Reference no: EM133013801

New England North Hospital utilizes different data entry systems. Each of these systems is used to collect and store patient data. The hospital uses manual data entry for all clinical notes and vital signs. When a nurse or clinician enters the health record, he or she has to manually enter the patient's medical record number from the patient's arm band. Workstations on wheels (WOW) are deployed to all clinical locations with wireless communications to the main server, but the workstations need to be charged between uses and sometimes the nurse leaves the WOW plugged in in the hallway, writes down vital signs for an inpatient, and charts the findings later. The healthcare information manager wants to automate some of the systems with barcode readers, automatic data capture, and other tools to help reduce data entry errors. The system has a data center in a power-conditioned, protected room in the hospital with generators to maintain power. The healthcare information manager is concerned that a large disaster such as a fire, flood, or explosion could destroy the room with its server and all the data. There are several options to consider: keeping a backup in another section of the hospital, keeping a backup in a remote location, or using a cloud server instead of the data center. Of course, a hybrid system using two or more of these options could be used, and each system has its pros and cons. Clinicians have been asking for internet access at the point of care of their patients to use for patient education or to search for standards of care for unusual cases. At this time, the hospital network is completely separate from the internet to preserve security, but it seems it is time to allow access to the internet. It is up to the hospital information manager to present a plan to bring the internet into the hospital while maintaining a high level of security.

Based on the identified gaps or issues, recommend types of technology and storage options that would serve the organization better. Be sure to justify each recommendation.