Implementation of Smart Phones in Baylor Medical Center

Implementation of Smart Phones in Baylor Medical Center

Implementation of Smart Phones in Baylor University and Academic Center

The use of smartphones has become prevalent in academic hospitals today. Reports indicate that in the United States, healthcare professionals use smartphones to coordinate over 80 percent of their routine operations. Smartphones are famous technology that combines telephone communication and informatics in portable devices. Al Kuwaiti et al. (2018) indicated that smartphones in medical hospitals have transformed several aspects of clinical practice. Wu et al. (2010) argue that smartphones are becoming commonplace in medical settings today. The existence of medical devices has prompted rapid growth in the development of medical software applications used in clinical practices. In academic hospitals, smartphones are used to undertake essential tasks like information gathering, storing, and dissemination; time management, maintenance, access to health records; communication and consulting; reference and information gathering; clinical decision-making, patient management, monitoring, and medical education and training. This paper proposes the need to introduce smartphones applications in Baylor University Medical Center to facilitate communication and clinical practices and enhance research and clinical care. Implementation of Smart Phones in Baylor Medical Center

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            The onset of the covid-19 pandemic has imposed a significant challenge in the healthcare sector, promoting the need to introduce smartphones to facilitate communication between healthcare professionals and patients or students while in their homes. The pandemic saw the overreliance on telemedicine to offer medical solutions to patients in remote areas. Telemedicine is an approach that allows patients with chronic infections like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, or hypertension to be discharged and allowed to continue with their medication in the comfort of their homes. The program provides for follow-up by nurses and other healthcare professionals using smartphones or any computer device while patients are in the comfort of their homes or offices.

Telemedicine is slowly but steadily becoming popular in the United States. Organizations such as Baylor, which are known cancer centers, have adopted telemedicine for patients with underlying conditions to control the spread of the pandemic and reduce the risk of the pandemic on the vulnerable population. One widely used telemedicine approach used in many academic healthcare centers is smartphones. The mobile device is effective in information gathering, storing, and dissemination; time management, maintaining and accessing health records; communication and consulting; reference and information gathering, clinical decision-making, patient management, monitoring, and medical education and training.

Baylor University Medical Center offers the latest cancer-related treatments, which are of excellent quality. The hospital opened its cancer center in 2012, which has helped reduce cancer-related issues across the country. The medical center has over 1200 physicians and staff and more than one thousand beds. Baylor is a 1065 bed system with 6 specific medical facilities. Baylor has received high federal rating for heartcare, gynecology, urology, and orthopedics. In addition, Baylor has obtained a high national ranking for patient care, innovation, research and education. Baylor is a center for physician and nursing training with several programs. Baylor absorbs its students back to work as medical practitioners after they graduate. Baylor is located in Dallas, USA. The organization is engaged in several activities that require the use of smartphones. The major activity of Baylor is education and research. The implementation of smartphones will help the organization pass knowledge to students and patients, reduce medical cost by cutting travel costs, and enhance healthcare quality and care outcomes.

According to Lo et al. (2012), smartphones are frequently used among students, physicians, and medical interns, with overall use rates reaching 80 percent. These reports indicate that iOs-based systems such as iPhone are the widely used platform. Smartphones are popular in academic medical centers because of their versatility. The use of smartphone applications in academic hospitals helps in the decision-making process, information search and education application, and clinical practices (Felbaum et al., 2018). There is little evidence regarding the effectiveness of smartphones in improving academic performance among medical students.

SWOT Analysis

Gap analysis map

The current performance (where we are)

Baylor University Medical Center is a profit organization. The organization wants to increase its growth by 30 percent per year but has been growing at 10 percent a year. This puts the current of Baylor at 8 percent growth per year. The organization has experienced a significant decline in its revenue since the onset of the pandemic. When the pandemic struck, the organization had to release all medical students and reduce hospital congestion by 50 percent. This follows the government directive, which demanded more space in hospitals to reduce the spread of the pandemic. Currently, the organization serves half of its usual patient population. The average patient population currently stands at 1000 daily instead of the usual 3000 patients. The organization has also limited the population of its students by a more significant percentage to minimize congestion in classes. These measures have reduced the organizational returns to 8 percent annually instead of the previous 15 percent as recorded in 2018.

The abrupt decline is pegged on the effects of the pandemic, which ravaged the organizational operations. However, with the implementation of smartphone applications, the organization will be able to continue with its operations like teaching, training, and clinical practices even when students and patients are in the comfort of their homes or offices. There is a greater need for implementing smartphone use in the organization to help students continue receiving learning services at their homes even in the face of the pandemic. Similarly, it will help patients receive treatment and limit their face-to-face visits to hospitals for medical services. The organization also records low sales volume because the number of patients outweighs the total population of patients. When the face-to-face treatment method is used, each nurse can only serve a maximum of 100 patients in a day. However, through the telemedicine approach, a nurse can serve up to 200 patients daily. The most convenient telemedicine approach is the use of smartphones. The implementation of smartphones will increase the effectiveness of telemedicine, and as a result, there will be increased returns in the organization.

Where the organization wants to be (the potential of the organization)

The organization’s future target or desired goal is to increase its annual sales to 30 percent by the end of the year. To achieve this goal, the organization must change how it executes its operations by identifying the gap and how that gap can be bridged. The organization targets annual revenue of $25000 per physician and educator. This will be a greater improvement from the current $15000. The organization also seeks to increase its average patient-to-nurse ratio by implementing telehealth and telenursing. Through telehealth and telenursing, the average number of patients that nurses will attend to n a day will shift from 100 to 200. Telenursing is helped to reduce hospital congestion and healthcare costs and enhance the quality-of-care services and outcomes. It efficiently addresses care challenges to patients in remote areas and those with acute conditions.

Identifying the gap

From the above chart, the “gap” is the grey shaded areas representing the differences between where the organization is currently and where it wants to be. The organization now has a revenue of $50 million. With the increase in revenue by 30 percent towards the end of the fiscal year, the organization is likely to increase its revenue to $200 million with 30% growth in 12 months and $103 million with 8% growth in the same period. Therefore, the gap that needs to be bridged is $97 billion.

Why there are gaps

Baylor University Medical Center uses the traditional medical approaches, such as face-to-face, which have become outdated today. The pandemic subjected patients to stay at home and acquire medical services in the comfort of their homes. the onset of the pandemic informed the need for other approaches such as telemedicine, telenursing and health informatics to address patient needs. These new approaches are effective in providing care to patients with acute conditions such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular infections. Baylor University Medical Center is popular for its exemplary services in the treatment of chronic conditions. It is also popular for its high-quality learning services to medical students, research and training. Many academic hospitals adopted telehealth as the primary technique of care. The powerful tools of telehealth are smartphones.

The implementation of smartphones presents a more significant opportunity for Baylor University Medical Center because it will enhance service delivery and the quality of clinical services. The performance of smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center will increase the number of patients attended to by nurses per day, which is essential in increasing returns to the organization. The Baylor University Medical Center enjoys the following privileges which are necessary for the successful implementation of smartphones in academic centers. These opportunities include excellent network coverage, availability of smartphones, skilled manpower, innovative workforce, high patient population, and medical students’ existence.

Work breakdown structure (WBS) for the implementation of smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center

The above work breakdown structure shows various activities undertaken when implementing smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center. From the diagram, it is evident that the implementation of the smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center will involve five major stages which include initiation, planning, execution, control and close out. Activities that will be undertaken in all these stages are reflected in the WBS. The WBS is an essential tool in project implementation (Sipes, 2019). The advantages of WBS in project management are that it defines and organizes all the work required and facilitates the quick development of a schedule by allocating effort estimates to sections of the WBS. In addition, WBS is used in project management to identify all the scope risks, and it provides a visual of the entire scope.

Project timeline

The project aims to implement smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center within 31 days. The proposed project’s impact will be felt after the close of the fiscal year. The major activities that will be undertaken during the project implementation include hiring nursing informaticists, purchasing smartphones, installing policies, security, and applications on the smartphones, and training the physicians, tutors, and students who will be the major stakeholders of the project. The project is scheduled to start in November and will close at the onset of December the same year. The project timeline has indicated how the activities identified in this project will be undertaken (Sipes, 2019). The use of a project timeline is essential in project management. It enhances project communication; there is ease in the tracking down of project progress, it outlines project goals and prioritizes activities

Responsibility chart: The RACI chart

The implementation of the proposed project will involve various stakeholders such as the project manager, consultant, team leaders, supervisor, finance manager, coordinator, and the project sponsor or project leaders. The RACI chart presents the tasks to be completed and the status of the tasks in this project. The task status included in the RACI chart shows whether the project is in progress, on hold, or is competing. The advantage of having a RACI chart is that it shows the stakeholders responsible for specific tasks. The chart also shows the statuses of the tasks to be completed. This helps determine whether or not the project will be completed within the timeline using the available resources. Completing the project within the stipulated time helps ensure that the activities are the roles are executed and are adhering to the set budget limits (Sipes, 2019). This helps to ensure that the project does not cost extra costs or delays.

Change management

The project seeks to introduce smartphones to Baylor University and Medical Center. The introduction of smartphones will improve academic students’ academic achievements and enhance communication to facilitate the execution of clinical practices. It also seeks to increase the organizational returns and cost of acquiring healthcare services. The project seeks to reduce physical contact amongst the corporate stakeholders by introducing smartphone applications that can be used virtually and with patients and students in remote areas. The change that the project seeks to introduce will be managed by ensuring effective communication amongst all stakeholders and reducing the project’s resistance. Also, the change will be managed through training and educating all stakeholders on the significance of the project.

Communication plan

The following tools will communicate with stakeholders during the project initiation. They include email, Slack, Asana, Zoom, Google Meet, and social media sites. The use of every tool will depend on the nature of the information being shared. For instance, we will use email to communicate with external stakeholders. We will use Slack for synchronized communication about daily updates and quick questions. We will use Zoom and Google Meet for team meetings such as project post mortem and project brainstorming. Asana will be used to communicate synchronously about work, project details, project status updates and key project documents.

Communication plan for the implementation of Smartphones to Baylor University and Medical Center

Risk management

The risks associated with this project include the effect of the pandemic, the war between Ukraine and Russia, and constant changes in technology. Economic, social and political risks characterize the pandemic. The pandemic has imposed major factors on the healthcare sector. The pandemic has reduced revenue collection in several healthcare organizations across the country and claimed many nurses and doctors. The implementation of smartphones in Baylor aims to counter the impacts of the pandemic by allowing digital learning, healthcare delivery, and access to electronic healthcare records. The risks of cyber actors who steal intellectual and business data are also a major issue for this project. However, project risks can be mitigated by developing strong security compliance and ensuring proper cryptography in smartphone apps to reduce cyber actors’ ability to hack them.

Conclusion

This paper has proposed the need to implement smartphones at Baylor University and Academic Center to counter the threats imposed by the pandemic to learners, healthcare providers, and patients. Smartphones are essential tools for sharing information, accessing electronic health records, learning resources, and changing clinical practices. It also acts as a medium for interacting with patients and learners in remote areas. The implementation of the smartphone will help in offering healthcare and learning services to learners remotely. The move is also characterized by increasing the annual organizational revenue, reducing hospital and classroom congestion, reducing the cost of accessing healthcare services, and increasing the quality of healthcare outcomes.

References

Al Kuwaiti, A., Al Muhanna, F. A., & Al Amri, S. (2018). Implementation of digital health technology at academic medical centers in Saudi Arabia. Oman medical journal, 33(5), 367.

Felbaum, D. R., Stewart, J. J., Anaizi, A. N., Sandhu, F. A., Nair, M. N., & Voyadzis, J. M. (2018). Implementation and evaluation of a smartphone application for the perioperative care of neurosurgery patients at an academic medical center: implications for patient satisfaction, surgery cancelations, and readmissions. Operative Neurosurgery, 14(3), 303-311.

Kostalova, J., & Tetrevova, L. (2018). Proposal of project management methods and tools oriented maturity model. Gestão e Projetos: GeP, 9(1), 1-23.

Lo, V., Wu, R. C., Morra, D., Lee, L., & Reeves, S. (2012). The use of smartphones in general and internal medicine units: a boon or a bane to the promotion of interprofessional collaboration?. Journal of interprofessional care, 26(4), 276-282.

Özkan, D., & Mishra, A. (2019). Agile Project Management Tools: A Brief Comprative View. Cybernetics and Information Technologies, 19(4), 17-25.

Sipes, C. (2019). Project management for the advanced practice nurse. Springer Publishing Company.

Wu, R. C., Morra, D., Quan, S., Lai, S., Zanjani, S., Abrams, H., & Rossos, P. G. (2010). The use of smartphones for clinical communication on internal medicine wards. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 5(9), 553-559.