Introduction
Cost-benefit analysis is a measure for determining the feasibility of establishing a specific initiative within an organization. Trident healthcare facility (a hypothetical institution) is currently battling with how to improve the quality of patient treatment and outcomes. It has decided to digitize the delivery of its medical services by implementing a comprehensive EHR system that will allow it to do so (Alanazi et al., 2020). Because the deployment of health information management necessitates significant financial resources, the healthcare facility realizes the need to conduct a CBA to evaluate the total expenses and benefits of the proposed risk financing solution. This CBA aims to determine whether the proposed approach for health information management has net advantages that outweigh net costs (Stobierski, 2019). It will outline the costs associated with the risk financing effort and compare them to the expected returns from its practical implementation. The impact of the activity will be evaluated by describing the critical organizational challenge for generating the CBA (Stobierski, 2019). This report finishes by recommending that the benefits of the operation outweigh the expenses. Besides, it is consistent with the company’s broader goal, purpose, and objectives.
Keywords:
- Electronic Health Record (HER)
- Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)
- Patient mobility
Problem Synopsis and Description
Trident healthcare facility deals with the issues of patient outcome – Patient satisfaction, patient safety, and maintenance or improvement of patient functional status – and quality of medical services that pose substantial risks to all parties involved. Compared to other options, CBA aids in determining if and by how much the advantages of adopting the EHR exceed its disadvantages in improving patients’ clinical outcomes and quality.
Evaluation of Cost-Benefit Analysis
The trident healthcare facility will gain from having a precise assessment of expenses against advantages obtained from the adoption of the EHR, thanks to the CBA of the EHR provider. Additionally, this will assist the medical facility in accounting for all pertinent EHR expenditures when choosing a supplier (Alanazi et al., 2020). The CBA will ensure that the personnel, documentation, and billing expenses associated with the deployment of the EHR are taken into account during the supplier agreement stage (Plowman, 2009). The medical organization can determine if the supplier they choose will offer an EHR that will produce a positive or Negative Predictive Value. This outcome will be through decreased costs and improved revenues by using CBA to compare other expenditures, like office materials, storage, and chart administration, versus the present spending (Manski, 2015).
All financial expenditures, comprising startup fees, licenses, IT architecture, wage bills, user approval processes, and training, will be invested throughout program deployment and during its lifespan and are covered by the institution’s budgets (Walsh et al., 2013). Following adoption, it is determined that the advantages, which include greater efficiency capacities, reduced operational expenses due to better and streamlined operations, and direct revenues from operations, greatly surpass the expenditures. Additionally, non-financial advantages render risk financing possible, including shorter patient wait times, higher efficiency, better collaboration and treatment, enhanced patient outcomes and contentment, and enhanced corporate image (Stobierski, 2019). Additionally, all intangible costs, like potential dangers, are long-term sustainable (Plowman, 2009).
Cost-Benefit Analysis Recommendations
The healthcare facility has a good chance of benefiting from new medical provision protocols and offerings because the overall benefits of introducing patient safety at the hospital outweigh the total expenses incurred in delivering high-quality medical services. In addition to providing patient-tailored care, hospital administration should ensure that medical services are delivered using the most recent innovation, science, and development (Manski, 2015). These benefits are effortlessly accomplished by implementing an electronic health record system in the medical facility. Therefore, allowing the facility to enhance patient coordination of care, generally lower healthcare assistance costs, optimize the effectiveness of medical service delivery, and ultimately strengthen health outcomes and quality.
The premise of Suggestions
The institution’s workflow for health information management needs to be evaluated in several aspects, including the payment process. Positive adjustments to patient mobility and invoicing during service delivery will result from adopting an electronic health record for this domain (Sun, 2020). The medical facility will be able to monitor operating costs and expenditures associated with various patient operations, assuring correct, precise, and thorough records. The data can be utilized to monitor payments and claims made by medical coverage companies and determine the patient payer amount (Robinson & Hammitt, 2013). Due to overloaded billing orders that are yet unfulfilled, this healthcare facility is presently unable to provide excellent alternatives. Hence, to improve communication between providers and eliminate all operational constraints, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the billing procedure. Improvements in medical coordination, effectiveness, and productivity within the medical facility will be the results.
The healthcare facility is particularly concerned about improving patient quality through efficient workflow procedures across multiple units and divisions of the facility, as seen by the incorporation of CBA throughout the institution. Therefore, a key element in ensuring the medical provider runs efficiently is acquiring pertinent IT architecture that will accommodate the necessary EHR standards. The difficulty of selecting the proper IT architecture and accounting software for the facility’s EHR adoption is presently available (Youngberg, 2011).
Additionally, it has been shown that the costs incurred by the medical facility to guarantee that its structures, resources, and technologies are personalized and customized to match the operational goals of the health institution and its patients are very cost-effective (Youngberg, 2011). With the deployment of the EHR, profits will be produced from delivering clinical outcomes far greater than the entire expenditures associated with doing so (Sun, 2020). Therefore, to enhance the standard of care delivery, it is advised that the medical facility move forward with the projected adoption of the HER.
Correlation to the Mission, Vision, and Objectives
The medical facility’s objective, vision, and clear plan ensure that it provides its patients with high, reasonably priced patient care while incurring the fewest expenses possible. Therefore, the healthcare facility must develop alternate strategies to deliver high-quality treatment to its patients at a lower operational cost while still being careful to prevent the quality of service from being compromised. Therefore, the medical center must deploy an EHR that will enable it to increase performance and make the best possible use of its capabilities (Kavaler & Spiegel, 2003). Nevertheless, this will incur both immediate and indirect charges, raising the hospital’s additional operating costs. Besides, after implementing these standards for enhanced clinical improvement, the facility will also have to provide practical training and assistance to ensure that it has personnel with the necessary skills to administer the EHR. The adoption of EHR also connects to the operational requirement that Health information management department employees be patient-tailored to handle the special requirements of patients empathetically.
The medical institution will gain from implementing an EHR in terms of better care collaboration, service quality, productivity, and efficacy in delivering healthcare services. Additionally, it will result in cost savings and render medical records transparent and easily accessible whenever required (Sun, 2020). The EHR’s real-time information will help doctors and other healthcare professionals make informed decisions and quickly implement a patient’s therapeutic regimen (Kavaler & Spiegel, 2003). The facility will be able to maintain precise and comprehensive patient information. Hence, aiding in the delivery of appropriate and high-quality services.
Justification
The CBA explains how the financial hedging program, which will create more money to offset costs, will assist the institution in meeting its quality and risk-management objectives. The effort will benefit the client, healthcare funders, families, colleagues, and the facility administration (Walsh et al., 2013). Furthermore, the institution’s value proposition for organizational change includes quality and risk management concepts that can be realized through the proposal’s implementation (Robinson & Hammitt, 2013). The medical institution can drive and encourage the necessary adjustments for quality improvement while lowering expenses.
Moreover, benchmarking is a balancing act that establishes a baseline metric for a specific measure before beginning any improvement initiatives because no hospital can be best in class on every metric. Adoption of EHR helps in cost reduction, quality enhancement, or revenue growth. Internal benchmarking enables a hospital to compare itself to other hospitals in the same health system or within the same department within a single facility.
This facility can compare its performance to other hospitals and healthcare systems through external benchmarking. Competitive benchmarking employs outside data to assist hospital executives in assessing how their facility compares to rivals in the neighborhood, the region, or hospitals of comparable size nationwide. By doing this, the medical institution will ensure that its EHR implementation plan is in line with the CBA, which can reduce economic concerns in the medical environment where the quality of service is concerned.
Conclusion
This paper has offered a CBA on the planned risk financing of a health information management initiative, which will involve the company putting in place an Electronic health record for its medical offerings. The prospective costs have been noted, along with the projected advantages and disparities, in the CBA. Therefore, it concludes that financing the Health Information Management Project has significantly more advantages than disadvantages.
References
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