Question

1. Jane, the head nurse on the surgery recovery floor, is going to place a request for a system that will create a report from data already in the patient record system. This report should be sent to new printers (cost per printer is approximately $2,000) located just outside each of 12 patient's rooms and the central nurse's station. Jane feels that a graphical report that combines the patient record of pain and pain medication received is absolutely necessary for the doctors and nursing staff to make proper medical decisions concerning patient recovery. Nurses already record the date, time, and severity of pain each time the patient complains or notifies them of discomfort. The pharmacy nurse records the amount of pain medication administered to each patient immediately after administration. Jane feels that combining these two pieces of information will improve medical decision making and provide better care to the patient. The IS manager has approved $50,000 for the development of the system and estimates that maintaining the system for the next five years will cost $2,000 per year. In addition, this method will increase the accuracy of reporting by 10% per year for three years and reduce pharmacy costs (cost of pain reducing drugs) by 15% in the first year of introduction. Current expenses credited to inaccurate data gathering are $100,000 per year. Pharmacy costs are currently $10 million.

Identify the costs and benefits in the four financial categories assessed during a feasibility analysis.

Answer 1