MMHA6600 Walden University IT Strategy in Health Care Continuum Paper Hospital Systems, Ancillary Services, and Physician Practices are often the focus of

MMHA6600 Walden University IT Strategy in Health Care Continuum Paper Hospital Systems, Ancillary Services, and Physician Practices are often the focus of HIT initiatives. While these settings are key areas for HIT advancement and data acquisition, there are places within the continuum of care that often lack automation or comprehensive data management strategies, creating gaps in the longitudinal health record and both an individual and population level.

The Final Project allows you to develop a comprehensive IT strategy for one of these settings of care. This week you choose the Scenario for your Final Project from the following list. Descriptions of these settings can be found in your Learning Resources. Beginning this week, you will be building on the progressive HIT topics that culminate in your Final Project (due in Week 11). This week’s Assignment asks you to reflect on your setting of choice as you develop a Charter for the acquisition of a strategic HIT solution.

To Prepare for this Assignment:

Review the Final Project Scenarios in your Learning Resources and select a setting of care from one of these scenarios:
Long-Term Care
Critical Access Hospital
Telemedicine for Rural-Based Health Facility
Research current and specific clinical and financial management problems in these settings of care and evaluate how technology might be justified to address the most pressing challenges.

Scenario: Critical Access Hospital Electronic Health Record

Bedford Hospital is a 25-bed hospital in rural Pennsylvania. They have recently completed the process of being designated by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) a CAH (critical access hospital). Prior to this designation they were part of a large academic health center but have since divested from that health center. As part of that agreement their current electronic health record contract, which is with Cerner Corporation as part of that medical center’s enterprise agreement, will be expiring in 24 months. Currently all aspects of Cerner’s inpatient product are implemented including documentation, orders, decision support and electronic meds administration. Cerner’s registration admissions discharge scheduling and patient identification products are also part of this agreement as are the laboratory radiology and pharmacy systems.

While Bedford Hospital was part of the academic center the Cerner product suite was financially supported as part of the overall corporate structure. As part of the divestiture agreement, the academic center has agreed to support Bedford’s
Cerner systems in total for a 24-month period, absorbing the Cerner software and enterprise hardware costs in that timeframe. Bedford Hospital is taking financial responsibility for three IT staff and day-to-day IT costs such as networks devices email and Internet costs. The CEO and CFO of Bedford Hospital have pulled together an interdisciplinary team to examine the technology options for Bedford Hospital after this 24-month period.

The Assignment:

Write a 3- to 4-page (excluding title and reference pages) APA style paper, addressing the following elements for the scenario that you choose. This will also be the scenario used to complete your Final Project. For this Assignment, address the elements of a project Charter used to plan the acquisition of an HIT solution for the setting of choice. The Charter should include:

Problem statement. A specific statement of the problems that you intend to address in this scenario using technology solutions.
Scope of the HIT solution to be acquired. This includes both the technical elements of the scope and the business and clinical functional elements of the scope.
Stakeholders analysis including the needs of both internal and external stakeholders. This analysis includes a summary of the business and clinical system functions that the technology should address for each of the executive stakeholders.
Risk Analysis. A specific statement of the financial, technical, legal, ethical, and operational risks involved in introducing HIT into this setting and the feasible mitigation strategies to address these risks.