Report: Issues and Analysis of Clinical Healthcare Inc.'s Systems

This report provides a detailed analysis of the business information system at Clinical Healthcare Inc., focusing on the issues encountered and applying various methodologies for a comprehensive understanding. The report begins with an introduction outlining the scope, which includes ethical c...Read More

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Business information system analysis
Name
Course
Professor
School
City
Date

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Introduction
In this report it will discuss issues which encountered Clinical Healthcare Inc. These issues
would be discussed in details and various concepts would be applied. There will be application
of ethics methodology in the problems encountered additionally, there would be application of
SSM methodology on how the analysis could capture in the Clinical Healthcare Inc. There is also
discussion on the role of the business analyst and the comparison of the agile methodology to
SSM.

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Rich picture
Patient consent
Dddddddddddd Nurses Administer treatment
Healthcare provider
Michalak (New CIO)
F
Healthcare providersMedical records
Patients
Arranges the
nurses’ visits
Gives treatment and
medications to be
received
There is delay in the system
Aged IT infrasture
Not utilized green screen
application & home grown
software.
System did not work well.
Delay to administer treatment.
treatment
Key stakeholder
Employees
Large network of
partners
New wholesale Pharmacy
management system
Ackoff Framework
XLS- Record all
requests
Home grown
software

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Application of ethics to key problems selected in the case study
Ethics could be understood to be the disciplined study of the morality. The field of ethics entails
identifying the relevant concepts and at the same time utilizing reasoned arguments in order to
trace the implication to these concepts (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). Medical ethics refers to the
disciplined study of the morality in the medicine and it involves ethical analysis and arguments
in relation to what medical morality should be; with much emphasis to the obligations of the
healthcare professionals to their patients (Galliers and Leidner, 2014).. Ethics can help scrutinize
a given issues or course of action, the choice according to the business interests with respect to
the alignment with normativity to a given issue. The application of ethics to the key issues in the
selected case study could be analysed as follows;
On the first issues was that the Clinical Healthcare Inc. they had previously acquired the green
screen applications as well as the home grown software but they were unable to use them since
for the period of twenty years. This is an issue since it could be associated to lack of specialized
personal to operate them or could be issue related un-comparability of the system. With this
challenge it affected various stakeholders in the organization such as employees and the patient.
Considering advancement of technology could give competitive edge to an organization the
organization had acquired programs which they did not use for over twenty years. This affected
the patient in the sense that they did not receive the best care as compared to the other healthcare
which is offering similar services (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). On the part of the workers they
did not utilize advanced technologies in the treatment of the patients. The ethical issue in
relation to this challenge is that the workers did not use technology. The issue which could arise
is that why buy the applications and never to use them? This means there could be issues related
to lack of expertise from the side of the employees. Maybe the Healthcare did not have the

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specialized to operate on the technology or maybe there are issue related to comparability to their
existing applications. This issue could have affected the public interest since they regard
technology as outdated. As a result of this challenge there is a fundamental principle which had
been impacted that of professional competence and due care. Acquiring technology for
organization ensures that the Healthcare is using the latest act of the work to deliver the
healthcare to the patient rather than rely on the outdated methods (Ruiz, Costal, España, Franch
and Pastor, 2014). When they acquired the applications they wanted to ensure that they provide
high quality care to the patient and at the same time ensure the service delivery is done
efficiently. When these aspect lack the professional competence and due care of the healthcare
professional is put into test. The use of the applications ensures that healthcare professionals’
delivery competent service and they can provide healthcare efficiently. The course of action that
Michalak the incoming CIO needs to come up with procedures and policies that they could
implement so that they could implement on the new applications and software.
The second problem was on the delay in the process to administering the treatment to the
patients. This delay was mostly caused when the healthcare provider were required to manage on
the logistics to the entire system that was involved in delivery of treatment. This involved
arranging visit to the patients by the nurses, giving treatment, getting the medication and
equipment to deliver the medication (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). When there were changes
which were required such as change in treatment, they had to wait for the nurses to get back from
visiting the patient and have the data updated to the system. This problem could affect different
stakeholders if it was not addressed; the parties affected are patients, and the employees of
Clinical Healthcare Inc. On the part of the patients, there are some who might have urgent needs
for the treatment and when there is delay it could lead to devastating status to their health such as

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worsening on the illness. Moreover, when there is delay in the delivery of the treatment it is
unethical practice which could impact negatively on the image of the organization which would
affect the number of patient seeking their services (Laudon, 2016). On the part of the nurses the
delay is a result of the poor system which is adopted in the healthcare which leads to delays.
Delay in the healthcare treatment could be looked at either ethically good ethically bad. This
delay is intentional which result due to the precautionary principle (Laudon, 2016). On this
principle it usually emphasize on the need to be aware of the consequences to an actions or
inaction. In the action of this institution could be prevented if proper system are adopted there is
a definitive evidence that the action which could prevent such harm from taking place which
would help to reduce on the increase of the risk which are associated to delay in delivery
(Galliers and Leidner, 2014).. Delay and its ethical consequences is a common experience when
it comes to medical practices. In this case it is the nurses who delays in delivering the treatment.
Nonetheless, the delay in this case was not intentional on the part of the nurses. Clinical
Healthcare Inc. has not implemented new advanced technology despite them acquiring them
twenty years ago. Due to different aspect which has not been highlighted in the case study they
have not used them. All these delays could have been tackled if they had implemented on the
applications and software they had acquired. In this case the delay may be appropriate and
ethical. In this problem the ethical issue which was affected was on principle of beneficence. On
this principle it requires the healthcare professionals to acts in a manner which is expected to
reliably produce greater balance of the benefits than the harms to the patients (Galliers and
Leidner, 2014).. When this principle has been put into clinical perspective it entails a reliable
account to the benefits and harms which are relevant to the clinical management of the
treatments of the patients and how these benefits could balance against each other reasonably

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when brought to the clinical case. To address on this issue Clinical healthcare should implement
new technology to ensure there is efficiency in how the services are delivered particularly in
feeding data onto the system.
Another problem was on noticed by the new incoming CIO Michalak was that system did not
work effectively. The current systems which Clinical Healthcare Inc. was utilizing were not
reliable. It was observed that as long as the employees did not extract data from the system and
use it to plan for the future on the aspect to expand, do market analysis, business intelligence or
run various scenarios it worked very well (Laudon, 2016). This is one of the major problems
since Clinical Healthcare Inc. this parameter to enable them to grow via the alternative ventures
and to be able to remain relevant. This is an ethical issue to the organization given that without
proper systems that works well in the healthcare will not run effectively which would lead to
shortcoming arising such as delays in the delivery of the treatment to patients or poor service
delivery that could lead to deteriorated health to them. This ethical issue is bad on the part of the
patients, healthcare professional and the overall organization which could impact their image
negatively. Patients are greatly affected when system does not work and they needed lab results
which were done on them to be released to get diagnosis. They end up waiting for long time to
get these results which could worsen on their illness if medication is not provided. On the part of
the healthcare professionals it could take long for them to update the patient information on the
system, which could delay on services delivery (Laudon, 2016). To address on this issue,
Clinical Healthcare CIO Michalak needs to come up with new suggestions which could be
presented to the management in regards to acquiring wholesale legacy replacement system. It is
important to note most of the real business applications were all home grown and they need to be
replaced. The new system would create from the scratch a pharmacy management system which

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could touch the entire functional business department. This would ensure that service delivery is
improved for this healthcare.
The other ethical problem in this case study was that Clinical Healthcare Inc. they have had an
aged infrastructure that has never been replaced since founding of the organization. There have
been no upgrades or even updates that have been made on the applications (Laudon, 2016). The
central applications in which support the crucial processes within the business was home grown
pharmacy management system and it was based on the character which allowed any individual to
only access it at the dumb terminals. In this issue it has affected on the fundamental principle of
confidentiality (Laudon, 2016). When the systems are old and updated the delivery of the
services from the patients is delayed and not many who would be confident in how the institution
delivers on the services. There are patients who may want specialized care which entails
effective systems are in place to deliver on these services (Laudon, 2016). To eliminate on this
issue the Healthcare should implement the new pharmacy management system which would be
able to link at the department in the organization together to ensure that there is an effective
delivery to the services through use of advanced technology.
Apply SSM to this case study
SSM is a system approach in which is utilized to analyse and problem solving complex and
messy situation. The methodology utilizes system thinking when it comes to cycle of action
research, learning as well as reflection in order to understand numerous perceptions which exists
in the minds of various individuals who are involved in the situation (Laudon, 2016). The
method has been suited to the complex management system and at the same time seeks to
evaluate on various options which are possible.

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a) Justification to select SSM
The methodology is selected to seek and explore the messy and problematic issues which
have arisen in the human activity just as this organization situation.
Strengths
 Can be used as a tool to increase an analyst understanding of the issues during
investigation and later stages
 Helps to identify on the areas which need to be improved and they have weaknesses
where hard approaches have been unable to do so.
 Help to produce solution in the manner that defines on the problem to enable the
other approaches to take place.
 It does not rely on the use of any equipment apart from a pen and paper.
Weaknesses
 The technique does not tell on how to build a system
 The method relies heavy on individuals for the SSM to work
 Can be time consuming and it requires money as well as experts.
b) Description of steps followed to solve the problem with diagrams and model
Root definitions of relevant, purposeful activity system
On the issue which affects the organization was delay in the process of administering
treatment to the patients and the system not working well. The stakeholders who are involved
in this case are nurses and CIO Michalak. The new CIO is responsible to oversee on the
operation of the healthcare. The nurses as they are the ones who are involved in

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administering the treatment to the patient. The main concern is on the system that is in place
which seems to be outdated since it has never been updated.
Conceptual model
New incoming CIO Clinical H.C Patient Technology(supplier)
Setting appropriate criteria to
access feasibility to make bid to
new technology
Acquiring and implementing
new technology
Understand on the
processes
Develop and maintain
an effective service
delivery system
Get details of and select
the appropriate
technology.
Development of the preliminary
estimates
Monitoring and control of the
concept of the new projectDevelopment of the
concept of the project

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The root definition offers the central transformation to the ideal pharmacy system the
organization wanted to acquire (Laudon, 2016). In this case the transformation is defined as
processes and technology with details of the prospective project which is used to prepare an
understanding to the project and the cost estimate to access the feasibility of the bid for the
tender. The transformation is based on the development of the conceptual model (Laudon, 2016).
This has been expressed as the model of the human activity where there are numerous activities
which are necessary to attain the transformation for the organization.
Comparison of model with real world
Through this conceptual model it helps to identify the aspect which needs to be addressed. SSM
has been used to analyse on the problem which is affecting Clinical Healthcare Inc. which is on
the current system which they are using it is outdated and this causes the current issues they are
encountering (Laudon, 2016). In the real world when an organization encounters issues they find
solution to address it with the best possible manner they know when it comes to SSM it utilizes
investigators who views the organization from a cultural perspective, thus, components parts
who are the human beings are the one who determine the crucial features to the business (Ruiz,
Costal, España, Franch and Pastor, 2014). The people components could attribute the meaning to
their situation and at the same time define their own purpose (Laudon, 2016). When it comes to
the real world there are practical ways which are implemented to solve the issues within an
organization. SSM approach facilitates debate and capture on the future vision for the
participants.
Action to improve the problem

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Most of the business applications in Clinical Healthcare Inc. were home grown and most of them
need to be replaced. To improve on the issue they need to acquire a wholesale legacy
replacement system which could touch all the aspects of the functional business departments.
The core business of the organization which are arrangement and delivery of the infusion
services have been slow. The major goals would be cutting down the latency issue throughout
the process to ensure there is quality of care which is provided to the patients.
c) Assumptions made in solving the case
In this case study there are various assumption which have been made these are;
 Assumption that the current system has totally failed and not effective
 Assumption that there are many shortcoming which are taking place in Clinical
Healthcare Inc. due to the system failure.
d) Outcomes solutions and recommendations related to it.
When the new solutions will be implemented in this organization it will ensure that efficient
delivery of the services to the patients. The organization would have an increase in the number of
the patients who are coming to the hospital due to the improvement of the services they are
offering. Healthcare is paramount to the patients and any institution providing it should provide
high quality care since slightest mistake could deteriorate on the health of the patient. In the case
of this organization through implementing of a system which would link all their department
functions to a centralized point would ensure that each department could work efficiently to
deliver the services within a short period of time.

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Recommendation which the organization need to undertake would be ensuring that they keep
their system up to date through regular updates of the application and software to the latest
version. Moreover, they need to employ IT personnel who are responsible to ensure the systems
are working efficiently all the time with no glitches.
Role the business analyst will play to address the problem
There are numerous roles which the business analyst could play to address on the problem which
is facing the business. The business analyst will be responsible to research the current business
systems (Laudon, 2016). This would entail reviewing on precisely how the organizational
structure works and what are the elements which influence on the performance and development
of the business (Ruiz, Costal, España, Franch and Pastor, 2014). The individual would explore
on the current state of the business system and create a model without paying any changes and
improvement. The individual would also document on all the requirements of the business. This
entails that he need to work with the business users such as CIO and nurses who are impacted by
the business system to solve a problem. Moreover, BA is also responsible to facilitate on the
deliverable acceptance. This is on acceptance process, which ensures that the deliverable have
been built in accordance to the initial requirements.
Issues and challenges encountered by business analysts faced when analyzing the problem
for system development.
The business analyst might encounter the challenge of uncooperative stakeholders. The
stakeholders might flip side of the information overload where they might not want to share
information. Another issue is accountability for the decisions. There might be instances in which
the current business process which needs to be changed or even modified in order to make it

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more efficient. The healthcare professionals might be consensus with what is happening in the
organization but none would volunteer to raise the issue.
The other issue which could be encountered by BA is that of changing needs. In most of the time
there is always dilemma as to whether the business analyst should accommodate or ignore on the
change. This is a perpetual problem which has arisen since there is no hard and fast rule to
accept or even reject the changes (Ruiz, Costal, España, Franch and Pastor, 2014). The first way
would understand the reason for the change. In the case for this organization the issue has been
regular therefore there is change which would likely be included but at the cost of the delay in
the project delivery on the implementation of the new system.
Contrast between agile system development with SSM to illustrate how the issues identified
are addressed.
Agile system development usually represent a software development methodologies which has
been impacted by the iterative as well as incremental development which comprise Rational
unified Process, Extreme programming (Ruiz, Costal, España, Franch and Pastor, 2014). On the
other hand SSM methodology usually adopt on the system paradigm. The methodology aims
much more than developing on the information technology system. It addresses on the general
planning, organization as well strategy of the information and the system when it comes to the
organization.
On the second difference is that the agile process usually offers an environment in which there is
a constant evolution in the requirements as well as the evolution due to the collaboration between
self organizing of the cross functional teams (Ruiz, Costal, España, Franch and Pastor, 2014).
This methodology could foster a disciplined management of the project approach which could

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encourage on the best practices. This could allow rapid delivery to quality software and enhance
on the business approach. On the other hand, SSM it is more applicable in the human activity
especially the ones which are messy situations (Ruiz, Costal, España, Franch and Pastor, 2014).
The use of this methodology does not heavily rely on the use of techniques and tools like the
agile methodology. When it come SSM it entails analysis and documentation on all the issues
which are causing the problem and then coming with a solution to address on it, whereas when it
comes to agile methodology the requirements are the actual developments advances to each
iteration (Ruiz, Costal, España, Franch and Pastor, 2014). The approach is more flexible when it
comes to accommodating the changes especially in the requirement as well as priorities of the
business.
Conclusion
In this research it has addressed on the issues which are affecting Clinical Healthcare Inc. This
organization has been encountering numerous issues which have affected on their delivery of the
services. The problem which were affecting the organization were delays in the process of
administering of the treatment to the patients, not utilizing of the applications they had bought
twenty years ago, systems not working well and aged infrastructure which were never replaced.
The report has addressed on the application of ethics to these issues affecting them. Additionally,
the report has discussed on the concept of SSM and how it has been utilized in this case study,
roles of the business analyst has also been discussed and the comparison of the agile
methodology.

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References
Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E. eds., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and
strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Ruiz, M., Costal, D., España, S., Franch, X. and Pastor, Ó., 2014, June. Integrating the goal and
business process perspectives in information system analysis. In International Conference on
Advanced Information Systems Engineering (pp. 332-346). Springer, Cham.