Assignment: Developing an Innovative IT Strategy–Data Driven Approaches to Challenges in the Health Care Continuum

Hospital Systems, Ancillary Services, and Physician Practices are often the focus of HIT initiatives. While these settings are key areas for HIT advancement and data acquisition, there are places within the continuum of care that often lack automation or comprehensive data management strategies, creating gaps in the longitudinal health record and both an individual and population level.

The Final Project allows you to develop a comprehensive IT strategy for one of these settings of care. This week you choose the Scenario for your Final Project from the following list. Descriptions of these settings can be found in your Learning Resources. Beginning this week, you will be building on the progressive HIT topics that culminate in your Final Project (due in Week 11). This week’s Assignment asks you to reflect on your setting of choice as you develop a Charter for the acquisition of a strategic HIT solution.

To Prepare for this Assignment:

• Review the Final Project Scenarios in your Learning Resources and select a setting of care from one of these scenarios:
  • Long-Term Care
  • Critical Access Hospital
  • Telemedicine for Rural-Based Health Facility
• Research current and specific clinical and financial management problems in these settings of care and evaluate how technology might be justified to address the most pressing challenges.

The Assignment:

Write a 3- to 4-page (excluding title and reference pages) APA style paper, addressing the following elements for the scenario that you choose. This will also be the scenario used to complete your Final Project. For this Assignment, address the elements of a project Charter used to plan the acquisition of an HIT solution for the setting of choice. The Charter should include:

• Problem statement. A specific statement of the problems that you intend to address in this scenario using technology solutions.
• Scope of the HIT solution to be acquired. This includes both the technical elements of the scope and the business and clinical functional elements of the scope.
• Stakeholders analysis including the needs of both internal and external stakeholders. This analysis includes a summary of the business and clinical system functions that the technology should address for each of the executive stakeholders.
• Risk Analysis. A specific statement of the financial, technical, legal, ethical, and operational risks involved in introducing HIT into this setting and the feasible mitigation strategies to address these risks.

You will continue the Charter in Week 4 and submit the full Charter on Day 7 of Week 4.

Note: The paper should be 3–4 pages, not including the title and reference pages. Your Assignment must be written in standard edited English. Be sure to support your work with 4–6 specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the
Essential Guide to APA Style for Walden Students to ensure that your in-text citations and reference list are correct. Your Assignment should show effective application of triangulation of content and resources to show your conclusion and recommendations. See the Week 4 Assignment Rubric for additional requirements related to research and scholarly writing.

Assignment: Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis in HIT Planning

Determining the (TCO) or total cost of ownership for a strategic information system investment is a critical part of the leaders’ role in using technology in a transforming way. The Return on Investment Analysis depends upon reliable estimates of both the capital outlay and ongoing operational costs associated with the initiative over a period of time. This Assignment focuses on outlining both the capital and ongoing operational costs associated with a typical technology investment. You will outline the costs and, as importantly, the assumptions that you used in deriving these financial estimates.

To prepare:

Review the Pro Forma Explanation Material and HIT Program Pro Forma Template in the Learning Resources.

The Assignment:

Write a 2-page APA style paper, addressing the following elements for the scenario that you chose in Week 3. This will also be the scenario used to complete your Final Project. For this Assignment, address the financial element of the project Charter used to plan the acquisition of an HIT solution for the setting of choice. The financial analysis has two parts:

• Using the HIT Pro Forma Template provided in your Learning resources, complete the anticipated capital and operating costs of the HIT solution that you are proposing in the Week 3 Assignment.
• Justify the assumptions that you used in your proforma.

Submit the entire project Charter inclusive of Week 3’s materials and Week 4’s HIT Pro Forma Template and assumptions paper.