TO:

Prof. Robert Goldberg, English Department

FROM:
DATE: SUBJECT:

MS BJ AJ Mary Smith, Bob Jordan, Janet Atkinson

November 13, 2009 PROPOSAL FOR FINAL PROJECT

Please approve a topic for our final project. We would like to write a report for the Medical Records Department of the hospital in Suchan, Ohio, to look at ways to make records more accessible. Our primary reader will be Jackie Kirby, manager of the department, who has requested that we write the report. Background The Suchan Community Hospital is a small medical facility serving rural area. Each time a patient is admitted, the Medical Records Department must comb through its files to determine when (if ever) a person has been a patient a patient in the hospital before. If the person has been a patient before, all previous records must be retrieved for the doctor to review. This search is laborious because the hospital filed records according to four different numbering systems. Records made from 1957 through 1963 are filed by social security number. Those made from 1964 to 1973 are filed by the date the patient was admitted. The ones made from 1974 to 1983 are filed by year and consecutive numbers. Finally, the records made from 1983 to the present are filed in a computerized database system. The hospital has recently been getting more patients, so the Medical Records staff is being overwhelmed by the task of searching for patient records. Moreover, the hospitals budget is not large enough to allow the department to hire another person to help. Therefore, Ms. Kirby has asked me to investigate alternative methods of making all the records more accessible. Proposed Project We have agreed to help Ms. Kirby, and we would like to use our report to her as our final project in your course. The overall result of our report will be to help Ms. Kirby select and implement a new system. While reading, Ms. Kirby will want to compare the various systems we investigate in terms of such criteria as cost, ease of use, and quickness of implementation. The enabling element of our reports purpose will be to help her to make those comparisons easily. Therefore, we will use the following outline: I. Introduction II. Overview of Present System III. Technical Discussion of Alternatives A. Supplementing the Current Database System with a Database Index to the Older Records B. Expanding the Current Database System to Include All Records C. Replacing the Current Database System with a New One IV. Costs V. Implementation VI. Conclusions VII. Recommendations

The persuasive element of our reports purpose will be to make Ms. Kirby feel confident that she has discovered the best way to address the record problem. Right now, she is uncertain about what to do. In addition, we want our report to make her trust our ability to work with computer information systems. While she wants our help and advice, she is currently a little skeptical that any college students having no on-the-job experience can really help solve her department's problem. Because Ms. Kirby has worked with her departments computerized system since 1983, we will be able to use some computer terms and concepts without extensive definitions and explanations. She is also quite familiar with the procedures, personnel, and resources in her department, so we can refer to these without elaborate explanations. Her advisers will be the four people who work with her; though they will be affected by the decision she makes, they know less than she does about the department and computers. Plan of Action During the upcoming long weekend, we will visit Ms. Kirby to get additional information about her department. As we develop our thinking about alternatives, we will discuss them with some of our professors. We will visit the Medical Records Department to get their reactions before we write our final draft. Schedule Figure 1 shows our schedule for completing work on this proposed project. Qualifications For the past two summers, Mary has worked as a clerk in the Medical Records Department, helping when regular members were on vacation. Consequently, she is very familiar with the records, their contents, and their use. As part of Bobs work as a computer science major, he has taken two courses in computer databases, so he is well prepared to deal with the technical aspects of the problem. Janets courses in Management Information Systems give her the tools to help implement the necessary changes. With the help of your Business Writing class, we will be able to convey our findings clearly and concisely. Resources Our major resource is Ms. Kirby, who has already agreed to meet with us at least twice before the term ends. She will also let us speak with her staff. We have checked with Professors Jarrett and Samuelson, who have both agreed to go over our ideas with us. For information on costs, we will rely upon computer salespersons. We have two textbooks on database systems, and our library is well stocked with the journals we might consult. We do not expect to have any difficulty getting the necessary information and help. Conclusion We are very excited about this project. It will give us a chance to help our hometown hospital by using skills and knowledge we are gaining in our majors. This type of report is one that we will often have to write in a future career as a business systems analyst.

Prof. Robert Goldberg Page 3 Week Beginning 10/23 10/30 11/6 11/13 11/20 11/27 12/4

November 13, 2008

Task Define Objectives Gather Information At Hospital At School Develop Ideas Organize Info. Formulate Ideas Test Ideas Write Rough Draft Obtain Reviews Type Submit

12/11

12/18

Figure 1: Schedule for Work on Final Project