ESSAY : Information Systems for Healthcare

As the manager of CTU Health Care Systems, you have done your research on three vendors to which you would like to outsource the implementation of the electronic health records (EHRs) for the clinics. As the manager, you have a number of critical decisions regarding the electronic medical record systems. At first, you thought you could either implement the existing EHR system at the other acute care organization or implement an entirely new EHR in both facilities.

You met with your staff, and after researching several companies that offered both products and services, you have solicited request for proposals (RFPs) from the following three companies:

ABC Systems Consulting, the leading company in health care systems integration services, refused to bid on the systems integration required for bringing the current EHR system into the other organization. This was because of the risks and time requirements for designing, implementing, and testing the large number of interfaces required and the required time line for the completion of the project as identified by the client.
XYZ EHR Systems proposed that its new, recently redeveloped EHR be implemented in both facilities, which included a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) module, standardized drug interaction alert functionality, and customizable clinical alert functionality. It estimated that the merged entity would get a much better price than $50 million for purchasing this new system. Unfortunately, XYZ was unable to provide evidence of successful installation of its recently redeveloped EHR system at a similarly large delivery network or anywhere.
QRS EHR Systems, a leading provider of EHR systems for large acute care facilities, proposed that its EHR be installed in both acute care organizations with a $50-60 million price tag. QRS included a CPOE module, standardized drug interaction alert functionality, as well as evidence-based clinical alert functionality. QRS also had a physician office EHR system with an embedded patient registration system; however, QRS has had minimal experience with integrating the physician office registration system with the acute care (hospital) registration system an integration feature that was a priority for this project based on the client’s information technology (IT) strategic plan.
The stakes surrounding your recommendation to the chief information officer (CIO) and chief executive officer (CEO) could not be higher in terms of dollars and your career.

Discuss the following in your paper of 3-4 pages, not including title page and reference page:

What pieces of information are the most critical for your decision on selecting the right vendor?
What other options, if any, do you have?
What are the critical success factors in the case?
What are your recommendations to the CIO and CEO based on the RFPs that you received?

SAMPLE SOLUTION

There exists many options and issues to be considered when selecting, purchasing, and installing electronic health records systems. Obtaining the right vendor for the desired specifications is at times an uphill task (Weir, 2017). Implementing such systems for clinics will depend on what the relevant department wants and the experience the vendor comes on board with. This research paper seeks to explore the information I will consider as a manager in outsourcing for the right vendor to help implement the electronic health record system. Other available options will also be outlined and the critical success factors considered. Finally, I will give my recommendations to the CIO and CEO on which vendor seems viable based on the presented request for proposals received.
Critical Information for Selecting the Right Vendor
The most important information to consider in selecting the right vendor is the electronic health record needs and long-term goals that our health care system needs (Dixon, 2016). It would serve no purpose to select a vendor whose service may be way below our expectations. For example, in our case, the most important feature was the…