that has been certified to
   perform certain functions, and is listed as a “complete” EHR
   system (vs. one that focuses on only one or two of the processes).  Focus on a single EHR system solution
   that would help to improve the patient visit process.

• To accomplish this, you will need to look up the
  up-to-date list of certified complete EHRs on the ONC (Office of the
  National Coordinator for Health IT) website at the following URL and then
  complete the steps that follow:   http://oncchpl.force.com/ehrcert/
• Select “View All Products” (located just
  under the search bar).  On the page
  that comes up, you will want to search using the following search
  criteria:
• Certification Edition: 2014
• Select Practice Type: Ambulatory
• Select Classification:  Complete EHR
• Select one or more Certification Criteria to find EHR systems that support the patient visit process.  (Note that not all EHR systems address
  all process areas.)  Refer to the
  “Certification Criteria,” in Content>Course Resources for a list that
  corresponds to the numbers provided; or mouse-over the number to see the
  corresponding criterion.
• You will then provide in your paper the
  following bulleted information on the certified EHR that you have
  selected:
• Product: ___________________ 
• Version: ___________________ 
• Vendor: ___________________   
• CHPL Product Number: ___________________
• Describe the system
  in one paragraph.  Go to the
  vendor’s website and research what the system does and some of its
  selling points.  Your description
  should demonstrate that the selected system fits the UMUC Clinic’s needs
  and will improve the patient visit process.   

List the major hardware, software and
communications (including local connectivity and internet access, if
appropriate) components that will be needed, and the number of each
needed for the implementation at the UMUC Family Clinic.  The vendor’s website should list the
major hardware/software requirements for implementing the system. How many
of each you list is dependent on the solution you propose, but the
important components needed to implement your proposed solution should be
included.  For example, you may have
one PC for the front desk and one for each of the 3 examination rooms, and
they will have to connect to some system somewhere.  Or you may decide to have 1 PC for the
front office, and a tablet or laptop each for the doctor and the two
nurses, also connected to some system somewhere.  Your list should be applicable to your
proposed solution, should improve the patient visit process, and be
appropriate for the UMUC Family Clinic. 
(Remember, there is currently no information technology implemented
at the clinic other than the outdated scheduling software on the single
front desk PC.)

You will also need to specify whether your EHR system
will be hosted (installed) on computer equipment to be located in the
clinic or if it will run as “Software as a Service” (SaaS) via the
Internet (i.e., “in the cloud”).  (For a definition of SaaS, please see the
note in the box below.)  You will
need to evaluate the clinic’s needs and the vendor’s offering.  Some vendors offer only one or the other,
some offer both methods of access.  There
are advantages to selecting SaaS for smaller clinics, like reducing the
need for an IT staff, but it also comes with a price tag.  You will need to provide the reasoning
behind your selection.

Explain
how the proposed technology solution will improve the patient visit process,
and the quality of care, safety, and/or financial management decisions at
the UMUC Family Clinic.  Note that
a significant percentage of the overall grade is based on this
explanation.

SaaS:  Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a software delivery model, where the actual software and the data are hosted at the location of the software provider.  The users access the software or the data using a ‘thin client’ such as a web-browser. That way the actual users of the software do not need to install the entire software and save the data on their own hardware. The provider of the software is the one who incurs all the responsibility of making the software and data available, backing it up, and restoring from backup when needed. Hence, the users don’t need to incur hardware costs or hire IT staff. This model is becoming more and more popular especially for small businesses when it is not in their business model to hire an IT staff.  Software delivered in this way is said to run “in the cloud.” Example: An example of a common business accounting software that is offered in more than 1 delivery model is Intuit’s Quickbooks. A small business owner can buy the software for a one-time fee (cost of purchase is about $300) at Office Depot, install it on his own PC and start entering his financial data. In this delivery model, the software and data reside on the PC. If the PC crashes, all the data is lost unless the entrepreneur was IT-savvy and backed up his data on a CD or USB.  The data can only be accessed on that computer. The other model is the SaaS, where the entrepreneur can decide that he prefers to pay a monthly fee (roughly $50) and access Quickbooks via an internet browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. In this model, the software and the data are stored at the software vendor, Intuit. An advantage of this model is that the business owner does not need to worry if his PC crashes or if he works from home or the office. He can access the system and his data from anywhere and Intuit takes care of securing and backing up the data, etc.

Formatting

· 
Your paper should be written as a professionally
presented proposal to Dr. Martin at the UMUC Family Clinic.

· 
Your paper should be about two pages, single spaced.

· 
You should include at least one external
source.  These are sources other than those provided in the classroom.  Sources should include the vendor’s website.  NOTE: 
More than one external source is required to earn
full points.

· 
Add a title page, and a reference page. 

· 
Use APA formatted citations and references for all
external sources used.

· 
Compare your final work to the rubric to be sure you
have met content and quality criteria.