1.2) Statement of the Problem
The hospital today is striving to achieve the best handling of patients’ historical records as well as the common problem how to provide the best medical care to thousands of patients that receive care from multiple physicians. Other problems are as followings:
- Physicians and staff have to wait for the delivery of patient’s record.
- The hospital operated with paper only. Dictated documents and lab results often took weeks to reach the patient’s chart.
- The paper filing process was not conductive to ensure that most recent information was available.
- Many of historical data regarding to service involved can be lost.
- The work flow resulted in manual process lead to frequent inefficiencies, such as delays in returning patient phone calls , scheduling appointed to re-diagnose or follow up their symptom.
1.3) Research Objective
The main objective of this research is to identify a cost benefit analysis in implementing EMR (electronic medical record) for Paolo Memorial hospital and the rest of their subsidiaries.
Ho: Benefit of EMR is greater than the cost of implementation
H1: Benefit of EMR is not greater than the cost of implementation
1.4) Scope of the Research
The scope of this research focuses on the comparative analysis whether the Electronic Medical Record system could improve their work efficiencies, as well as, effectiveness.
By doing so, this paper will recall the ‘Cost Benefit Analysis’ theory as one of the tools as the weighing scale approach for decision making. For instance, the minus (cost) side would be: the price of the software, the cost of consultants to install and implement the software, and the cost of training for the users of the software. Whereas the plus side may contain the benefits of the system; such as, improved business processes (leading to an annual cost decrease), due to better available information, the company will be able to take better decisions (leading to additional cash-flows), and increased staff moral, due to using these modern tools to support the business or vice versa.
The targets respondents in the research include: Physicians, Nurses, Administrative and IT staffs, and the patients from Paolo Hospital.
Workflow Diagram
1.5) Limitations of the Research
Most of research restrictions arise from time limitation and limited access due to the hospital policy. Due to the fact that EMR is very new for hospital information system, thus, the problem of system acceptance can be occurred. Besides other limitation would also include:
- Process/ Change Management
- Data migration
- Integration of systems
- Budgeting
1.6) Significant of the study
Physicians, patients, nurses, and all of the medical services would be the most important resources who could benefit from this study. For example, from any terminal in the system, the EMR provides the necessary tools for physicians to complete all procedures and administrative tasks associated with a patient visit. The EMR also has comprehensive medical reporting tools and online ordering facilities for ordering prescriptions, investigative tests and radiological studies.
Although EMR offer numerous benefits to the hospital, other factors, such as, budget, implementation time, and the reduction in hospital staffs are important significant that Paolo hospital should take into account.
Further study of EMR could focus on integrating the system between hospitals, medical insurances (from both private and public institutions). Alternatively, organizations which have to handle lots of document such as financial institutions, insurance companies would be an area where they could implement the office automation system.
1.7) Definition of Terms
EMR: Electronic Medical Record
‘ EMR is a central repository for all medical related documentation, combining each patient’s medical history into a single medical record’.
