Hospital Information System Case Study: Alliance Hospital

Question

Task: For the purpose of this assignment, you are assumed to be one of the software consultants appointed to shoulder the system analysis responsibilities in, the project outlined in, the case study. You will plan and manage the project as well as investigate and document its system requirements. For your Assignment 1 submission, you will produce a report that discusses this project based on your understanding of it and the related investigation results through the tasks below.

Task 1:Approaches to Systems Development

• How would you go about developing Hospital Information System? Compare different Software Development approaches to consider the best suited for developing HIS.
• Justify the choice of your selected approach to systems development.

Task 2: Systems Requirements

• What are the primary functional requirements for the system in the case study? List and discuss these requirements.
• What are the non-functional requirements for the system in the case study? List and discuss these non-functional requirements. Justify the choice of your non-functional requirements.

Task 3: Project Cost Benefit Analysis

Discuss your project Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). CBA should focus the following two main points:

1. To determine if an investment (or decision) is sound, ascertaining if – and by how much – its benefits outweigh its costs; and
2. To provide a basis for comparing investments (or decisions), comparing the total expected cost of each option with its total expected benefits.

Provide an excel spread sheet with details in a Project Cost Benefit Analysis.

Task 4: Project Schedule

• Show a work breakdown structure and a project schedule as a Gantt Chart. Explain both of them and discuss how they relate to each other
• Given the system goals, requirements, and scope as they are currently understood, is the project schedule reasonable? Why or why not?

Task 5: System Information Requirement Investigation Techniques

• Who are the stakeholders involved?
• Explain your choice of the 3 most useful investigation techniques.
• Justify the usefulness of these 3 investigation techniques.

Answer

1. Introduction: The study discussed in this hospital information system case study focuses on the feasibility report of the Alliance Hospital. The hospital has undertaken to implement a new Hospital Information System. There have been a lot of trouble areas with regards to the manual handling of files. Keeping in mind the issue a comprehensive and holistic method of system development has been chosen. The system requirements based on the factors of functionality and non-functionality have been identified. (Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2018). A cost-benefit analysis report has been generated in order to understand the economic feasibility of the project. Apart from this work break down structure and the project schedule has been created.

The solitary objective as discussed in this hospital information system case study is the automation of the hospital with the help of the above-mentioned techniques and to create a user-friendly interface for the people using the system.

2. Approach to Systems Development
Alliance Hospital is a mid-size organization, employing a staff of over 200 employees. The hospital deals with patients like emergency outpatient care, patients being admitted for a few hours and long term patient care.

All the flies and the paperwork of the hospital are being handled manually, despite a large patient turnout and considerable size of employees. The receipts, bills, reports, prescription and the filing are all done manually. The manual system described in this hospital information system case study has its drawbacks including:

• Wastage of time
• Duplication of paperwork
• Human Error
• Delay in the file processing
• Infection of rodents
• High and recurring cost of office stationery
• Lack of document confidentiality

With the assistance of the Hospital Information System, all the above-mentioned issues would be resolved and also the ones that may arise in the near future. One of the most renowned system Agile Methodology will be used for preparing Hospital Information System.The new system will be developed based on Agile Methodology.

2.2 Selected Approach for system development
To develop a perfect Hospital Information System in this hospital information system case study, use of Agile Methodology is incumbent. Agile Methodology is broken down into small fragments known as iterations. The work is done in small sections, with continuous testing and quality checks. It is completely dependent on the requirements of the client. The final product is a result of continuous revision, extension and consolidation of the procedure(Mohammed et al. 2017).

The agile methodology can rectify various issues of the hospital as mentioned below in this hospital information system case study:

• This method proposed in this hospital information system case study is perfect to put to use in a hospital as the requisites are on a constant change. The patients, staff, medications and reports keep on changing. Hence the use of the dynamic system
• The need for the paperwork will entirely cease, as the Hospital Information Software takes over. This will help the hospital efficiently control the duplication of work.
• The end user of a particular system can have the tasks allotment and information as per his requirement. A spiral method is incorporated into the Agile Methodology.

3. Systems Requirements
Following are the System Requirement for the Hospital Information System. It is bifurcated into two categories namely, Functional Requirements and the Non-Functional Requirements (Patwardhan et al. 2016).

3.1 Functional Requirements
The Functional requirements to develop a hospital information system are as follows:

• Patient Code: The system must generate a Unique Patient Identifier in the form of a code.
• Registration Process: Registration of the patients must be simple, there must be an option of impromptu registration during an emergency case, by making use of the "break-the-glass feature"
• User Access: Access must be user-friendly, the sound based access and the practical access by using the passwords and the biometrics must be according to the user.
• Insurance Check: System to check the eligibility of the insurance of the patient and also accept a deposit to cover the estimated cost of care.
• Prescriptions: System generated prescriptions for outpatients and Computerized Physician Order entry for other patients.
• Billing: The distinction of the bill must be generated with the paid and the unpaid amount. A bifurcation must be provided of the hospital costs and the investigation charges so that it could be highlighted to the customers as to what bill they will have to pay at their earliest and what can be paid later.
• Comprehensive Report: The electronic medical records (EMR) must be integrated with the other systems like laboratory reports, etc., so that a comprehensive analogy and ailment of the patient is detected.
• Secure Access: secured access must be provided to maintain patient confidentiality.
• Order: The Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) must be integrated to know the expiry of the products 90 days prior and the re-order levels to reorder certain products.
• Tracking: The system to track the flow of the products to know the distinction between the flow and the fast moving products in the store.
• Bar Coding: In order to track the patients, materials, medications and services bar cording system must be involved.
• Management Information System(MIS): With the elimination of paperwork and registers, a well-integrated MIS must be developed by the HIS to keep a track record of all the activities in the hospital.

3.2 Non-Functional Requirements
The main aim of the non-functional requirements as discussed in the hospital information system case study is the evaluation of the performance. The performance of the system is to be evaluated with the help of the following:

• The Hospital Information System will provide Secure Authentication of the patients records and ailments, keeping in mind the non disclosure clause of the hospital.
• It will be easier for the staff to maintain the records and work on the deadlines prescribed to complete a particular task.
• As the reports mentioned in this hospital information system case study will be generated by the system, the possibility of human error is negligible.
• The system will have user friendly interface, thereby making the system compatible to use by the staff.
• The system's compatibility will help the users access it from any place.
• Huge amount of data can be stored in a small space, giving the advantage of place utility.
• The system will update the users of their tasks and the deadlines, helping them achieve the same on time.
• The data can be easily updated, moderated, altered easily without the hassle of redoing the task again, which happens with the manual filing.
• The system will provide a safe and secure payment gateway, thereby listing all the payments and the ease of making the payment on the spot.

4. Project Cost-Benefit Analysis
The most important part of any project as discussed in this hospital information system case study is to know its feasibility in the long run. In this case of this hospital information system case study it is important to know the feasibility of the new integration of the hospital management system at the hospital. Cost is incurred at the beginning of any project. In order to know the profitability of the project in the long run, the present value of the same is needed to be considered, which can be done by calculating the net present value of the project (Laplante, 2017). Apart from the feasibility it is also important to know about the profit generation from the project. This can be achieved in this hospital information system design by calculating the return on the investment made. To understand the duration of time required to break even the cost of the project is also crucial for the feasibility of the project.

Cost benefit analysis
In the above mentioned chart in this hospital information system case study, we can see the analysis of the cost and benefit of the new information system at the Alliance hospital. A feasibility report of five years has been evaluated. The Net Present Value(NPV) is positive. The project break even occurs between two to three years i.e. 3.41 years. The net Return on Investment is 95%. With the help of the above analysis, it can be stated that the Alliance Hospital Information System is a Feasible Project. It will cut down the costs of the hospital thereby generating profits for the hospital in the long run in this hospital information system design.

5. Project Schedule

The Work Breakdown Structure

Work Breakdown structure involves a breakdown of the activities into smaller tasks. The division and the subdivision of the activities help in the completion of each step required for the activity(Newcomer et al. 2015). The scope of the error of omission reduces considerably. There are six dimensions to the structure of work break down. The above-mentioned diagram states how the work is structured into various fragments.

• First phase planning
• Analysis of the requirement
• System design
• Testing and Coding
• Project implementation.
• Document work

These detailed tasks have been further divided into subtasks for which the above diagram can be referred.

The work breakdown structure helps in creation of the Project Schedule and the Gantt Chart. With the tasks elaborately divided by the work break down structure, each task can be given a due date for completion. The work breakdown structure and the Gantt Chart work hand in hand to check whether all the tasks are taken into consideration and the amount of time taken to complete the task is accurate. It will help the system designers to set targets to complete each task within the deadline. As excess time will hamper the profitability of the project.

Gantt Chart

The tasks of the workforce breakdown structure need to be completed within a specific time frame. The Project Schedule the mechanism through which we divide the time for each and every activity to be completed. Each activity is allotted a fixed stipulated time along with the manpower requirements to complete the task.

The project schedule in this hospital information system case study enlisted below with the assistance of the work breakdown structure gives us a glimpse into the time take to complete the given project. With the help of the schedule, it can be clearly understood that the project will take a time frame of 49 days to be completed. The maximum duration is taken by the documentation as the system and end users will have to be documented well for the system to identify them. Each task and the sub task have been allotted with a specific time frame based on the amount of time taken for the designers to complete the task. A maximum number of days have been allotted, as any last minute changes and temporary system failure might need the time to fix.

After the project schedule (Ong et al. 2016)is made in this hospital information system case study, then the Gantt Chart is defined(Harrison & Lock, 2017) which indicates that the project was well covered under the stipulated time duration.

6. System Information Requirement Investigation Techniques
6.1 Stakeholders: A stakeholder is any person or people who are involved in the project and have a predefined task.

There are two kinds of stakeholders involved in the project, they are, Internal Stakeholders and External Stakeholders(Laudon& Laudon, 2016).

Stakeholders internal to the company:

1. Workers
2. Board of Directors
3. Company owner
4. Manager
5. Technological staff

Stakeholders external to the company:

• Clients
• Office of taxation
• Suppliers

6.2 Investigation techniques
For the purpose of the investigation, there are three major techniques that can be (Caglianoet al. 2015):

• Interviewing and Listening
• Distribution and collection of questionnaires
• Document Analysis

1. Interviewing and Listening: The investigators in this technique discussed hospital information system case study will meet and interview people in relation to the project. It is one of the best techniques to understand the outlook of the people (Handayaniet al. 2017). A comprehensive set of questions will have to be enumerated to the people and their answers will be noted. Thorough knowledge of the project must be comprehended by the investigators and based on that questions must be prepared. To conduct an effective interview the interviewer must first prepare the set of questions, ask the questions to the right set of people and lastly have a thorough follow up on the interview.

As the interview technique is a direct form of primary information from the source in this hospital information system case study, the chances of ambiguity are less, and the considerable amount of insight is gained with respect to the questions posed. The interviewer must conduct the interview without any bias. It gives the investigator all the means to know the answers based on the verbal speech and behavioural pattern.

2. Distribution and collection of questionnaires: When you have a lot of people to gain information from a huge crowd, interview technique will prove to be time-consuming. The best outcome for this issue is the collection of answers through the questionnaire. Questionnaire method is specific and useful for masses. The investigator is not bound in geographical and time constraints, with this technique. A person can be based anywhere and still participate in the investigation. Not only is this technique cost-effective and unbiased but also user-friendly. It can be easily converted to statistics and reports in this hospital information system case study. The Questions can be answered by mailing or through emails.

3. Document Analysis: This is a secondary medium for obtaining information. The information is already available and has been researched, analysed and reported. It helps the investigator in his research with dependable knowledge. Document Analysis hence saves a lot of time and hard work. It is one of the easiest ways to obtain information, as information is already available on various mediums like books, internet studies, journals and ledgers which are the notations of various experiments and studies conducted by research experts. The investigator must be careful to use the right source of information needed for the study. It must be ensured that proper credit of the work is given to the concerned person and not labelled as your own work.

7. Reflections and Conclusions
With the introduction of Hospital Information System at the Alliance Hospital, the management and administration of the hospital have become relatively easier as now the users will have a ready format to work into. The system is well versed with the patient registration with a unique code for each patient and employee which will help in identification of every patients and not mix up the wrong information. The invoices and reports and managed efficiently with respect to patients based on their unique identification code. With the reduction of extra paperwork in this hospital information system case study, the employees can focus on their core duties, thereby giving them time and place utility.

The main objective of this hospital information system case study was to understand what an automated system actually requires to be successfully implemented. The project is feasible as the cost-benefit analysis indicated profitability and the project schedule indicated completion of the project well on time with all the tasks listed with their deadlines well in advance.

To have a 360-degree view of the project, the Agile Methodology has been incorporated that will test the systems thoroughly. The functional and non-functional requirement of the project was listed stating the project requirements. To check the monetary feasibility of the project, a cost-benefit hospital information system case study had been generated along with the work breakdown structure. An accurate outlook of the project was derived from the Project Schedule and the Gantt Chart. To summarize the entire study and research of the project, it can be concluded the project is entirely feasible. HIS case study assignments are being prepared by our case study assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable assignment help online service.

8. Reference List
Cagliano, A. C., Grimaldi, S., &Rafele, C. (2015). Choosing project risk management techniques. A theoretical framework. Journal of Risk Research, 18(2), 232-248.

Handayani, P. W., Hidayanto, A. N., Pinem, A. A., Hapsari, I. C., Sandhyaduhita, P. I., & Budi, I. (2017). Acceptance model of a hospital information system. International journal of medical informatics, 99, 11-28.

Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.

Laplante, P. A. (2017). Requirements engineering for software and systems. Auerbach Publications.

Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education India.

Mohammed, N. M., Niazi, M., Alshayeb, M., & Mahmood, S. (2017). Exploring software security approaches in software development lifecycle: A systematic mapping study. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 50, 107-115.

Newcomer, K. E., Hatry, H. P., &Wholey, J. S. (2015). Cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis. Handbook of practical program evaluation, 636.

Oinas-Kukkonen, H., &Harjumaa, M. (2018). Persuasive systems design: key issues, process model and system features. In Routledge Handbook of Policy Design (pp. 105-123). Routledge.

Ong, H. Y., Wang, C., &Zainon, N. (2016). Integrated earned value Gantt chart (EV-Gantt) tool for project portfolio planning and monitoring optimization. Engineering Management Journal, 28(1), 39-53.

Patwardhan, A., Kidd, J., Urena, T., &Rajgopalan, A. (2016). Embracing Agile methodology during DevOps Developer Internship Program. arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.01893.