Project Goals and Objectives
The goal of the company is to overhaul the current EHR system as it has some challenges that prevent its effective use in the management of patient care. The objectives of the hospital include the promotion of high-quality care by allowing both the physicians and patients to communicate better to promote patient care ( Boonstra & van Offenbeek, 2018) . The other objective is to promote access to documentation by both patients and providers, which means that patients are involved in the care process ( Lähteenmäki et al., 2017) . The third objective is the generation of increased effectiveness when it comes to the provision of medical care while facilitating the provision of new services.
Process for Conducting and Administering Procurements
The procurement should be done in phases. The first phase is the pre-solicitation and preparation stage. This is where assessment of the organizational readiness is conducted. This phase also involves the assessment of the financial resources of the hospital. A budget is also created at this stage ( Iivanainen, Lääveri, & Kaisla, 2018) . A communication plan is also established at this stage. The second phase is the vendor solicitation where a request for proposal is made, identification of vendors for solicitation is also done, and the collection of proposals from vendors.
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The third phase is the vendor evaluation and selection. In this phase, the procurement team performs due diligence, proposals are scored, and site visits are conducted in order to make the final selection of the vendor to select ( Tyllinen, Kaipio, & Lääveri, 2018) . This is the point where the negotiations would be conducted with the selected vendor. The final phase is phase IV that entails the maintenance of vendor relationship management. This should start with designating a primary point of contact from the organization. This is followed by the identification of the point of contact on the vendor’s side coupled with the establishment of a process for issue documentation and resolution.
Budgetary Requirements
The hospital should start with prioritizing some of the things that would make it easier to implement the system ( Tyllinen, Kaipio, & Lääveri, 2018) . The budgetary requirement for the whole process entails the buying of hardware software, consultancy fees, vendor fees, and training of employees. As the hospital already has an existing EHR system, there is no major upgrade in terms of hardware that is required. The only upgrades that are needed include buying of new CPUs for those that are slow and replacing those computers that are damaged. The cost of hardware is estimated at $6000.
One of the major costs is the purchase of the software at an estimated cost of $33000. The software has to be compatible with the hardware infrastructure already in the company. This is where the application analysis helps in the procurement process as it ensures that the needs of the departments in the hospital are considered by the designers ( Lau, 2017) . The other cost is that of training employees estimated at $100, 000. The training is aimed at filling the gaps in skills. The focus of the hospital should be to reduce the number of hours lost by the employees as they add up to the cost incurred during the implementation process.
Request for Action
To enhance access to patient information and improve on the quality of care provided to patients, the company needs to change the current EHR system to a new one with better features. With better interoperability, the hospital will be in a position to enhance the effectiveness with which the information is shared within the department and outside the department ( Iivanainen, Lääveri, & Kaisla, 2018) . There would also be an improvement in the reporting methods, which is important in promoting understanding of patient information by all health practitioners.
References
Boonstra, A., & van Offenbeek, M. A. (2018). Shaping a buyer's software selection process through tendering legislation. Information Systems Journal , 28 (5): 905-928.
Lähteenmäki, J., Leppänen, J., Sachinopoulou, A., Mathieu, J. P., Alessandrello, R., & Ikävalko, S. (2017). Pre-commercial procurement of personal health services: Interoperability considerations. In 9 th International Conference on E-Health, EH 2017 : 79-86).
Lau, F. (2017). End-Users’ Voice in EHR Selection: Development of a Usability Questionnaire for Demonstrations in Procurement (DPUQ). Building Capacity for Health Informatics in the Future , 234 : 346.
Iivanainen, A. T., Lääveri, T., & Kaisla, S. (2018). End-users’ voice in the procurement process of an integrated health and social care information system. International Journal of Integrated Care , 18 (s2).
Tyllinen, M., Kaipio, J., & Lääveri, T. (2018, May). A Framework for Usability Evaluation in EHR Procurement. In MIE : 446-450).
