MIDTOWN FAMILY HEALTH CLINIC CASE STUDY

Running Head: MIDTOWN FAMILY HEALTH CLINIC CASE STUDY 1

MIDTOWN FAMILY HEALTH CLINIC CASE STUDY 6

Midtown Family Health Clinic Case Study

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Introduction

Dr. Thompson has been operating the Midtown Family Health Clinic with two other nurses since 1990. Over the last 25 years and over, from the case study, it’s evident that minor changes have taken place in the sector of medical practice. According to the Midtown Family Clinic setting, there is a front desk, waiting room central place, and three rooms for patient examinations. There is a vision of expanding the clinic. However, the existing condition doesn’t allow such expansion to take place. This makes it necessary for an upgrade via a verified technology, which will act as a stable platform if this clinic has to meet its expansion goals. If the expansion is achieved, the clinic will offer quality care for the patients (Barak-Corren et al. 2017).

I. Organizational Analysis and Requirements

A. Introduction

An Electronic Health Record system will be specifically be discussed in detail in this paper. The way it will impact the organization’s strategic goals will also be looked at besides the requirements that will be necessary for accomplishing the set organizational goals. The various components that will be necessary for implementing the EHR system to meet the clinic goals. Therefore, it must be noted that the implementation of the EHR system is explicitly in line with the SMART goals process.

· “Specific – Achieving the goal would make a difference for our patients and our practice.

· Measurable – We can quantify the current level and the target goal

· Attainable – Although the goal may be a stretch, we can achieve it

· Relevant – This is worth the effort

· Time-bound – There are deadlines and opportunities to celebrate success.

B. Strategic Use of Technology

1. Strategic Goal 1: Financial profit/savings

The current system that is being utilized by the clinic is ineffective and hence unworthy. However, it must be noted that the EHR system will enhance the process’s effectiveness, hence making the clinic increase its profitability and service delivery.

2. Strategic Goal 2: Quality of care

This is another goal that must be achieved by using the EHR system. The levels of healthcare must be up to the required standard besides being faster in service delivery to patients. This is one of the goals that this newly introduced system will have to meet.

3. Strategic Goal 3: Legal and regulatory requirements

This is the most critical regulatory requirement which every health facility must adhere to. For instance, the EHR ensures that the practice is always following the HITECH of 2009, HIPAA of 2012, and HIPAA of 1996.

C. Components of an Information System

As far as the information system is concerned, there are four main components: data, Information system, technology, and people. These components particularly share a common link to the technology component. The three main components that tend to affect this clinic in one way or the other areas are described below.

1. People

The three main groups of people who will be affected by the introduction of the EHR system in one way or the other include the following.

A. Person 1: Doctors: The providers are affected by receiving a fast and complete medical record of the patient that is easily updated on the spot. This gives the provider an overall snapshot of the patient’s health to provide the best care possible (Kruse et al. 2017).

B. Person 2: Nurses: The nurses work in both an administrative role and patient care role. An EHR system that is user friendly provides advantages to the administrative role by automating time-consuming functions. Nurses also interact with the EHR system by inputting current data from patient screenings before being seen by them.

C. Person 3: Patient: The patient is affected through an easy to access scheduling process, a line of communication, and the ability to access a personal health record (PHR). A PHR can increase patient participation in their care, helping to educate and create a more informed patient.

2. Organizational Processes

Three main processes will be improved via the introduction of the EHR system in the clinic include;

A. Process 1: Billing: Claims and billing information will automatically be sent to the insurance office for the claim, or whoever is to be billed, and does not require the use of a third-party vendor that garnishes the insurance payments. An overall cost for the EHR system rather than each claim being charged a percentage will improve the current system (Cantor, & Thorpe, 2018).

B. Process 2: Appointment scheduling: An EHR system can improve the scheduling process by reducing the number of times Nurses must spend on the phone to schedule appointments, providing an online portal for the patient to access. An EHR system can also automatically send reminders for upcoming appointments, which can reduce the number of no-show appointments in the clinic.

C. Process 3: Patient Records: Electronic Health Records are real-time patient records that can be created and managed across a network of clinics and providers from more than one health care organization. This is a vast improvement to being forced to update records manually on paper and only have access to records kept in the clinic (Cowie et al. 2017).

3. Data

The primary elements of data are required to ensure that the EHR system gives the best overall experience areas listed in the table below.

D. Functional Requirements:

The essential needs which the EHR system has to undertake to give a full technology solution to the Midtown clinic areas are highlighted in the table below. It must be noted that there are many other requirements. However, the top most essential requirements are as listed in the table below.

E. Summary:

In the assessment of the Midtown Family Clinic’s needs, there was a comprehensive, efficient approach that related to the current situation of the clinic and synchronized it with the Electronic Health Record system. This was mainly considered when developing the outlined points. It’s important to note that an EHR system will offer better quality care to the patients while maintaining the clinic profits. Through the technology solution, this clinic will re-shape the business to give an overall enhancement to the many current processes as well as protocols within the facility (Rajkomar et al. 2018).

References:

Barak-Corren, Y., Castro, V. M., Javitt, S., Hoffnagle, A. G., Dai, Y., Perlis, R. H., … & Reis, B. Y. (2017). Predicting suicidal behavior from longitudinal electronic health records. American journal of psychiatry, 174(2), 154-162. Retrieved from https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16010077

Cantor, M. N., & Thorpe, L. (2018). Integrating data on social determinants of health into electronic health records. Health Affairs, 37(4), 585-590. Retrieved from https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.1252

Cowie, M. R., Blomster, J. I., Curtis, L. H., Duclaux, S., Ford, I., Fritz, F., … & Michel, A. (2017). Electronic health records to facilitate clinical research. Clinical Research in Cardiology, 106(1), 1-9. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00392-016-1025-6.pdf

Kruse, C. S., Smith, B., Vanderlinden, H., & Nealand, A. (2017). Security techniques for electronic health records. Journal of medical systems, 41(8), 127. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10916-017-0778-4

Rajkumar, A., Oren, E., Chen, K., Dai, A. M., Hajaj, N., Hardt, M., … & Sundberg, P. (2018). Scalable and accurate deep learning with electronic health records. NPJ Digital Medicine, 1(1), 18. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-018-0029-1/