Matt Wilen

2/20/12
Partners Health Care Case Study
1) Create a table that lists the benefits to the patient and to the hospital of an enterprise system
for patient medical information and for patient prescriptions and related medical therapies.
Patient Medical Information

Patient

Hospital

Patient Prescription & related

medical therapies

More accurate
medical history
Allergies already on
file
History of prior visits
in database already

Accurate history
Accurate information
Every doctor has
access to same patient
information
Standardization across
hospital
Access to MRI, X-ray,
and other scans

Accurate prescriptions
Accurate diagnosis
All doctors have
access to the same
information
List of alternative
treatments
No more hand writing
prescriptions
Less risk of patients
stealing prescription
pads
List of possible
diagnoses
Selection of drugs
List of alternative
treatments

2) List the challenges faced by Partners in implementing an enterprise-wide electronic medical

records system.
Challenges:
Someone needs to input in all previously written reports into system
Requires training of doctors
Takes time to implement new system
Expensive
High level of data

3) What are the operational IT/MIS challenges and benefits posed by the systems now in place?
PHS Management

PHS health care

practitioners

Challenges
Training needed
Takes time to get
used to the new
system

Training needed
Wont be updated
immediately

Health care practitioners

and allied agencies

Training needed

PHS IS organization

Training needed
A lot of questions in
the beginning
Problems when first
implemented

Benefits
Single database
Standards for
knowledge
More resources
Single repository
Records of what
doctor met with
what patients
Single repository
Easier access to
medical history
Better resources
Single repository
Easier access to
medical history
Single repository
Standardization
Everyone has access
to same information

4) What are the total cost of ownership (TCO) implications of the overall LMR/CPOE
investment?
Total Cost of Ownership:
Designing Costs
Set up Costs
Testing Costs
Training Costs
Hardware that is compatible with new systems
Power usage
Insurance
Replacement/ Repair
IT specialists that are familiar with system