Can you create the report to the project below - THE NORTH EAST MEDICAL PRACTICE
THE NORTH EAST MEDICAL PRACTICE
Dr. Francis Decker owns a multi-city medical practice located in NY, PA, NJ and MA. Newark is the headquarters location with 10 doctors, 2 doctor’s assistants, 2 receptionists, 3 billing/accounting staff, 1 appointments scheduler, and 1 office manager. There are 11 other locations across the 4 states that differ in staffing only by having 7 doctors instead of 10 and 2 billing/accounting staff. All offices are open every day but Sunday, but are on call when offices are closed.
Dr. Decker seeks to modernize his 12 practices in order to create new efficiencies and introduce new services such as user-booked appointments. Each day, every practice sees 110 patients each on average, except Newark, which averages 150 patients daily. On average, every patient is billed $195 per appointment through their insurance. Straightforward office visits cost $85, the rest comes from additional services such as blood testing, EKG etc. Cash-only patients are also accepted.
Physical therapy and a few diagnostic tests, e.g., ultrasounds, X-Rays, EKGs and some blood tests are performed in the practices. Others are referred to specialists. Dr. Decker believes that volume could be increased by 20% daily through investing in technology and in making billing more efficient. As it is, 8 of the 12 practices are not taking any new patients.
The new system must satisfy the following requirements:
1. Manage patient records electronically—this will also require conversion of several hundred paper and Oracle-based records to Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
2. Perform appointments scheduling. All appointments will be stored on the system and available as a daily report. The system should also be able to call and remind patients one day before.
3. Consultation documentation. Each interaction with the doctor or physical therapist will be entered into the EHR. Medical dictation and transcription are necessary sub-features to improve the efficiency and speed of consultations.
4. Laboratory and integrated chart documentation. Every lab, including X-Rays, MRIs, biopsies, PET Scans and so on will be stored within the patients’ EHRs.
5. Billing. Efficient billing will be the cornerstone of the system. It will be capable of billing various agencies, namely: medical insurance companies, auto insurance companies, patients, worker’s compensation agencies etc.
6. Collections. The system will flag past due accounts and generate dunning (overdue payment) letters, plus provide reports to assist collection staff.
7. A practice website will be created to provide patients with information and in the future, allow self-service, e.g., patient scheduling and patient access to their EHRs.
8. HIPAA Compliance, to conform to industry standards.
9. Auditable: The system will be able to provide audit reports showing proper access to sensitive data as well as validation of financial record keeping.
There are older PCs at the all current locations that will be disposed of. All practices should be fully computerized and networked within a total budget of $250,000. Your group must consider appropriate form factors for computing equipment used by medical personnel and allow BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) as well. Compare and contrast SaaS solutions versus shrink-wrapped solutions. Enterprise-wide analyses and reporting are required.
As mentioned earlier, Dr. Decker wants the new website to enable customers to set appointments over the Internet. Development costs (excluding IT personnel) must be paid for out of the project budget of $250K. All networking equipment, software and/or external services must also be paid for out of the budget (services for 3 years). You are also not allowed to increase your budget by firing people. Assume any existing equipment has no resale value.
The practice also seeks to conduct data discovery and business analytics using its newly-hired data scientist, so a business analytics software program must be selected.
The development team should undertake the following assignments:
1. Select software for the medical practice to handle the practice’s requirements. The software should handle front-end and back-end requirements, and may be cloud-based or onsite server-based.
2. Select all computer hardware for the medical practice including computing platforms used by the listed doctors and other medical staff and the server(s), if used. No parts of the current architecture may be used.
3. Select networking hardware and services to support the communication requirements of the medical practice.
4. Select the database architecture and data warehousing architecture to support the daily transactions and the data analytics requirements of the practice.
5. Describe how the medical practice will use social media and integrate that into their data analytics effort.
6. Produce a schematic that graphically shows the architecture of the new system i.e., hardware, software, data, people and networking components.
7. Define the expected benefits of the new system and for intangible benefits, produce your assumptions using equivalent real-life case studies and/or best practices.
Report Guidelines
The project is a design problem. As a design problem, it is open ended and does not have one unique
acceptable solution. This does not mean all solutions are acceptable and good. What it does mean is
that different groups may provide different solutions. However, some solutions may be of higher quality
than others depending the groups’ problem solving ability. As a design problem, the project is aimed at
getting students to unleash their creative power to find solution to the problem.
Make sure all the questioned posed are addressed. In your report, responses to these questions should
be presented separately and in the order that they are given. Do not comingle the responses.
There is no set page limit to the report. The length of your report should be determined by your
knowledge and creativity in addressing the questions and in your writings and presentation abilities.
Presented below are components of a good scientific paper or report. You can adapt the general
guideline to your specific cases. Depending on your procedure for solving the problems posed and your
report presentation, all sections of the guideline may not apply to you. Adapt it as you find it necessary.
With some adaption when necessary, this same guideline can also be used for report preparation for all
case studies as well.
Components of a Project Report
In general, the project report is expected to consist of the following sections:
1. Project Title
2. Project abstract
3. Introduction
– Problem statement
– Project objective
4. Review of supportive literature
5. Body of the Project Report
– Analysis of problem
– Solution approach to achieve project objective
6. Results and Inferences
7. Conclusion/summary
8. References
9. Appendices
1. Project Title: The first page of the report should contain the project title, the names of the members of the project them, the name of the person to whom the reported is submitted, the class under which the project is done, and the report submission date. The project title is a label of how readers should refer to your study. In this particular case, the title for the project is already given as “The Northeast Medical Practice” or as the “The Northeast Medical Practice Management Information System Design Project”, whichever you prefer.
2. Project Abstract: The project abstract is a summary of what the project is all about, what is done, what the main results are, and the major contributions of the project. The abstract provides what the main points of the project are, including the main procedure employed to get the project accomplished. The abstract is intended to help a reader quickly understand what the scope of the study is and what were the main contributions and accomplishments are.
3. Introduction: The introduction of a report provides a context for the project. It introduction provides a general description of the problem addressed on the project, the motivation for the project, and what the project expected benefits will be. It helps the reader understand the environment where the problem exists, the nature and scope of the problem, and why is there a need to resolve the problem.
A section of the introduction should clearly and unambiguously state or define the problem and what the project objectives are. It is absolutely important that all members of the project them agree on the problem definition and the project objectives as these will provide a clear guidance and roadmap of what are to be done and what the expected deliverables will be at the end of the project.
4. Literature Review: A common practice in the reporting of scientific studies is the review of earlier and foundational work related to the project that had been done and reported in open literature and are available to the scientific community. Literature review helps the project team understand where their study fits in the overall study of the topic of interest and what earlier studies had done to address the problem and other closely related problems. It helps the reader
understand and relate a new study to some related historical studies and results that are available to scholars in the community. In short, literature review helps a project team learn and gain insights from what other scholars had done or not done previously on the same or closely related subject matter.
5. Body of the Report: The body of the report represents the heart of the study. The body of the report narrates on the main activities or tasks performed under the said project. It is the core of the report. The body of the report describes the methods used in analyzing the problem with the purpose of finding the solution to the problem under study. The body of the report describes the main tasks performed under the project. Most of the time and effort spent on a project are associated with activities that are reported and detailed in the body of the report.
Analysis of Problem: Analysis involves breaking down a problem into its elemental components with the intent to gain better understanding and insight into the problem. The objective is to break down the problem to uncover its underlying attributes through which better ways to address or solve the problem can be developed. Through the breakdown process, the analyst can find similarities or relationships between components of the problem with other problems with known solution methodologies. Matching the behavior of the components of the new problem with the behavior of components of some known solved problems becomes the basis to design and develop solution methods for the new problem. Where no such matching can be established, development of completely new solution method is required
Problem Solution: The solution method to a problem describes how the problem in question is solved. The development of a good solution method results naturally from the analysis stage. If a problem is poorly analyzed, the likelihood of coming up with a good solution method, and consequently the solution, is significantly diminished. As a result, a prerequisite for developing a good solution method starts with a thorough analysis of the problem. A good analysis is the foundation for a good solution method.
Once a good solution method has been developed, the method is then applied to solve the problem at hand. In this respect, the solution obtained is determined by the solution method developed. As expected, a good solution methodology will produce good solutions and vice versa.
6. Results: The results are the solutions obtained by applying the solution procedure to instances of the problem. Such problem instances can be real, modification of real ones, or some scientifically generated and hypothetical ones. In typical scientific studies, project teams are expected to demonstrate how well their solution procedure functions and how the results from their study compare with those of others who had undertaken similar study in the past. This is essentially the problem of benchmarking the performance of your solution with those of others with similar study.
7. Inferences: Inferences are logical conclusions drawn based on the results of the study. They represent some general and bold statements made by the analysts or project team on what has been learned or new insights gained on the problem that may be applicable to other problems with similar characteristics. Inferences are overarching statements made by analysts on what the results mean and the broader applicability of the outcomes or results. Inferences may be in the form of recommendations that are supported by the outcomes or results of the study.
8. Conclusion: The conclusion of a report always appears at the end of the report but before the “Reference” section. The conclusion is a highlight of the main points of the study. Conclusions help the reader to recall what the main elements of the study are. It is a summary of the main point of a study as well as the main outcomes. It may also point the reader to the limitations of the study, its possible extensions, the reasons for such extensions, and the possible challenges for such extensions. Finally, it highlights the main contributions of the study relative to similar previous studies and how the reader can use the newly gained knowledge.
9. References: Research studies and project teams benefit tremendously by being familiar with the state of knowledge in the subject domain from which their research/project originates or drawn from. Gaining such knowledge requires being familiar with what has been done in the field. To be familiar with the state of knowledge in a field requires reading earlier published research or work of earlier researchers in journals, magazines, newspapers, or listening to radio and television. Possible knowledge can also be gained by attending technical and professional conferences and seminars. Any knowledge from outside sources which the author of a report uses in his/her report must be acknowledged. The author must acknowledge the outside source in the body of the report and in the reference section. The reference section is a listing of outside sources of materials or knowledge that has been used in the study. Failure to do so is a serious academic and professional offense that can lead to disciplinary actions.
10. Appendix: An appendix is a section of a report or scientific paper that contains additional supporting materials to the ideas contained in a paper. Usually, placing such additional material in the body of the paper or report may distract a reader from the main idea, the flow of the paper, or create discontinuity in presentation. Items commonly placed in appendices are figures, tables, data, and expanded explanations of issues that are briefly mentioned or presented in the body of the paper or report.
I hope you find the guideline helpful as you seek solution to the questioned posed on the project and in the preparation of your final report.
