Telecomunications Management

Introduction

This case study will develop a model for computerizing and creating a small business network for a three-office medical practice. The Trevis Medical Practice has operations in three locations in Pennsylvania and currently lacks any computer capabilities. The practice seeks to expand its business and add convenience and value to patients by introducing a comprehensive medical practice management system. Internal projections show that the innovation is likely to lead to a 20 percent increase in patient traffic.

The new system is expected to improve the overall productivity of the practice by employing integrated functions such as scheduling, patient records and supporting documentation management, billing, collections, and financial reporting. Due to rigorous industry standards, the new system will be HIPAA compliant. The system will also allow for web-based user-booked appointments and a remotely accessed security and alarm functions through a web cite that is to be developed as part of the project. The allocated budget is $180,000.00.

Client and Server Profiles

Initial projections show that a total of 40 computers are needed for the three practices. The computers selected will be Desktops with the following characteristics:

Dell Dimension 5150

Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 3.06 GHz and 533 FSB,

512 Dual Channels DDR2 SDRAM at 533 MHz (2x256M),

16X DVD-ROM Drive,

80 GB Serial ATA 3 Gbs Hard Drive (7200 RPM) with 8 MB cache and an analog 19 inch flat panel monitor.

All forty machines have Trendnet 108 Mbps 802.11g MIMO Wireless PCI Adapter.

The Trevis Medical Practice will use two servers for effectively running the new system. The servers’ characteristics are as follow:

PowerEdge 2900 w/ Dual Core Intel Xeon 5130

4 MB Cache, 2.00GHz, 1333MHz FSB.

Operating System: Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition.

Hard Drive: 300 GB, SAS, 3.5 inch, 10K RPM Hard Drive

Network Adapter: Dual Embedded Broadcom NetXtreme II 5708 Gigabit