ICT504 IT Project Management: Assessment Answer

Problem Identification

There have been great advancement in technology today, with effects seen across varying fields from education, hospitability, research, agriculture etc. These technological advancements have been felt across the world and has improved processes and increased efficiency. While these technological advancements have been helpful in increasing accuracy and reducing processing time, this has not been the case in all industries. One of the fields that has not fully benefited from the technological advancements is the healthcare system.

Notably, there have been improvements technology that has led to quick diagnosis and treatment options. These technological improvements have even helped in drug research and development processes as noted by Atanasov et al. (2021). Some treatment options such as invasive surgeries have become less dangerous and easier to operate. However, these advancements have mainly been observed in the improvements of the hardware component of healthcare provision. While this is commendable, more software improvements should be introduced in the healthcare system.

Limitations of the Current Check-in Hospital Systems

One of the healthcare departments that requires a more efficient system is the checking-in of patients. Many injured and sick people lose their lives in the ‘waiting room’. This happens due to a number of reasons such as over-booked hospitals, lack of proper check-in system for incoming patients etc (Marbouh et al., 2020). While we have ambulances to keep patients stable, the hospitals fail to pick up the pace when the patient arrives in the hospital. This was evident during the COVID-19 outbreak where many patients died without getting attended to in the hospitals (Feist et al., 2020). Some healthcare facilities have long check-in processes forcing the patients to wait a long time before they are attended to by the doctors. This process can easily be solved by having a well-implemented IT system in place. This report will look into the implementation of such a project and how it would best solve this problem.

Problem Proposal

The project can be implemented in a particular district before it is rolled over to the rest of the country. The project: ‘Hospital Check-in System’ will be implemented based on clearly defined guidelines and limitations as given below:

Project Scope

The project will be implemented across 6 hospitals in a given district. The system is expected to link potential patients to Emergency Medical Providers (EMTs) to Hospitals and to provide a smooth transition. This will work by having patients have a pre-recorded medical history on the system which can easily be accessed by the EMTs and the hospitals by a simple fingerprint swipe. This will reduce the time taken to ask the patient their medical history, allergies and the treatments they are on. This will further improve the Emergency Medical Providers role in bridging the gap by offering intervention while transitioning the patient to the hospital (Munjal et al., 2020). The patient can frequently update the medical history on the system which can also be accessed by medical insurance companies as authorized by the patient.

The IT system should also link EMTs and Hospitals by allowing EMTs to access the current hospital capacity to avoid them from taking critical patients to hospital that are not in the right capacity to take care of them. The system can suggest which hospital, with the right medical equipment and capacity is nearest to admit the patient based on the patient’s critical conditions. The EMTs can update the patient’s medical condition on the system so that the hospital is ready to receive the patient as soon as they arrive.

Project Objectives

The main aim of implementing this project in the healthcare sector include:

• To reduce the number of patients that die in hospitals while waiting to be attended to
• To increase the success rate of EMT to Hospital transition
• To reduce overcrowding in hospitals
• To have a one-point system that has available healthcare records for the patients accessible by all relevant stakeholders

Project Stakeholders

The IT system will work best if it is adopted by the following relevant stakeholders:

• Hospital and Healthcare facilities outlining their physical and human resources
• The Emergency Medical Providers eg ambulances, paramedics etc
• The patients who make a regular effort to have their medical information updated. They also have the authority to determine who is authorized to view the medical records
• Insurance companies who can access and pay for the medical bills at the touch of a button

Project Timeline

This project can take about 6 months to roll out to the relevant stakeholders in one district. Implementation might take longer and will require the potential patients to have a well-updated health record on the system

Project Deliverables

• Hospitals’ adoption of the system and updating their available resources for the EMTs to access
• Patients adoption of the system and having their medical records online and updated include bio recognition
• EMTs and insurance companies access to the system to endure smooth healthcare provision by the hospitals to the patients

Problem Implementation

The project implementation will use concepts from both the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PBOK) and Agile Methodologies. Agile methodology is often used in software development cycle (Shameem et al., 2020). The PMBOK has been used to ensure smooth implementation of the project lifecycle (El Khatib et al., 2020). The project implementation will follow the structure given below:

• Initiating- The system design and software development cycle will be done along the following cycle:
• Ideation: This will include doing a background analysis on the healthcare system and the expectations from the project stakeholders.
• Development: This will then be aligned with the project objectives to design the IT system using the appropriate software to develop the first iteration
• Testing: The system will be tested by doing various scenario-based trial runs. Kim (2020) argues that, software testing is often done to eliminate both code errors and data errors.
• Deployments: Once the code is clean and after several iterations, the system is ready for implementation
• Planning- This involves the preparation of the relevant stakeholders to adopts and use the system for healthcare provision. This is mainly through training them and giving them the advantages of using the new system compared to the current method
• Executing- This involves the uploading of the software to the hospital systems and integration with the EMTs and potential patients. In this stage, the system can start being implemented in the healthcare system.
• Monitoring and controlling- The project can then be monitored to ensure there is smooth flow of information across the stakeholders and that there is no error or delay in data transition.
• Closing- Once fully implemented, the project can take full effect and hopefully achieve its intended objectives. If successful, it can further be rolled out to the rest of the country.

Problem Evaluation

The project was based on deliverables that ought to improve the healthcare system and reduce the time lag the patients have to get medical care. The project will be evaluated based on these deliverables. This can easily be done on the system since the system tracks the patient’s health progress from check-in to medical attention to release from hospital. The system can also help reduce congestion in certain hospitals by directing EMTs to the more available hospitals with more resources for a given condition. This data can easily be compared and evaluated form the old system. In cases where the old system performed better, the new IT system can implement the concept and hopefully improve. Kissi et al. (2019) argues that project evaluation is often done to examine the impact of the project based on pre-defined success criteria. Evaluation can also help identify unexpected errors and inconsistencies and resolve them.

Future Recommendations and Improvements on the System

The system can be ready for implementation at this stage but it still holds promise for areas of improvement and future development. While the system holds promise in solving one of the main challenges facing healthcare provision, there is also potential risk associated with it. Medical records are very sensitive information and unauthorized access to the records might have potential harm (Mijwil et al, 2023). Therefore, efforts should be put to continuously ensure the system is well protected against data-breach and to ensure advanced cyber security.

The system can further be improved by having the patient track their medication and even book appointments to various hospitals on the system. This can be made possible by having user-based apps that allow the patient easily communicate with healthcare providers. Further, the system can have access to medical journals e.g. on First Aid, Healthy eating etc that can be useful for the patients’ read (Maggio et al., 2020). This will reduce the increasing cases where sick and injured tend to go to unreliable internet sources for medical opinion. The system holds great potential for the future of healthcare provision in the country and across the globe. 

References

Atanasov, A. G., Zotchev, S. B., Dirsch, V. M., & Supuran, C. T. (2021). Natural products in drug discovery: advances and opportunities. Nature reviews Drug discovery, 20(3), 200-216.

El Khatib, M., Nakand, L., Almarzooqi, S., & Almarzooqi, A. (2020). E-Governance in Project Management: Impact and Risks of Implementation.

Feist, J. B., Feist, J. C., & Cipriano, P. (2020). Stigma compounds the consequences of clinician burnout during COVID-19: a call to action to break the culture of silence. NAM perspectives, 2020.

Kim, M. (2020). Software engineering for data analytics. IEEE Software, 37(4), 36-42.

Kissi, E., Agyekum, K., Baiden, B. K., Tannor, R. A., Asamoah, G. E., & Andam, E. T. (2019). Impact of project monitoring and evaluation practices on construction project success criteria in Ghana. Built Environment Project and Asset Management.

Maggio, L. A., Willinsky, J. M., Costello, J. A., Skinner, N. A., Martin, P. C., & Dawson, J. E. (2020). Integrating Wikipedia editing into health professions education: a curricular inventory and review of the literature. Perspectives on medical education, 9, 333-342.

Marbouh, D., Khaleel, I., Al Shanqiti, K., Al Tamimi, M., Simsekler, M. C. E., Ellahham, S., ... & Alibazoglu, H. (2020). Evaluating the impact of patient no-shows on service quality. Risk management and healthcare policy, 13, 509.

Mijwil, M., Aljanabi, M., & Ali, A. H. (2023). ChatGPT: Exploring the Role of Cybersecurity in the Protection of Medical Information. Mesopotamian journal of cybersecurity, 2023, 18-21.

Munjal, K. G., Shastry, S., Chapin, H., Tan, N., Misra, A., Greenberg, E., ... & Richardson, L. D. (2020). Retrospective cohort study of rates of return emergency department visits among patients transported home by ambulance. The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 59(1), 147-152.

Shameem, M., Kumar, R. R., Nadeem, M., & Khan, A. A. (2020). Taxonomical classification of barriers for scaling agile methods in global software development environment using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Applied Soft Computing, 90, 106122.

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