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Current System of the Healthcare Organization

The current information system utilized by ABC Healthcare center is one that can be described as a mixture of pen and paper information system, with a lot of records kept in manual files. Each branch uses a different information system, with different applications. For an organization with over 350 physicians and 100 workers, the amount of information stored, processed, and accessed is immense. The system serves close to over five thousand five hundred patients in a month across the country. With a constant rise in the business as a result of increase in patient turnout, the company is finding it hard to maintain, access, store, and retrieve information in a speedy way using the manual pen and paper information system. The organization’s current information system is slowly becoming obsolete, as the amount of data to be processed and accessed increase tremendously. For instance, information that is supposed to be processed include: patient profiles, appointment records, inventories, human resource, employment data, as well as financial and supply chain information.

Problems with the Current Information system

The current information system, being pen and paper, has various problems. First, there are numerous cases of redundancies and repetitiveness in the information stored. This is because branches are not interconnected. Therefore, patients’ records stored in one branch cannot be retrieved in another, making the physicians to start a new test once again. Secondly, the systems that are present cannot be used to execute more than one task. In addition, the information system is prone to security problems like unauthorized access (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2009). This is because some data are kept in computer systems that are not properly secured, while other classified data are stored in manual files in cabinets. Furthermore, the system is inefficient in the sense that it is very slow, costly to operate, and energy consuming for employees operating them. The process of verifying and ensuring data reliability is burdensome and next to impossible. Finally, accuracy is a challenge, since pen and paper entries are prone to human errors, especially when they feel tired following a long-day work (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2009).

Expected Changes and impacts of implementing the new system

After implementing the new information system, the healthcare organization is going to witness various transformations and benefits. First, the company’s operational efficiency will be improved, since all business processes, such as transactions, recording, retrieval and storage of patients’ employees’ and stakeholders’ data (AO'Brien, Marakas, Hills & Lalit, 2006). Additionally, by introducing the new information system, the organization will reduce its operational costs. For instance, there are some expenses that come with regular purchase of bulky equipment, such as purchase of thousands of pens, paper, and files. Besides, since the present system is manual, transfer of data from one branch to another required physical transportation, which is expensive in the long-run. However, with the introduction of such a new system the costs associated with physical transportation will be done away with, since everything will be transferred via computerized networks and emails (Chou, 2011).

The new information system is expected to ensure that all data are available as needed. For instance, the laboratory results should be available when demanded by the doctor. On top of that, the newly implemented information system must be one that serves the right people. This demands information integrity, confidentiality, and privacy (Chou, 2011). If such a system is put in place, there shall be a method of ensuring that the organization’s data are not accessed, retrieved, modified, or altered by unauthorized parties. Further, the anticipated information system will ensure that the data processed by the company is available to users in the right and usable form (Chaudhry, 2006). This means that the system must be user-friendly and in the right form. For instance, filtering of information and reduction of information overload will be possible. Finally, the system will be expected to be more functional, reliable, efficient, portable, adaptable, as well as scalable. Other elements that will also be required will include: suitability, conformity, as well as error tolerance (Chou, 2011).

Replacement of the existing system

In view of the above challenges associated with the old pen and paper information system, a complete replacement will be required. This is because the older system does not meet the modern emerging challenges associated with the healthcare industry. For example, a client may go to another branch in the hope that they already have their record, only to find that such records are not there, since the manual system does not have room for transferring data from the previous center visited by the patient to another branch. In addition, for the company to achieve competitive advantage, cut operational costs, and have a better mechanism for assisting in strategic decision making, it has to replace the existing information system, which does not meet its needs and those of the stakeholders (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2009).

Phase-out Plan for the existing system

After developing and introduction of the new system, the organization, clients, and other stakeholder groups must learn how to use the new system. This requires a familiarization and orientation process. The entire process of training and familiarizing different user groups on how to operate and use the applications will take a period of two months (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2009).Thereafter, all the basic and needed information kept in the older information system will be entered into the newer system. This will take a maximum of six months to complete. Finally, the older system will be removed and a new computer-based health information system introduced. Upon its introduction, a system evaluation will be done on a regular basis to determine whether it can be maintained and improved.

References

AO'Brien, J., Marakas, G. M., Hills, T. M. G., & Lalit, M. R. (2006). Management information

systems.

Chaudhry, B., Wang, J., Wu, S., Maglione, M., Mojica, W., Roth, E., ... & Shekelle, P. G.

(2006). Systematic review: impact of health information technology on quality,

efficiency, and costs of medical care. Annals of internal medicine, 144(10), 742-752.

Chou, D. (2011). Health information systems: architectures and strategies. JAMA, 306(12),

1383-1384.

Shelly, G., & Rosenblatt, H. J. (2009). Systems analysis and design. Cengage Learning.