Information Technology Project Management Assignment
New Century Health Clinic offers preventive medicine and traditional medical care. In your role as an IT project manager, you will help New Century to develop a new information system.
Background
Five years ago, cardiologists Timothy Jones and Dolores Garcia decided to combine their individual practices in Auckland, Christchurch, to form New Century Health Clinic. They wanted to concentrate on preventive medicine by helping patients maintain health and fitness and by providing traditional medical care. Dr Jones recently asked you to work with him as an IT project manager. He wants you to help New Century manage the development of an information system that will support the clinic’s operations and future growth. At your initial meeting, he provided you with some background information and asked for your suggestions about how to begin. At your desk, you begin to review New Century’s situation. The clinic is located near a new shopping mall in a busy section of the city.
New Century’s staff includes four doctors, three registered nurses, four physical therapists, and six office staff workers. The clinic currently has a patient base of 3,500 patients from 275 different employers, many of which provide insurance coverage for employee wellness and health maintenance. Currently, New Century accepts 34 different insurance policies. Anita Davenport, who has been with New Century since its inception, is the office manager. She supervises the staff, including Fred Brown, Susan Gifford, Tom Capaletti, Lisa Sung, and Carla Herrera.
Fred Brown handles office payroll, tax reporting, and profit distribution among the associates. Susan Gifford is responsible for the maintenance of patient records. Tom Capaletti handles most of the paperwork concerning insurance reporting and accounting. Lisa Sung has the primary responsibility for the appointment book, and her duties include making reminder calls to patients and preparing daily appointment lists. Carla Herrera is concerned primarily with ordering and organizing office and clinic supplies. Each of the six office staff people has one or more primary responsibilities; however, all members of the staff help out whenever necessary with patient records, insurance processing, and appointment processing. In addition to their regular responsibilities, all six office workers are involved in the preparation of patient statements at the end of each month.
Dr. Jones believes that a new information system is required to support its business and health information management needs. The new system would replace a mix of paper-based and fragmented computer systems. Dr. Jones wishes an information system to support the scheduling, billing, accounting and payroll functions of the practice as well as a system to support the clinical applications of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) and a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS).
Dr. Jones explains that they are looking for a system from the perspective of a patient who comes into the office. Lisa Sung schedules a patient’s appointment and the patient comes into the office for the first time. On this appointment, an EMR is started for the patient that includes the patient’s demo-graphic information, medical history, and insurance information. A patient may be coming in to see any one of the health care providers, including a physician, nurse practitioner, physical therapist or the nutritionist. These providers would entry any orders or prescriptions into the EMR with the CPOE system. The providers who use the EMR and CPOE system are supported by the CDSS. Patients often schedules a follow-up appointment before leaving the practice office. After a patient’s visit, Susan Glifford, who maintains the patient medical records, reviews the record to ensure they are complete. Carla Herrera orders any supplies needed to replaces items used by the patient. Tammy Alipio begins billing the patient’s insurance provider for services that were rendered to the patient. Tom Capaletti follows up on the billing to ensure the practice is getting paid for all claims.
An estimate of costs for the entire project is $675,000. The company decide the discount rate of 7.5% for the financial analysis. The initial cost estimate also includes $40,000 for purchasing software and services from suppliers. Annual maintenance costs of $50,000 is also included. After three years of regular maintenance, the company also gets a 50% discount in the maintenance cost for the coming years. Projected benefits of this project would be approximately $300,000 per year.
Dr. Jones successfully convinced Dolores Garcia, the CEO who would sponsor this project which they think could be completed within ten months and the new system will have a useful life of at least seven years after the deployment. However, they also realise some potential issues like security, process orders, payments and so on, that can cause serious problem in the success of this project. Dr. Jones asked you and your team to manage the project.
1.Prepare a Stakeholder register and stakeholder management strategy
