Develop a business case for the economic initiative you proposed in Assessment 1. Examine the feasibility and cost-benefit considerations of implementing your proposed initiative over the next five years. Analyze ways to mitigate risks and complete a cost-benefit analysis.

Business Case for a New Economic Opportunity

Currently, the healthcare facility uses the traditional paperwork system. The management is planning an upgrade to the Electronic Health Records (EHR) System. The EHR system is desirable because it will enhance patient service delivery and create additional economic benefits for the health facility. This paper aims at developing a business case for the EHR system. It also examines the feasibility and cost-benefit considerations of implementing the EHR system over the next five years. Furthermore, the paper analyzes ways to mitigate risks and performs a cost-benefit analysis.

Potential Economic Opportunities Associated with EHR.

The healthcare facility receives approximately 1,000 patients per day. The delays associated with the traditional paperwork system lead to long patient queues. The delays make the facility’s healthcare providers serve about 750 patients daily. Approximately 250 patients must wait until the next day for health care services. This creates a supply-demand gap. Furthermore, the prognosis of patients’ diseases is likely worsened by the delays in accessing care.

Implementation of EHR will have various economic opportunities that will benefit the healthcare facility. EHR presents an opportunity to increase the rate of service delivery to the patients. It is projected that approximately 300 more patients will be served per day after the implementation of EHR. This will provide an opportunity for economic advantage because the patients will pay for consultation services, medications, and services such as laboratory tests. In addition to serving approximately 300 more patients daily, EHR will enable the facility to avoid delays in the referral process. The use of paperwork in the facility usually impedes the patient referral process. This is because the patients’ treatment progress is not shared freely among healthcare providers between the two institutions. EHR will solve this problem and increase the number of referrals in the health care facility. This will have a positive financial impact on the facility.

EHR will enable the health facility to increase the accuracy of the billing process. The traditional paperwork system is associated with numerous errors during billing capture. EHR contains fields to ensure accuracy during billing (Adler-Milstein & Jha, 2017). The fields have the identity of medications, medical equipment, and services provided at the facility. The cost of each drug and assistance is provided in the areas. This will lead to an accurate billing procedure and minimize losses incurred by the institution.

EHR will lead to a reduction in the costs incurred in the management of adverse drug reactions and allergies. The traditional paperwork system doesn’t facilitate easy access to patients’ personal health information. EHR provides health caregivers with this critical information. It serves as the basis for selecting the most appropriate treatment regimen for the patient. Careful selection of treatment plans helps to avert the possibility of side effects and allergies (Kharrazi et al., 2018). The patients benefit maximum from the treatment plan provided. Therefore, EHR is beneficial to health facilities and the patient. The resources the institution and patients would have used to manage such allergies and side effects can be channeled to other developmental projects.

Potential Risks to the Financial Security of the Health Facility.

The potential risks associated with the introduction of EHR at the health facility were identified. During the competitor analysis, it was observed that two more healthcare facilities are found within a three-mile radius of the health facility. The two facilities receive approximately 300 patients per day each compared to the 1000-patient population in this facility. Furthermore, the two healthcare facilities have already implemented the EHR systems. The two healthcare facilities deliver their patient care services faster, and patient queues are not witnessed. The costs of treatment at the two healthcare facilities are slightly lower. The two healthcare facilities have the same operating hours as the health facility. The existence of the two facilities with shorter patient queues, similar operation hours, lower treatment costs, and already established EHR systems is most likely to attract patients. This puts the financial security of the health facility at risk.

The potential economic opportunities outweigh the potential financial risks. EHR will lead to an improvement in the billing process, an increase in the service delivery rate, and a reduction in drug side effects and allergy cases. This will lead to financial gain for the healthcare facility. The potential economic risk emanates from the competition from the other two