D e s i g n a n d I n f o r m a t i o n S y s t e m s

Rochester Institute of Technology . Saunders College of Business

TO: Dr.Bryan Reinicke, Professor of Design and Information Systems

FROM: Xuanli Xiong, RIT Student

DATE: April 4, 2021

SUBJECT: Reflection on the operation of electronic information management

system in healthcare system

Lesson learned from implementation of SAP

Before the SAP system was put in place, the entire Colombian healthcare industry operated
based on a service contract model, which is what limited the role of the physician in the
management of the system in most of the healthcare industry.
With the SAP system in place, physicians became one of the main process managers in their
daily work, comprehensively addressing issues arising from the entire daily process of patient
diagnosis - hospitalization - performing surgery - follow-up care, such as multiple non-
independent medical staff transfers, patient insurance company approvals, medication approvals,
and financial accounting reimbursements, which, because most of these processes involved
written statements, resulted in high delay rate and error rate. The notes of the processes run as
individual physicians are recorded to SAP, which will then hand over to a third-party company in
the expense accounting area to provide medical billing to patients. The new system increases the
physician's personal involvement in the information management area to avoid adverse effects
on the physician's patient handling due to omissions resulting from repeated handoffs. Patients
can check their communication with doctors and their diagnosis records at any time, which
improves the quality and efficiency of medical services.
Reflection from implementation of SAP
SAP's investment is fruitful, but it is operating with corresponding problems. There are two main
aspects, one is the technical aspect of IT and the other is the operational aspect of management.
In terms of IT technology, the investment in the new system is a cut from the old one, and the
back-end program support will give rise to new requirements, such as the development of the
pharmacy system under negotiation. Such new needs require constant updating and R&D at the
technical level, and at the same time consume a lot of time and human and material resources. In
D e s i g n a n d I n f o r m a t i o n S y s t e m s
Rochester Institute of Technology . Saunders College of Business

terms of management and operation, system training for administrative staff is a serious problem.
The new system input will suffer resistance from some physicians, and it is also important to
better persuade them to use it and ensure sufficient time for training to alleviate the interval
problem arising from the alternation of the old and new systems. As a result of the electronic
nature of the new system, there will be a large disruption in staffing within the company, and
appeasing staff who face job loss due to the new system is also something that management
needs to reconsider. There are many discomforts associated with a broad-brush reform, such as
the disruption of workflow caused by different departments with different demands on the
system, which requires reconsideration of the new system's go-live schedule and the possibility
of staggered peaks.

The future of electronic information management systems

The introduction of SAP has served as a good example of a model information management
system characteristically applied to the enterprise itself in the shortest possible time. It covers the
most needed paperless processes for enterprises and provides solutions for repetitive and
inefficient work. The future of electronic is most worthy of emulation by enterprises, but it raises
the same challenges for staff turnover and system training. Electronic processes will reduce more
labor costs, but also lost a large number of work positions, which has a pressure on the overall
employment situation in society, but also a greater impact on the corporate image, companies
need to find a better balance between the system and staffing in the future. At the same time,
future enterprises need to focus on system operation training rather than system integration,
multiple and complicated subsystems do not better simplify the operation. What is important is
how users can better operate the system, and companies need to mobilize people to use the new
system as much as possible, rather than just working with the system to form specific training
consultant groups to wait to be asked. In addition, the length of time it takes for the system to be
put into stable operation should not be standardized, but needs to be adjusted according to the
level of use and cooperation of employees within the company. The operation of a new system
requires the involvement of specific business people rather than just one-way management
consideration, and requires the support of specific process business units from design to
development to implementation.