A medical group composed of 280 physicians that serve over 40 locations has approached the consulting firm for the realization of a computer network for their organization's coordination of care. The group requires the capability to have their information shared throughout their diverse care settings. Connectivity to the network of every terminal is necessary to use Web-based programming on any health care organization's Intranet, and it provides network access to all assigned individuals that need to have access to view and make event reports to a patient's record; it is important to note that Web-based does not mean use of the public Internet as the entire system resides behind local firewalls.
Executive Summary.
Today's health care is made available with the collaboration and association between the different healthcare organizations and providers using their specialized knowledge in a combined effort to provide top-notch healthcare quality, and concurrently offer cost-effective services. Contained in this desire, is the need for the growth of information exchange utilizing the interconnection of the diverse health care organizations through the use of data networks. Such is the goal for the technical solution for the implementation and interconnection of health care data networks sought by the institution. The vital requisites for organizing such a health care data network have been identified as security, availability, performance, quality of service, fast implementation, and technical support. As a result, in order to provide a swift and cost-effective implementation, which would conform to the organization's specifications, a technical approach would be used [2].
Statement of Needs.
Network connectivity is necessary for the organization to have a unified way of allowing access to its patient records all across its locations, so that this information is available no matter from where its patients access care.