Cloud Based IT Solution for an ENT Specialty Office (Essay Sample)

CLOUD BASED IT SOLUTION FOR AN ENT SPECIALTY OFFICEByInstitution
Abstract
The Ear, Nose, and Throat of Syracuse hospital in New York, for a long time, was using a manual system in its service provision. The system, however, had several problems including duplications, missing records and high costs of maintaining a paper-based system. The hospital contracted the services of Waiting Room Solutions (WRS) to implement a new electronic medical records (EMR) hospital management system with an Enterprise Resource Planning capability. The hospital managed to oversee an improvement in service provision, reduced costs, and access to government incentives due to compliance to Health Information Technology for the Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) and HIPAA requirements (Desroches et al. 2013). This study provides information into the design of the system, its improvement, and the overall architecture.
Cloud Based IT Solution for an ENT Specialty Office
Using web based computer network in hospital settings to provide services to patients is a very cost effective and efficient way of managing a health organization. In the case study, Ear, Nose and Throat of Syracuse was a hospital that utilized a manual service delivery system that caused a lot of redundancy in terms of keeping records, providing fast services, and cost, which made its managers to rethink their service provision. Using a client-server system with a web based service provision capability and an Enterprise Resource Planning feature encompassed all manner of service provision from patient recording, billing, prescription, and provision of patient centered care among others.
In the manual system, the hospital had problems coordinating with other four regional hospitals affiliated to it. The more than 15 employees faced difficulty using the paper-based system for charting, recording, and accomplishing other logistics. The hospital wanted to capitalize on the incentives provided by the government to health institutions using EMR systems, which highly aids in cost reductions (Haux et al. 2013). This would increase service provision and reduce expenses. The EMR system utilized minimal IT requirements like client computers, laser printer, dedicated server, and document scanner for accessing and uploading documents. The system provided improved service delivery in patient diagnosis, electronic prescription, flexible document management, and tracking of revenue among other services. The development of the system met the requirements of the health Information Technology for the Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH), and other governmental requirements, allowing it to access government incentives (Desroches et al. 2013). The adoption of the electronic system from the manual system provided additional constraints to the medical staff, however, the new system was effective and efficient in service delivery and cutting costs.
Network technologies
The EMR system utilized by the hospital utilized several network-based systems in service delivery. The web based system allowed the possibility for remote access as it removes the geographical boundary bottleneck that plagued it for a long time. The system allows linkage of several departments in the network making it easy to incorporate the billing system, electronic prescription, and updating of documents, among other services (Haux et al, 2013). Nurses used document scanners to upload patient information to the database and maintain a completely paperless system. The system had an automatic patient calling system to alert patients for their appointments.
Additionally, the system provide the usage of online fax services for which allowed nurses to easily file electronic fax to patient records in the system. The system utilized electronic posting to remind nurses automatically of patient medical history and billing information that required urgent attention. The system also utilized a robust file server system for handling the large amount of data generated in the hospital on a daily basis. This enabled users of the system to easily access.
Successes of the new system
The hospital for a long time used a client – server based system, which highly utilized manual recording of information and using paper records in the normal service delivery. The hospital had qualified health care specialists but was slow and redundant in the service provision sector. The detachment of each department with a separate billing system and utilization of paper records made it expensive and ineffective since paper records were subject to destruction or even getting lost, bringing a lot of challenge to the health professionals.
The EMR system brought significant changes and advantages in terms of improvement of service delivery and cost cutting. The hospital though had to incur the costs of moving from manual to web based system by requiring new equipments. The EMR system may encompass the use of an Enterprise Resource Planning system utilizing a web-based approach that makes it easy to accomplish remote operations (Tierney et al. 2013). This reduces travelling needs of the old system as patients could access their health records from home, register themselves for services, while health professionals could access the system and make adjustments according to work needs. Additionally, the system implemented a robust security system, which involved data encryption, firewall, and automatic scanning which made it difficult for system breakdown and data loss to occur. Since it is a web-based system, hacking would be difficult as users access services through a web application backed by a redundant firewall (Yeo et al. 2012).
The website provided patients with ultimate ease of use. They could create accounts and enter requisite information in their records such as name, location, medical history, current conditions and insurance information among other requirements. This improved service provision as it reduced time taken to diagnose and offer them services. The system also offered patients with links to information where they could learn about their health needs. Patients also enjoyed the services of email and calls reminders for their appointments.
In terms of electronic records, the system made it easy for the otolaryngology and audiologists to chart and calculate health information automatically using special forms. The users of the system could enter records in the system using virtually any type of input including typing, voice recognition, handwriting, tablet, or dictation among others. The system provided easy access of records and removed the possibility of duplication that plagued the old system. The system also provided the ease of electronic prescribing where the patients could receive their prescriptions electronically and move to a designated chemist to pick their medications. Additionally, the system integrated all manner of information required for billing, which it automatically captured and feeds to the billing system, which provides the clients with their bills directly. This reduced the inefficiency of poor record keeping and lost documents. The online fax services saved nurses the burden of creating charts and updating laboratory and radiology results by quickly scanning and uploading this information to the system for easy and faster access.
Additionally, the employment of a robust security system, which used a secured sockets layer (SSL) that protected all data and communication from destruction or tapping improves security (Gavrilov & Trajkovic, 2012). A dedicated firewall, redundant switches, and retina scanning allowed for additional network and physical security. This ensures all data housed in the system remains safe or a long time and saves the cost of recovery in case of data loss as evidenced in paper systems.
Otolaryngology Pharmacy50482502731344314825436880Network architecture
Intranet InternetHospital3296920457201905045779
5255284370517Web application
208831376076Scanner Laboratory Patient (Home)
Remote user
Firewall RouterFirewallWeb application (ERP) serverWeb serverDatabase server
The diagram above comprises of key equipments and entities that the system uses. The system comprises of three servers, one hosting the web application or the ERP system, the web server, and the database server. The database server helps in storing health information in the database, including charts and scanned documents securely. The web application server hosts the ERP system allowing users to access it using their web browsers or applications (Barry, 2017). The firewall provides security both in the internet and the intranet, preventing hackers from accessing or manipulating the system. There are two firewalls; one in the hospital intranet networking system and one in the back end protecting the servers connected to the internet. The second firew...