Reference no: EM132058861

Question: Imagine that a Unit Coordinator and the Nursing Director of a hospital are having a discussion:

Unit Coordinator: We just can't seem to get these lab results fast enough for the physicians to use them! I have seen 6 lab tests reordered this week alone, when a consulting doc didn't realize that the attending physician had already ordered them.

Nursing Director: We do seem to have a problem with getting lab results back into the charts. Can't you just work faster or harder to get the paperwork assembled?

Unit Coordinator: The lab sends paper results up with runners every hour or two. But then we have to find the right chart, making sure we paste the results in the right spot in the chart. Sometimes the runners send up results that are four or five hours old. You should see the docs steaming when they still don't know the results of the latest CBC or blood gas analysis! Then the patient gets upset about the phlebotomist coming around again to draw blood. I mean, who would want to get stuck in the arm twice in 3-4 hours?

Nursing Director: Well, I'll see what we can do. We were talking in utilization committee just the other day about duplicate charges on lab work. We had thought it was a billing duplication problem. Now I see, maybe it's bigger than that.

Your task: Write a 1-page paper that answers the following:

• If you were director of the health information management department in this hospital and wanted to improve on the current system, what would you recommend?

• If an electronic computerized solution is proposed, what would you specify that system has to be able to do?

• What departments would it need to communicate with?

• Use your background in health information technology to write a Needs Analysis proposing a solution and specifying system features.

Be sure to cite your source(s) and make sure your paper is free of spelling and grammar errors.