The Impact of IT in HappyHealth Hospital

Question: Discuss about the Impact of IT in HappyHealth Hospital. Answer: Introduction This report focuses on a hospital called HappyHealth which is currently facing major drawbacks because they have not embraced the use of IT for their operations. The hospital is using a lot of manual systems to conduct its operations. The few areas that they have embraced IT are proofing to be expensive for the hospital staff. Scope of the study This study was done in HappyHealth hospital. It focused on how the staff is handling the tasks given to them and how the patients are treated when they visit the hospital. The study was done by closely observing the hospital operations and interviewing the staff on how they conduct their activities in order to identify the areas that require to use IT to help automate and ease the work. It also involved interviewing the patients to find out how they are served and treated to identify the areas that would need IT. Problem statement HappyHealth is using manual non-automated systems to conduct internal operations which are proofing to be ineffective and hard to maintain for the staff and thus leading to bad work experience for the staff which at most times inconveniences the patients. This report demonstrates how use of IT would help to transform the operations and help make work easier for all stakeholders.(Moeller, 2007) Research objectives The aim of the research at HappyHealth was to find areas that require use of IT in the hospital for automation and record keeping. Research Findings According to the research done in HappyHealth Hospital the following findings were found about the current systems being used to make work easier by the hospital staff. There is no existing automated system for keeping patient records in the hospital. Records are kept using patient cards There is no existing system for making an appointment in the hospital. Appointments are made using phone calls. The laboratory is still using non-automated methods to do the lab tests. The system is using books to keeps records of the incoming stock and sales. The communication within the hospital is manual whereby the hospital staff communicate by word of mouth. The system has no surveillance system to help enforce security in the hospital premises. Analysis and Solutions The Need of IT According to the research findings, HappyHealth strongly needs IT to help automate a lot of internal and external operations so as to achieve a high degree of accountability and efficient record keeping. The system will help in a lot of operations in the hospital. These operations include; Registration of new patients. The new system will help the hospital staff to register new patients and the records stored in the cloud. The patient is then treated and the all the treatments are recorded in the system under the respective patient. This will eliminate the use of patient cards which can easily be damaged or get lost and which are tedious to use and maintain for the hospital. Use of the new system to keep patient records will help the hospital staff to keep track of the patient as the student record is easy to retrieve upon demand. The system can also help the doctor to see patient treatment patterns based on the patient history. These patterns could infer results that would have been missed by the doctor as humans are prone to error due to cases such as exhaustion. The new system will help the patients to make appointments easily at their comfort of their homes without having to go to the hospital to make an appointment or to make phone calls to the hospital in order f or them to get an appointment. The system will run on the cloud and thus can be accessed by the patients remotely. The laboratory will be equipped with new equipments which will be incorporated in to the hospital system such that when a patient is sent for a lab test by the doctor the tests are done and the results are reflected in the system for that patient. This will facilitate seamless flow of operations in the hospital. The new system will help keep track of incoming stock by recording every item that enters in the hospital and how it is used in the hospital. For communication between the hospital staff, the hospital will use VOIP phones which will be deployed to every room so that the staff can communicate easily and in an inexpensive way as the phones do not need renewal of talk time as long as the physical infrastructure through which they run on is deployed. For payments of the hospital staff the hospital system can be used to pay the employees and store the records in case of future references. For security, the hospital will install IP CCTV cameras which can be incorporated into the hospital management system such that the staff responsible can view live coverage of what is happening from any location. The issue of record keeping will be solved by incorporating the hospital management system as the database being used by the system can be backed up regularly to avoid loss of information in case of disasters. Importance of IT For HappyHealth it would be ideally good to incorporate IT for both internal and external operations as it makes works easier. The new adoption of IT will enhance the safety of record keeping and facilitate customer operations and increase profit return. The communication and security of the hospital will be highly maintained leading to ease of information access and safety of the hospital assets. In the case of clients services, the patient details and medication history is always available as long the hospital keeps every bit of record concerning every patient that attends the hospital. The offering of services will be moderated and be scheduled as the patients will be making appointments depending on the availability of the doctors as there will be an automated remote application that will help the patients book the appointments. Finally the most significant objective of any reason for business operation is to gain the profit, the increase of profit is highly achieved and is contr olled through stock control and patients payments management through which an automatic stock monitoring is implemented and a reporting mode is changed to a simpler and convenient. Requirements for Implementing IT HappyHealth hospital will require a budget plan to decide and plan on the purchase of the management software system, security hardware systems and payment plan for the server leasing or purchase. The purchase of the management software system will range 1000 5000 $ for an averaged system on a good estimate and the purchase of security systems will cost 700 $ on a complete setup. The initial cost is quite expensive but is only incurred once. Other periodical charges may involve server charges if the server in use is leased and a maintenance service fee for systems management. Once the installation of the systems is done, no other much additional charges are expected. However, no matter how much the initial cost is felt as a hard revenue expense, it will be recovered within short period of time. The training of the staff personnel on the use of the management system and the security systems is incorporated in the earlier stated estimated budget amounts. Using New IT In the HappyHealth hospital, the staff members will be trained on how to use the management software system and how to use the security systems. The management software system will allow the registration of new patients, doctor history and record keeping of the patient during consultation, nurse record keeping on patient visit, automated issuing of drugs by pharmacist, use of automated laboratory testing machines, stock management and payroll system module. The manager of the hospital can assign the duties to one of the employees who will oversee all operations done by use of the management software system and the security details collected by the security system. The clients / patients will need a user-friendly interface on the software system that will be easy to use when they want to interact with the hospital staff. The system will facilitate ordering of goods from suppliers by automatically preparing purchase order lists and mailing them to the respective supplier. The system administrator will be able to generate sales reports and use the system to pay other staffs. Advantages of new IT Systems The management software system will allow automated patient record keeping that can be retrieved on requirement and be updated always on every patient visits. The laboratory tests will increase in accuracy and more clients will be served within short period of time as the manual work has been substituted by the digital laboratory testing. The staff payment will be done with a single click without manual calculation of debts or liabilities. The payment process will be facilitated without cases of funds fraud as record is kept in a permanent secure way and a copy of the same record is provided to the staff receiving the pay. In case of any unclear case of funds embezzlement, the records can be retrieved and used as a proof. The security of the hospital assets will be maintained as the surveillance camera system will keep record of every activity in the hospital. Increase of transparency and staff hard work is achieved as the staff activities is monitored through use of the surveillance camera system. Quick flow of operation and decision making is facilitated by the use of software management system. Risks of New IT Implementation The major risk that can arise on adaption of the said IT techniques is the risk of data exposure. If the confidentiality, privacy and security is not held, the management software system will be useless. Therefore the encryption and authentication techniques should be maintained. The storage of data should be done through use of servers which security and privacy is a major policy. If the payroll and profit reports are accessed by unauthorized personnel, the business can collapse or create an opportunity for theft cases. Other risk is the system usage and breakdown. If the users of the system fail to use the system appropriately, the record will provide false data and therefore a false impression to the outside environment especially potential customers who may fear that their records are not handled with care. Maintaining and Monitoring IT Systems To maintain IT in HappyHealth hospital, the following measures must be adhered to: Ensure that continuous system update of the management software system is done so as the system keeps up with continuous changing technology. Ensure that the maintenance of surveillance of security system is done to ensure that monitoring of staff and assets is monitored every moment without breakdown. If any laboratory system is noted to provide unclear data output record or misbehavior on data entry, the system should be serviced or replaced with new one so as correct data record is maintained. The system administrator should ensure that every assigned system user is using the system for business operations appropriately and for every needed time. Conclusion and Recommendation According to the research, I would recommend the HappyHealth hospital to perform the following: Shift from manual to automated software management system first if the initial cost for installing all systems is expensive. They should forego for the system first and later install the surveillance systems. Embrace the systems and adapt quickly to the system by learning how to use the system and ensure every operation is done through use of the system. System administrator should ensure that a clear follow up is done to ensure every system user is comfortable with the system and they are using the systems appropriately. A budget plan should be developed and make a step by step IT systems upgrade in order to achieve the IT technologies with ease. On system installation, management of the systems should be handled with care to prevent any risk from arising and ensure privacy, security and confidentiality is ensured. References Hill, G. (2008). Enterprise reporting - definition. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from https://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/reporting/definition.html Copyright. (2000). Good and poor examples of executive summaries. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from https://unilearning.uow.edu.au/report/4bi1.html Retrieved January 19, 2017, from https://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Calgary/CD/iasb/busrepw.pdf Moeller, Robert (2007). COSO Enterprise Risk Management: Understanding the New Integrated ERM Framework. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-74115-9.