F easibility A n alysis – Group 3

Introduction

The goal of this project is to install computers that will enable the office staff to schedule

patients with a professional scheduling application and maintain files of patients with a relational

database that will suit the specific needs of the office. Currently, Dr. Kawaja’s office has old

scheduling and filing system that are hard to manage. Everything is done on paper by writing.

Dr. Kawaja and her staff have strongly stated an urgent need to upgrade their current system into

a more efficient automated system. While the current system is working fine for their daily

practice, it is however, inefficient and time-consuming. For example, when in need of a patient

file, a staff member goes through alphabetized files on the wall to locate the file. Oftentimes, a

file is found in a wrong place of the wall filing system. Also, the office is closed on Fridays so

that the assistants can organize the patient files. Because of this Dr. Kawaja loses every Friday as

a day to see patients. In this feasibility analysis study, we will consider operational, technical,

schedule and economic aspects to determine the project’s feasibility, along with any types of

risks that this project may encounter.

Operational Feasibility

The end users of the developing system will be the office staff and a doctor. The staff

will schedule the patients and file the patient database with basic information, and the doctor will

update a patient record to the database each time she sees the patient. The front desk assistant

(administrative assistant), , responsible for scheduling appointments and organizing patient files,

clearly stated that she is confident using the proposed system and has basic computer skills. The

doctor will have her own personal computer to be used as a primary source for producing patient

notes and prescriptions. Besides these two primary users, the office will require at least one other

person who understands the system to back up the primary users. This additional person will be

selected from the current office staff. It is unclear that who will be a backup staff member at this

point, and we will assume that the backup staff member has at least a basic knowledge of

operating the computer. However, the impact of this position is minor to the project because the

vendors are offering a full-scale training session for the current employees.

Training the office staff will be feasible because of their competency in operating the

computer. The medical field-related applications are extremely sensitive, thus provided with an

extensive training program. Upon receiving necessary training for the customized application(s),

the software will be very useful and will offer satisfaction over the current filing system.

Therefore, it can definitely be concluded that this project is operationally feasible.

Technical Feasibility

Currently, there are no federal or medical restrictions on electronically storing patient

records. As a result, we can safely store all the documents for the patients on a server and create

a database. There will be two separate application programs for the new system. One will be

electronic medical records (EMR) software and the other, scheduling software.

At this time, there is a vast amount of EMR software available in the market. We

recommend that the office choose EMR software with the most basic functionality. Because the

office only needs to store basic patient information with scanned signatures and update patient

records periodically, no additional functionality is needed for this small clinic. In the case of

purchasing software, the vendor will customize their software to meet the exact needs of the

office. The vendor will train the office staff with this customized software.

Another option to consider is web-based EMR software. Due to high start-up costs, a lot

of smaller clinics are hesitant to have their database system automated. Actually web-based

EMR software is a growing trend. The clinic will be able to maintain their patient records on the

server’s database and access the database through a web site. The office will need only a

computer that has Internet access to maintain the patient database. The web-based EMR

application provider will have the backup data stored on separate storage, so the office won’t

have to worry about backing up the data periodically. However, there are risks for using a web-

based system. Once the office loses its Internet connection (due to hardware failure,

maintenance, or ISP problems) the only way to access the database is via telephone (to the web

application provider). This can drastically slow down the office performance. Also, the doctor

and the staff members may be concerned about security issues. After all, it is accessible via the

web, enabling chance for exploitation. Even though the exploitation possibilities are remote,

since only the authorized office staff will have access to the database, the user must feel secure to

use the web-based application.

For the scheduling system, medical scheduling software is available for purchase. The

software is built specifically for a medical clinic, therefore fitting the needs of the office.

Scheduling software vendors offer training as well. It will also be customized to fit the office

needs upon purchase. If the office chooses to purchase the stand-alone EMR software, the

scheduling software has functions to incorporate with the existing patient database, therefore

minimizing the need to search for additional patient information for each appointment. For

example, when a patient schedules an appointment, it will be recorded to the scheduling

software. The specific time slot of the particular patient will have a link to the database, to locate

the patient file immediately. If the office chooses web-based EMR software, then the scheduling

software will be a stand-alone application, requiring additional search into the database.

However, this additional search is not very inconvenient since it only involves typing a patient’s

name into a system. The patient’s information will be available instantly, while not enjoying the

instant convenience over the purchased EMR software.

Most of the medical software is mature and maintained in a prompt manner because of

the sensitive nature of the records. Because software failure could result in a tremendous loss of

vital patient data or an interruption of daily practice, most of the vendors offer 24/7 technical

support. If the office chooses to purchase EMR software, in the case of functional failure (ex:

computer failure) the office will have a full backup system on site. The office will also have a

PDA system for backup, which can be used to schedule appointments and retrieve basic patient

information. The web-based EMR application also has a functionality to download its patient

database information to a local computer, making its information available to transfer to a back-

up PDA. While technical failure is inevitable, there will be fully functional backup sources

available, as mentioned above. Accordingly, this project can be determined as technically

feasible.

Schedule Feasibility

Our official deadline is by the end of the fall semester of 2007 (December 3rd, 2007). At

this point in time, that is roughly two months. First, we will direct the office to the right

scheduling and EMR software vendors. We approximate the shopping time for the vendors to

take about 3 weeks, for a careful consideration. Upon determining the vendor, at least 2 weeks

of time is needed to customize the software for the office. New equipment needs to be bought,

making sure the specifications of the equipments suit the needs of the new software. Buying

equipment will take less than a week. Training will take less than a week as well. This entire

process will take approximately 7 weeks, with 1 week for adjustments. Since the office practices

a normal routine, we do not anticipate any irregularities involving the office schedule. However,

if any types of irregularities do occur, the remaining 1 week can be accommodated accordingly.

We have provided a Gantt chart to show a graphical breakdown of our Work Breakdown

Structure scheduling.

We determine that our project is entirely feasible in terms of the schedule.

Economic Feasibility

Development Costs:

2 Computers ($1500 / ea.) $3,000

1 PDA $400

1 Printer $300

1 Document Scanner $400

1 Backup Hardware $500

1 Scheduling Software $1,000

1 EMR Software $10,000

Projected Annual operating costs:

1 Scheduling Software Support $200

1 EMR Software Support $1,000

4 Routine Computer Maintenance ($200 / ea.) $800

12 Web based EMR Software ($100 / ea.) $1,200

Total Projected Startup Cost without EMR software: $5,600

Total Projected Startup Cost with EMR software: $15,600

Total Projected Startup Cost with Web based EMR application: $5,600

Total Projected Annual Cost without EMR software: $1,000

Total Projected Annual Cost with EMR software: $2,000

Total Projected Annual Cost with Web based EMR application: $2,200

The doctor’s initial budget for the new system was $6,000 and annual maintenance

budget is $1,000. Purchasing stand-alone EMR software is much more expensive. With the

doctor’s initial budget of $6,000, purchasing EMR software is clearly out of our scope in terms

of economic feasibility. With the web-based EMR application, initial start-up cost will remain

low, however the yearly maintenance doubles the initial projection. Even with stand-alone EMR

software, the yearly maintenance costs will be approximately the same as the web-based EMR

application. If the office would like to maintain a low yearly maintenance cost, it has to go with

a scheduling software only option. Otherwise, the maintenance cost will rise per year from

$1,000 current spending to $2,000.

Other subtle tangible and intangible benefits are rather significant. The scheduling

software will provide a greater flexibility on office’s operation. Automating a schedule enables

the office staff much easier to modify the schedules of the patients when the need arises. Paper

scheduling system is rather cumbersome to erase and re-record schedules. Also, having it on

screen, the staff will be able to view the next day’s patients in one glance, thus enabling them to

prepare the databases for the patients in a more effective manner. With a paper scheduling

system, because you cannot view one day’s worth of scheduling only, you would have to go

through one by one on the book to find the charts. Automating a database is a tremendous

advantage over the current system. First of all, the office can now use Fridays to see the patients,

instead of closing the office for the paper works. The office does not have to pay for additional

storage to store patient charts that are more than 3-year-old. The database will store all the

necessary initial patient document in a scanned format, so that the office do not have to carry

papers that are just there for storing purposes. Oftentimes, doctor’s note is one or two sentences.

Updating the database each time the doctor sees the patient will only require the doctor to type in

a couple of sentences to the computer. Before, a full sheet of paper was used to record the

session with the patient.