Introduction: Current Situation
Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS) is one of the software instruments allowing organizations to monitor and control the operations of all of their departments and be a modernized institution. The current state of the US health care system, as stressed by scholars and even President Obama, leaves much to be desired in respect of computerization, as only 2% of the US hospitals and clinics have the comprehensive Electronic Document Management Systems installed and properly operated (Reinberg, 2009). Therefore, it is necessary to trace the major stages accompanying the establishment of the EDOCS in an organization.
Costs Involved
EDOCS Implementation and Training Costs
Implementation costs of EDOCS are determined at the planning stage of business analysis. The major aim of the planning stage is to foresee the possible outcomes of any innovation made to the organization’s system (Reinberg, 2009). Concerning the EDOCS implementation, the planning stage is used to identify whether an organization will adjust to the new system, what will be the extent of the adjustment and the costs involved, and what is the possibility of further modernization of the organization’s documenting systems. During the implementation costs sub-stage the direct and indirect expenses are calculated and measures are taken to minimize those (Paper Mountains, 2009).
Savings
Accordingly, the savings are to be calculated to maximize the possible savings from the EDOCS implementation in a health care organization (Burt, Hing, & Woodwell, 2006). These savings might occur from the proper and timely introduction of the EDOCS and the appropriate level of employee training, which, in combination, allows for less time spent on modernization and fewer losses suffered from the decrease of the organization’s capacities connected with the transition to EDOCS (Paper Mountains, 2009). Further on, the previous point serves as the basis for the next one, i. e. ROI calculation. The peculiarity of this point is that the figures it might show at the early stages after the EDOCS implementation and the figures of the later stages might differ substantially. Again, it is connected with the difficulties caused by EDOCS adjustment. So, the management should be led by long-term goals and figures while determining the EDOCS efficiency through ROI calculation (Paper Mountains, 2009).
Business Decisions and Strategic Positions
Another important stage of the business analysis for EDOCS implementation is the stage of business decisions. Needless to say, business decisions are made by the external situation in politics, the economy, and the levels of competition in a certain area. Health care is affected by economic changes that reduce or increase equipment prices, or by political situation shifts that might put an institution in a more favorable position than another one (Burt, Hing, & Woodwell, 2006). Therefore, the business decision stage involves the consideration of external factors of EDOCS implementation with the highest degree of precision (Paper Mountains, 2009).
What should also attract organizations in implementing the EDOCS is that the latter if properly conducted, can facilitate the popularity of an organization and develop its customer base and relations with the other players in the area of health care services (Paper Mountains, 2009). The EDOCS allows the organization to save funds and improve the services it offers. Therefore, such attractive conditions cannot fail to attract new customers, investors, and promoters to the institution properly operating the EDOCS (Paper Mountains, 2009).
The integrally connected with brand equity is the stage of strategic positioning which allows the organization to match the expected revenues and expenses, as calculated at the implementation costs stage, with the actual benefit that the organization might retrieve from the EDOCS implementation. The customer base expansion and the development of the positive image of the organization will facilitate its attractiveness to investors and make the management change the strategy of the organization to match the new position it will occupy in the health care area after EDOCS implementation (Paper Mountains, 2009).
Analysis
Implementation Process
The initial stage of every process aimed at modernization and improvement is the identification (or discovery) of the main issues that need to be improved. As for the health care area, the discovery stage is subdivided into two main processes – the analysis of the external and the internal environment (Paper Mountains, 2009). The former stage presupposes that the organization monitors the events and the latest legislative and other updates so that to be ready to face the innovations and structure its documents and accounting documentation according to the current demands. The latter stage involves the analysis of the developments that take place within the institution or an organization (Burt, Hing, & Woodwell, 2006). This includes the comprehensive monitoring of the activities of all the levels of the organizational structure and ensuring their proper cooperation. What is achieved at the discovery stage of the business analysis is the identification of the major problem areas in a company’s documenting system, which provides more precise guidelines for the EDOCS implementation (Paper Mountains, 2009).
The step that follows the planning is the procurement process that deals with the identification and the very conduct of operations regarding the selection and purchase of the most appropriate software for the organization (Burt, Hing, & Woodwell, 2006). In case, if the EDOCS is identified as the basic program matching the goals and strategic needs of the company, its implementation should be carried out by the specially selected team of IT professionals, whose major duties might include the purchase of the software as such, its installation and adjustment of all the organization’s activities to its operation process, and the initial training of employees and managers to handle the new document processing system (Paper Mountains, 2009).
Further on, the organization comes to the implementation stage of the EDOCS system, which is typically the most time-consuming and responsibility-demanding. This stage becomes possible only provided all the previous stages are carried out properly and the supervision of the very implementation stage is conducted at the highest level of the organization (Burt, Hing, & Woodwell, 2006). The difficulty involved in it is the necessity to monitor all the events in their development which reduces the time for reaction and involves the ability of the EDOCS implementation managers to eliminate any threat to the project, like for example the careless attitude of workers, financial difficulties, external political or economic conditions changes, etc (Paper Mountains, 2009).
Support
The final stage involved in the EDOCS implementation process in health care organizations is the support stage. The essence of the latter lies in monitoring the first effects of the EDOCS operation and taking measures either to develop the success of making the necessary corrections to the process in case if anything has gone wrong. To make the procedure easier, organizations tend to establish metric systems and criteria according to which the success/failure options are measured (Paper Mountains, 2009). The further training of the employees and the managerial staff of the organization is also desirable to ensure the development of their additional skills useful for the company. All the stages mentioned above allow the health care organization to establish one of the best, as for today, methods of monitoring and controlling the activities of an organization through supervising its documentation. The fast and clear ways of such supervision provided by the EDOCS system allow the organizations to facilitate the efficiency of their performance and expand their customer bases (Paper Mountains, 2009).
Moreover, the supervision of the organizational values and cultural points is vital. At any stage of the organization’s development, the uniform positive attitude of all the employees is necessary to make the innovation success. In case, if the climate in an organization is not friendly and the levels of its structure are divided by hostile attitudes towards each other, the innovation might face the obstacle in the negligent or ignoring attitudes of employees to it (Paper Mountains, 2009). Thus, before EDOCS implementation, the organization is to monitor and improve, if necessary, the organizational values and the climate in the team of workers (Paper Mountains, 2009).
Accordingly, the investment in the Information Technology (IT) area is connected with the organization’s culture as well. The funds invested into the EDOCS implementation might be vain in case if there is no joint commitment of an organization’s employees as for adjusting to it and using it to achieve the company’s strategic goals. Therefore, EDOCS implementation involves a considerable amount of preliminary work carried out by the organization on its values and culture (Paper Mountains, 2009).
Conclusions
To conclude, Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS) is one of the software instruments allowing organizations to monitor and control the operations of all of their departments and be a modernized institution. EDOCS implementation involves several stages, only the proper conduct of which provides the organization with all the advantages that the document management system presents.
Reference
- Burt, C.W., Hing, E & Woodwell, D. (2006). Electronic medical record use by office-based physicians: United states, 2005. National center for health statistics.
- Paper Mountains. (2009). EDM Systems.
- Reinberg, S. (2009). Few hospitals embracing electronic record systems. Healthday. ScoutNews LLC.