Upgrade Electronic Health Record System: Project Plan By Australian Pharmaceutical Industries

Project Management Overview

The Australian Pharmaceutical Industries is initiating the project plan to upgrade its existing electronic health record system. The system is an electronic medical record for the clinical services provided to the public healthcare offices (Holmström, 2014). The proposed system allows submitting claims of the services provided electronically as well as track the compensation received for the performed services and supported revenue recovery. The idea that is to be brought up in this project is develop the Electronic health record that will be an upgrade to the existing one. The idea of upgrading the electronic health record system will help in generating the patient’s data as well as automating the workflow in the clinic. The concept that is to be discussed in this report is reviewing the schedule of the project and all the associated risks so that the anticipated project plan can be easily and successfully developed thus this will help in the organization making a lot of profits in the health sector.

Project schedule is set and reviewed in the manner that it will be used in analysing if the stated project will be finished within the given and documented timeline and that all the associated risks are analysed so that all the difficulties that may arise during the project implementation will be prevented in advance (Kung, 2018).

This report is based on analysing the project management overview of this project plan with a statement of work, project team, responsibilities, objectives, and constraints. The current system of the organization is described as analysing its issues, problems, and constraints. The proposed stakeholder analysis and management, proposed requirements elicitation methodology, proposed requirements statement and the proposed risk analysis and the associated risk management strategies which will cover the proposed change management solution as well as the analysis of the case study issues and the proposed solutions. 

The statement of work of this project plan consists of following aspects such as:

Scope: The project scope is defined and documented. The scope of the information system is to implement new computerized entry of the order, visits of patients are arranged, the clinic staff are required to enter the data and events in the electronic record are reported. Another major scope is that the entered data can be easily used in generation of reports in case there is need for such. This may arise when there is a patient who has been visiting the healthcare several times and he or she usually make payments and it is recorded in the medication records thus in case they ask for the report with regards to the treatment progress then the project plan that is to be implemented should anticipate ways in which such report can be generated.

Statement of Work

Objectives: The objectives of this project plan are to upgrade the existing system of the Australian Pharmaceutical Industries. The system should increase the revenue in the healthcare sector by 5% in the Australian marketplace. It is required to train staffs on using a new version of the information system.

The other idea is that the proposed advanced system will help in eliminating the errors and flaws caused by the existing system. The system main aim is to keep the records of the patient in a manner that they will be easily traceable and that they can be accessed any time without conflicting with other patient and policies of the healthcare. Every organisation aims is to have a good record system that can be used in storing and retrieving of such data. This will help in ensuring that the information system supports both the Healthcare as well as the patient who receives medication. Use of information systems when compared to normal file systems where paper work is always applied will be a benefit to Australia Pharmaceutical Industries as they will be minimal cases of errors as accuracy will be very high. The other idea is that in case of an error the information system will be able to trace the source of such errors very easily.

Key outcomes: The key outcomes of this plan are to upgrade the existing system of the selected health care organization so that there is a change in the healthcare record. The system is included to provide secured, reliable and an effective way to register and gather the clinical data related to patients. The system is meant to install the modern information systems which will be friendly to the users and that which will be easy to interact with. The major key outcome which is anticipated is making the advanced information system very much secure, reliable and available all the times and much effective when doing data entry such as registration of the patients.

Deliverables: this is something that is produced or even provided as a result of a given process. The input of the process in the electronic healthcare industry system in Australia Pharmaceutical is can be things like info, documents, the project plan, equipment to be used, money budgeted and the software to be used. The out which are to be expected with respect to the inputted process are such as the consultation, project plan, tools used, applications implemented, results tested and the contracts. When a product or a system is to be implemented in the course of the project there are due dates to when the deliverables are expected to be presented as well as the specific and much more measurable key performance indicators (KPI) such as the anticipated quality and quantity (Bridges, 2017).

Project Schedule

The key deliverables of this project are project charter, initial risk assessment, high-level project schedule, project management plan, high-level WBS, budget and communication plan, and responsibility matrix and project status report.

Assumptions: project assumptions can be defined as the factor that is used in the planning process which is considered that is true, or even real or in other term certain without any tangible or physical proof or even an exhibit or a demonstration. In this project the assumptions are defined as the events or the circumstances which are expected to occur during the lifecycle of the project (Malik, 2016).

The resources are available for the duration of the project plan with the expertise to work in this particular field. It is also assumed that the project work is completed on time and within budget. No extra resources are added after starting of the project plan.

The project team includes:

• Executive project sponsor
• Project manager
• Financial analyst
• Technical manager
• System Engineer
• Administrative manager

Role	Responsibilities
Executive project sponsor	Ø Ensure that the project is delivered with business benefits Ø Keep the project plan aligned with the organizational strategies and portfolio directions (Odens, 2015). Ø Govern the project risks related to financial resources
Project manager	Ø Designing and applying the project management standards in the upgrade of the EHR system Ø Managing the production of required project deliverables Ø Planning, monitoring and controlling the project plan
Financial analyst	Ø Guiding the business and individuals to make investment decisions (Carayon, 2015). Ø Assessing the performance of project bonds
Technical manager	Ø Communicate with the technical project team and clients Ø Understand the project needs, coordinate with the project resources and direct the project in the right directions (kristof, 2016). Ø Allocate the responsibilities to manage the project from end to end
System engineer	Ø Manage and monitor the information system and IT infrastructure Ø Configure and maintain the information system, system management tools Ø Ensure the higher levels of the information system
Administrative manager	Ø Support the business operations by supervising the project team Ø Organize and implement the administrative system Ø Recruit and train the project personnel, allocation of responsibilities

The total time that is required in completing on the development of the electronic health information system in Australian Pharmaceutical Industries is 120 days. The start date of the project plan is 7th August 2018, and the end date is 21st August 2019. When the project manager reviews the schedule progress update, then it is required to determine if the schedule update is a valid update or not (Ginter, Duncan and Swayne 2018). There are also possibilities of changes into the scheduled date due to delay in any of the activity. Therefore there is an increase in the total time required to complete the project plan. There is a change in an understanding of the business process where there is a delay of 3 days in completing this particular project activity. In the planning phase, an onsite assessment is increased by two days, and risk monitoring and control is delayed by three days.

Following are the project objectives for this project study:

• To develop measurable goals for upgrading the existing EHR
• To formulate strategies for staff communication
• To create the work plan for implementation of EHR
• To formulate features and functionality that EHR is successful

The project constraints are the factors which restrict the project scope, resource as well as the project schedule. This is the limiting factor which normally affects the process of executing the project, the program, a portfolio or even a process. This could be restrictions which are imposed by the existing stakeholders or even the surrounding environment limiting the project team options (Pravin, 2017).The funds of this project are expended by ten days and must be completed within 120 days. The newly updated information system goes live for all the end users. Training is completed shortly before go-live date. The deadline for the implementation the new electronic health record system is 21st January 2019. Therefore, upgradation of proposed system must complete before this proposed date.

Project Objectives

There is recognition of strategic alignment to plan the services are required to deliver the healthcare providers. It is required to understand improvement range of the social as well as economic factors which influence the improvement of the healthcare status. The consumers can access the health care information from the internet through the portal of the selected organization (Lee, 2015). The strategic provision of the health services with use of integrated services enhanced the existing capabilities and optimize the use of the resources. The electronic record system supports the current as well as long term requirements of the healthcare information on short term basis. In long term basis, the data are formed foundation of the medical as well as health research. The strategic alignment is focused on electronic health recorded as core abilities that will offer real time access to the decision support at point of the healthcare (Peppard, 2016). It will continue to build an increase confidence of the healthcare organizations to share of higher quality information across the healthcare system.   

The advent of the electronic health records has increased rapidly as well as feasibility of the healthcare administration. The customers are in constant fear related to privacy of the health related information. The privacy issues are primary concerns for the users and breaches can conflict the health privacy laws which result in decrease of the patient’s trusts that their information will be secured.   

There are problems into the current system such as the existing system has no such features to provide the patients with health-related information online. Therefore, the patients should go to the healthcare organization and update with recent healthcare services which are provided (Nguyen, 2014). There is no computerized system to enter physician entry of order. Therefore, those problems are overcome with new upgrade of EHR system into Australian Pharmaceutical Industries.

Due to problems into the healthcare system, therefore it is possible there are some delay into the project activities. Therefore, there will be time constraints. When the project is not delivered on time, there are budget constraints when the plan is exceeding its proposed budget due to increase in number of days to complete the project work.

External stakeholders	Internal stakeholders
Board of directors	The project team
Patients	Medical directors
Healthcare consultants	Project manager
Non-governmental organizations (NGO)	Technical manager
Media	Project management office
Industry partners	Financial analyst
Governmental agencies	Administrative manager

Keep completely informed Board of directors Project manager The project team Patients	Manage most thoroughly Administrative manager Media Non-governmental organizations (NGO) Financial analyst
Regular minimal contact Technical manager Healthcare consultants Project management office	Anticipate and meet needs Industry partners Medical directors Governmental agencies

All the internal as well as external stakeholders are identified. Those are the patients but are included of families of patients, healthcare providers as well as program administrators (Jamshed, 2015). The interest and power of stakeholders are also identified. The level of influence of stakeholders are determined. The personal traits which are possessed by the patient stakeholders are communication skills, experience of life could provide invaluable to achieve of project goals. There is requirement of communication plan for the stakeholders so that they can interact with each other in case of requirements (Boonstra, 2014). Identification of stakeholders are difficult task and influence of the stakeholders are not become evident until last stages of the project plan. 

Role	Category	Power	Interest	Expectations	Strategies
The project team	Internal	High	High	The project is to be delivered on time and in budget.	The stakeholders are notified about negative impacts of the project plan on the business organization.
Medical directors	Internal	Low	High	There are clear requirements of project and timely completion of project documents.	Arrangement of project meeting with the stakeholders and project manager to discuss the project objectives (Hsiao, 2014).
Project manager	Internal	High	High	Timely approval of project plan.	Trying to gain commitments from the stakeholders on the project resources and deliverables of the project sponsor
Technical manager	Internal	Low	Low	Changes should not affect the uptime of proposed system.	Explanation of the project benefits to the stakeholders (Melitski, 2015).
Project management office	Internal	Low	Low	There are clear requirements of project and timely completion of project documents.	Asking the stakeholder to join the project management team and active member of project
Financial analyst	Internal	High	High	Timely approval of project plan.	Finding out others those have experience about the technical related work
Administrative manager	Internal	High	High	The project is to be delivered on time and in budget.	Sending regular project updates  (Nguyen, 2014).
Board of directors	External	High	High	There are clear requirements of project and timely completion of project documents.	Trying to gain commitments from the stakeholders on the project resources and deliverables of the project sponsor
Patients	External	High	High	Timely approval of project plan.	Identification of the project requirements and getting approval
Healthcare consultants	External	Low	Low	The project is to be delivered on time and in budget.	Sending regular project updates
Non-governmental organizations (NGO)	External	High	High	Timely approval of project plan.	Asking the stakeholder to join the project management team and active member of project (Sauver, 2017).
Media	External	High	High	The project is to be delivered on time and in budget.	Sending regular project updates
Industry partners	External	Low	High	There are clear requirements of project and timely completion of project documents.	Finding out others those have experience about the technical related work
Governmental agencies	External	Low	High	The project is to be delivered on time and in budget.	Identification of the project requirements and getting approval

Deliverables

The researcher has reviewed the risks during the implementation of Electronic Health Record solutions in the healthcare industry. The risks are such as technical risk, resource risk, budget risk, schedule risk, privacy and security risk (Lehoux et al. 2014). From the project plan report, resource, privacy and security risk are high risk. Technical risk, budget risk, and schedule risk are medium risks. After review of the entire project plan, it is seen that there are some changes in the level of risk such as:

Risk factors	Impact	Likelihood	Risk level
Technical risk	Moderate	Likely	High
Resource risk	Moderate	Possible	Medium
Budget risk	Moderate	Unlikely	Medium
Privacy and security breach	Significant	Likely	Extreme
Schedule risk	Minor	Possible	Medium

Impact
		Negligible	Minor	Moderate	Significant	Severe
Likelihood	Very likely
Likely			Technical risk	Privacy and security breach
Possible		Schedule risk	Resource risk
Unlikely			Budget risk
Very unlikely

From the risk matrix, it is analyzed that there are some changes to the identified risks as there are changes in technical risk, privacy and security risk and resource risk. After review of the identified risks, privacy and security risks are an extreme risk; technical risk is a high risk, schedule, resource and budget risk are medium risk.

In this concept the contention with conduction of Information system-related research in the setting of the healthcare will help in setting a comprehensive study of all the stakeholders involved (brugha, 2012). The stakeholder analysis is the approach which is used when one needs to improve the understanding of the behaviour intentions, the interrelations and interests of an individual or an organization when relating with the given decisions or implementations. This information is meant to satisfy the variety of needs (Todd, 2015). A good example in HER is applying the stakeholder analysis and management in developing the project objectives, project strategies, project policies in aiding to evaluate and implement the proposed system. The reason for utilizing the stakeholders is simply for us to be able to determine the actual healthcare of the user in the information system related research.

In EHR project implementation when patient are treated there will exist three primary stakeholders namely the patient, physician and the clinicians respectively. On the dependence upon the situation the user may consist of either one or even more individuals from any of the three primary stakeholders. In this case if one happens to research on the wrong group then it will be very hard for one to get the relevant or the valid results to as what he or she anticipated (Jorges, 2001).

In the concept of applying the stakeholder analysis, it will be useful for one to view all the triads of the three major stakeholders in the healthcare industry which is the patient, clinician and the physician in establishing their roles. The figure below will be used in explaining the relationship the discussed factors as well as explaining the role of each actor. 

Assumptions

Physician

1. Interprets the source of data
2. His or her roles may be either primary or secondary through the healthcare clinicians
3. The use of this actor may be voluntary either as normal employee or even an entrepreneur.

Clinician

1. Diagnoses the source of data and the value added
2. He or she plays an intermediary role and can be interpretive
3. Tit may be involuntary as the employment condition.

Patient

1. He or she is always the data source
2. His or her role may be active or even passive
3. There is use of typical voluntary, may be compelled by the disease, Laws and the family.

In the case where the principles of stakeholders which are proposed in this concept of HER then the following will be suggested in the fundamentals will assist in identifying the inter-organizational stakeholders with the context given as explained here below.

1. The group and the stakeholder number will time and the dependence of the context.
2. There should be no isolation of the stakeholders from others when there is role determination
3. Stakeholder of given individuals may change with time as the project process or implementation progresses.
4. Many are times more than one role can be allocated or assigned to the same stakeholder within the given context and same period of time.
5. Stakeholders does not have the same perspectives or even the wishes
6. Stakeholders may be changing their perspectives or their wishes over time as they progress with the development and implementation of the proposed information system.
7. Lastly but not least is that the stakeholders may not be able to fully satisfy all their needs as well as all the desires.

In conduction of all the information system related research in healthcare in the health care setting , all the stakeholders participating in the will need to be evaluated. The idea wil be based on the technology applied, the achievements to be made by the stated and appointed group, how the stakeholders interacts with each other which will dictate their activities and help in determination of what they are (Mclean, 2003). The following analysis on the stakeholder can be performed explaining all what is required step by step.

1. The purpose and the dimension of time may it be past, present or the future of the stakeholder analysis
2. The available resources and the time frame set
3. Culture and the context involved and surrounding all the stakeholders
4. Level (Local, regional, national, international) of the stakeholder analysis.

The stakeholder analysis can be performed by a specific individual or a group of people which will be depending on the time and resource constraints which are put.  The related data with relation to the made decision or implementation will be collected (Davidson, 2014).

It is summarized that there are some changes to the schedule due to delay in some of the project activities. Therefore, changes into one of the activity result into delay in the entire project schedule. The project plan to implement of the proposed system is consisted of initiation, planning, execution, control as well as closure phases. The scope of this particular study is to implement an innovative system that is user friendly for the system users. The benefits of this proposed system is that it is generated for increasing effectiveness for providing medical care and new services. The new business solutions are increasing the capability to provide medical care, increase the business values and increase the business revenue. The proposed system is taking account of the clinical requirements of health-related information. It will upload the quality of system. Electronic health-related information is upgraded to oblige as it is ending up with the patient experiences. The project plan is to be carried out with the schedule, adopted among the patients along with physicians. 

Conclusions and Recommendations

The study has solicited the opinions of the stakeholder and investigated some of the solutions and challenges with regards to the adoption of the HER in Australia Healthcare Industries. There are some several advantages that may have arose as the result of the implementation of HER. Some of the benefits may have been identified from the perspective of hospitals staff which may include things like reduced administrative and clinical costs, efficiency in the communication improvement, care that is of high quality, clinical outcomes as well as making better decision. On the perspective of the customer or patients, upgrading the HER will improve the transparency of patient information as well as the caregiver’s efficiency. Another benefits that may arise if such system is upgraded there is expectation that patients will be able to have greater access and more control on their health status. There are some several barriers which may be associated with the implementation of the HER such as the need to improve the information of patient transparency, privacy of the data, data security and confidentiality, the challenged associated with system integration and interoperability and lastly is lacking the incentives that will be used in adopting to the upgraded HER systems in Australia Healthcare Industries.

Project Team

In conclusion the findings are all the recommendations made with regards to this study or research should be interpreted in the light of its limitations which arise if the system is to be implemented. First, is that the respondents to this research may be or not representing the interest in the hospitals and stakeholders who participated. Second, the qualitative methods which were used in this research may have yielded precision which is less than the qualitative methods. As there will be many industries adopting the HER system or join in the diffusion, there will be need to investigate on additional studies with relation t the cost benefit or the economic analysis of Electronic Healthcare Record system. More informatics from the customers, the sociotechnical and the legal issues which may have been caused by adopting the HER and thus needing further exploration and clarification.     

List of References

Boonstra, V., 2014. systematic literature review. BMC health services research. Implementing electronic health records in hospitals:, 14(1), p. 370.

Bridges, J., 2017. Project management. What are Project Deliverables?, 1(1), pp. 2-7.

brugha, V., 2012. Health policy and planning. how to do or not do Stakeholder analysis, 15(3), pp. 338-345.

Carayon, W., 2015. International journal of medical informatics. Impact of electronic health record technology on the work and workflow of physicians in the intensive care unit., 84(8), pp. 578-594.

Davidson, C., 2014. Information and organization. pushing the contextual envelope by developing and diffusing the theory of health IS research, 14(3), pp. 155-188.

Holmström, A., 2014. A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and use.. Information systems use as strategy practice:, 23(1), pp. 45-61.

Hsiao, A., 2014. ased Physicians, United States. Trends in Electronic Health Record System Use Among Office, 3(1), pp. 2007-2012.

Jamshed, O., 2015. a general overview. Perspectives in clinical research. Ethical issues in electronic health records, 6(2), p. 73.

Jorges, A., 2001. Information systems journal. the significance of context in information systems and the organizational change, 11(1), pp. 43-63.

kristof, k., 2016. Journal of medical systems. Barriers to electronic health record adoption: a systematic literature review., 40(12), p. 252.

Kung, W., 2018. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations. , 12(1), pp. 3-13.

Lee, G., 2015. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC). Strategic information system planning , 27(2), pp. 1-31.

Malik, P., 2016. What are Project Assumptions?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pmbypm.com/what-are-assumptions/
[Accessed 14 october 2018].

Mclean, D., 2003. the quest for the dependent variable of information systems research. information system success, 3(3), pp. 60-95.

Melitski, M., 2015. An assessment integrating strategy and operations through performance measurement. International. State strategic information system plans, 28(3), pp. 240-253.

Nguyen, B., 2014. an evaluation of information system impact and contingency factors. International journal of medical informatics. Electronic health records implementation, 83(11), pp. 779-796.

Odens, B.-A., 2015. Health Policy. Electronic health records, adoption, quality of care, , 119(3), pp. 287-297.

Peppard, W., 2016. Building a digital strategy.. The strategic management of information systems, 24(2), p. 51.

Pravin, M., 2017. What is a Project Constraint?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pmbypm.com/project-constraints/
[Accessed 14 October 2108].

Sauver, B.-G., 2017. a partnership with the Rochester Epidemiology Project.. Linking medical and dental health record data, 7(3), p. e012528.

Todd, W., 2015. Toward a view which is unified. MIS quarterly. Theoretical Integration of user satisfaction and the technology acceptance , 27(3), pp. 425-478.