needing a system requirements document for new Century health clinic
Background
New Century Health Clinic New Century Health Clinic
offers preventive medicine and traditional medical care. In your role
as an IT consultant, you will help New Century develop a new information
system.
Background Based on your earlier recommendations,
New Century decided to continue the systems development process for a
new information system that would improve operations, decrease costs,
and provide better service to patients. Now, at the end of the systems
analysis phase, you are ready to prepare a system require- ments
document and give a presentation to the New Century associates. Many of
the pro- posed system’s advantages were described during the
fact-finding process. Those include smoother operation, better
efficiency, and more user-friendly procedures for patients and New
Century staff. You also must examine tangible costs and benefits to
determine the economic feasibility of several alternatives. If New
Century decides to go ahead with the development process, the main
options are to develop the system in-house or purchase a vertical
package and con- figure it to meet New Century’s needs. You have studied
those choices and put together some preliminary figures. You know that
New Century’s current workload requires three hours of office staff overtime
per week at a base rate of $8.50 per hour. In addition, based on
current projec- tions, New Century will need to add another full-time
clerical position in about six months. Neither the overtime nor the
additional job will be needed if New Century implements the new system.
The current manual system also causes an average of three errors per
day, and each error takes about 20 minutes to correct. The new system
should eliminate those errors. Based on your research, you estimate by
working full-time you could complete the project in about 12 weeks. Your
consulting rate, which New Century agreed to, is $30 per hour. If you
design the new system as a database application, you can expect to spend
about $2,500 for a networked commercial package. After the system is
operational and the staff is trained, New Century should be able to
handle routine maintenance tasks without your assistance. As an
alternative to in-house development, a vertical software package is
available for about $9,000. The vendor offers a lease-purchase package
of $3,000 down, followed by two annual installments of $3,000 each. If
New Century buys the package, it would take you about four weeks to
install, configure, and test it, working full-time. The vendor provides
free support during the first year of operation, but then New Century
must sign a technical support agreement at an annual cost of $500.
Although the package contains many of the features that New Century
wants, most of the reports are pre-designed and it would be diffi- cult
to modify their layouts. No matter which approach is selected, New
Century probably will need you to provide about 10 hours of initial
training and support each week for the first three months of opera-
tion. After the new system is operational, it will need routine
maintenance, file backups, and updating. These tasks will require about
four hours per week and can be performed by a clinic staff member. In
both cases, the necessary hardware and network installation will cost
about $5,000. In your view, the useful life of the system will be about
five years, including the year in which the system becomes operational.
PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION REPORT
Subject: New Century Wellness Group
Date: 03-24-14
INTRODUCTION
The
purpose of this report is to detail the findings of the preliminary
investigation and propose possible options pertaining to a new
information system for New Century Wellness Group. This study was conducted at the request of Dr. Timothy Jones, one of the owners and founders, by Daniel West.
The
requested system would ideally automate the process of appointment
scheduling, patient records and billing, and supply ordering while also
working with, or replacing, the current payroll system. By
automating these manual processes, New Century Wellness Group should
see an immediate improvement in efficiency and a long term improvement
in overall quality of work.
SYSTEMS REQUEST SUMMARY
The
requested system will create an integrated office that automates the
currently manual business processes by the office staff of New Century
Wellness Group. Many of these processes pertain to the
patient-office relationship including appointment scheduling, record
keeping, and billing. Other processes that should work in
conjunction with this new integrated office system would be for supply
ordering, accounting, and payroll.
The major problem that this system should alleviate is the employee time spent on these processes. The
staff of New Century Wellness Group has been unable to keep up with the
demands of performing these processes manually and overtime has become a
significant cost to the company. Other problems
associated with the current processes include the billing process taking
too long and timeliness of working with the insurance companies to
receive payment.
Aside
from rectifying the above listed problems, the requested system will
provide many opportunities for growth and quality control for New
Century Wellness Group. By automating and integrating the
office, there will be improved job efficiency and work satisfaction with
less redundant tasks and need for overtime.
PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION FINDINGS
An investigation was conducted in order to determine key factors about the current system and the proposed project. After
a thorough analysis of the employees and and processes of New Century
Wellness Group, and interviews with staff, the following conclusions
have been made.
The
proposed project would encompass almost all office related processes,
with the possible exclusion of supply ordering, and would almost
completely replace all current systems. The scope of this
project can not be understated as it would require an almost entire
restructuring of the current system and extensive training for the
current staff to ensure an effective implementation.
While
the project would be a vast undertaking for New Century Wellness Group,
the findings show that there is an extreme need for at least some new
system to be made as the current workload has slowed company growth to a
halt. Interviews with staff members have revealed a
strong desire for a new system and show there is a willingness to learn
the skills necessary to use this system.
The current cost of the manual system has increased as the workload of the office staff has increased. New
Century Wellness Group currently has an office staff of eight people at
a cost of $30,000 a year each, a total cost of $240,000 a year before
paying for the current overtime. If each employee is currently working
an average of ten hours of overtime a week there is an additional cost
of $11,250 per employee per year. With eight employees
that is a cost of $90,000 per year on top of the current $240,000
resulting in $330,000 a year in office staff salaries.
In addition to the current cost of the office staff there is the additional cost of the proposed new office. With
the current system this would require an almost entire new office staff
costing a potential $240,000 a year, but could be significantly reduced
if the current staff could run many of the other offices business
processes neccessatiting only hiring two or three new staff members for
that office.
Other significant findings showed that there have been delays in billing processing and payments from insurance companies. These problems would also be eleveated through an automated, integrated, office solution.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The
recommendation for New Century Wellness Group that was reached by the
Systems Analyst is that a business support system should be created
based on the current business processes. Along with this
system, another medical practice support system should be created that
will work in unison with the business support system to create a fully
automated and integrated office. Employee training will be
critical with this for successful implementation and it is possible
that an IT professional be hired full-time to maintain the system. Specific
conditions for the production of the system are listed below, but will
require a significant cost and time commitment from the company.
TIME AND COST ESTIMATES
If it is decided that a new system is to be created then the timetable for production will begin immediately. The next phase will include analyzing the business processes and creating a list of requirements. This will involve active participation from employees and should be completed within one month. After
this the design and production of the systems will begin and based on
the preliminary investigation should take anywhere between three to nine
months. After this implementation and security will be
considered and training will begin, this process will be an ongoing
process, but normal work should be able to be done using the system
after three months from first implementation.
The
cost estimate for the new system will depend on whether New Century
Wellness Group chooses to buy third-party software or create a new
system in-house. It is the recommendation that a modified
third-party software be used, potentially an open-source electronic
medical record system and a licensed business support system. This could cost anywhere between $500 to $3000 to purchase the software and whatever cost of time to modify and implement it.
If an
IT professional is needed to be brought on staff this will cost an
additional $30,000 a year, however, it may not be necessary.
EXPECTED BENEFITS
The
overall return on investment for the creation of this integrated system
is extremely high, especially if the projected growth of the company
continues. Right now the office staff of eight provides
service for 8,000 patients requiring working overtime costing the
company $90,000 on top of their base $240,000 salary. By
eliminating this expenditure a 25% decrease will be seen from the
current $330,000 being spent on employees salaries right now. This benefit would decrease to $60,000 if a new staff member is needed to maintain the system.
If the
current system were to be implemented at a new office and require a
brand new staff of at least six people, excluding a human resources and
office manager, it would cost an additional $180,000 and increase the
workload on the current staff to train and support this new office. If
the new system is scalable to projected growth then the new office will
only require between two or three new hires, at most a $90,000 a year
investment in salaries. This system would ideally cut in half the necessary staff of any new office opened in the future.
Intangible benefits of this system include improved employee efficiency and work satisfaction. Also patients will notice an improvement in scheduling efficiency and billing processing. Payments
to New Century Wellness Group from insurance companies should arrive
faster and the overall organization of the office will improve greatly.
Assignment
Do the following questions for discussion:
- Research and provide various development alternatives that should be investigated for New Century. This should include at least 1 alternative for In-house Development and 1 alternative for Third Party Purchased Software. The purchased software must be REAL....meaning get online to find software that could meet the requirements. If needed, call those companies and find out about the software as much as you can.
- For each alternative provide a detailed explanation of each.
- For each alternative provide the intangible benefits.
- For each alternative state the pros an cons. For example...state what requirements will be met with the purchase software versus what requirements will not be met.
- For each alternative provide the tangible benefits by providing a break even analysis (return on investment) based on the monetary value information from the New Century Case in Chapter 7. For more information on how to do this, go to the System Analyst tool kit in the back of your book.
- Finalize the assignment by recommending one of the alternatives. You must define WHY you are recommending the alternative by comparing the tangible and intangible benefits of each alternative.
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