Reference no: EM133148650

CASE STUDY - FACT FINDING AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The doctors, nurses and therapists provide services and perform various medical procedures. All procedures are coded according to the international Current Procedure Terminology (CTP) which is published by various medical associations. The procedure codes consist of 5 numeric digits and a 2 digit suffix (1234-12) and are used for all billing and medical claims.

There are 7 reports required at the practice that are generated from the office. The 1st report is the daily appointment list for each provider. This list shows all scheduled appointment times, patient names and services to be performed including the procedure code and description. The 2nd daily report is the call list that shows the patients who are to be reminded of their next day's appointments. The call lust includes the patient name, telephone number, appointment time and provider name. The 3rd report is the weekly provider report that lists each of the providers and the weekly charges generated, plus a month-to-date (MTD) and year-to-date (YTD) summary.

The 4th report is the statement - a pre-printed form that is produced monthly and handed to patients as they leave the clinic. Statement header information includes the statement date, patient name and address, procedure charges, procedure provider, payment due and any outstanding payments owing. The bottom section of the statement includes details of procedures and their individual charges. Each procedure is listed on a separate line with a separate cost that are totalled for each statement. The statement also shows the totals of any refunds received from a private insurer which is deducted from the amount outstanding. Some patients are given the option to pay their accounts in instalments. The statements list any instalments paid as well.

The associates also require 2 insurance reports: the weekly insurance company report and the monthly claim status summary. Some insurers can take up to 60 days to remit funds to the practice after a claim has been submitted by the practice.

In addition to these 6 reports, the office staff would also like to be able to print mailing labels and appointment cards to send to patients when it's time to remind them of their next appointment. They would also like a system that will generate emails and/or texts to patients as reminders or just for general information.

ALTERNATIVES AND STRATEGIES
At the end of the fact finding and analysis, it's time to prepare a systems requirement document and give a presentation to the associates. The proposed system's advantages were established during the fact finding. The benefits that are expected to result from the system are smoother operation, better efficiency and more user-friendly procedures for staff and patients.

It's also time to examine the costs and benefits to determine the economic feasibility of several alternatives. If the practice decides to go ahead with the development process, the main options are to develop the system in-house or purchase a vertical package and configure it to manage the practice's specific needs.

The current workload requires at least 3 hours of overtime for each office staff member per week. Some weeks the office staff spend up to 12 hours overtime catching up on various tasks. As well, based on current projections, it will also be necessary to add another full-time office staff member within 6 months. Neither the overtime nor the new position will be needed if the new system is implemented. However, the current manual system also causes an average of 3 errors per day and each error takes about 20 minutes to correct. The new system should eliminate these errors.

It's been estimated that the project can be completed in 12 weeks working full-time. The consulting rate, which the practice has agreed to, is $240 per hour. If the new system is designed from scratch you can expect to spend around $3000 for a commercial DBMS system. After the system is implemented and the staff have been trained, they should be able to handle routine system maintenance tasks without the assistance of a consultant.

As an alternative to in-house development, a vertical software package is available for about $10,000. The vendor has terms requiring an initial payment of $3,000 following by a 2nd annual payment of $4,000 and a final annual payment of $3,000. If the practice decides to purchase this package it will take around 4 weeks to install, configure and test. The vendor provides free support during the 1st year but then the practice must sign a technical support agreement at an annual cost of $2500. Although the package has most of the features that the practice wants, the reports are all pre-configured and altering them would be difficult and expensive.

Regardless of which option is required there would be approximately 10 hours of training required which would be delivered by an external person at a cost of $250 per hour. The practice also expects that there will be ongoing support needed for each option over the 1st 3 months of installation. This would be to deal with any problems and general trouble shooting that would be an additional cost. The general housekeeping functions of each system, backup, maintenance, updates and so on could all be handled by one of the office staff members but is estimated to require around 4 hours per week. It is expected that there would be a useful life of around 5 years for each system. It is expected that installation of hardware and software would be $10,000 for each system. This includes cabling and incidental hardware including multi-function printers.

ACTIVITY

Question 1. Create a table, listing all tasks separately, with their duration;

Question 2. Identify all dependencies, and indicate what predecessor tasks are required;

Question 3. Construct a Gantt chart in Microsoft Project or other project management software;

Question 4. Identify the PERT/CPM chart in the software, and identify the critical path;

Question 5. Determine the overall duration of the project;

Question 6. Take clear screenshots of the Gantt chart and PERT/CPM chart and paste into your Report document in Part A: Initial Investigation under Project Management.

Question 7. Include the overall duration and critical path in your report.