Question

The healthcare organization finance committee has set a limit of $100 million per year on new capital investment. Conversion to the electronic medical record will be expensive – at least $40 million per year for three years. The CIO has asked you to help develop a case for the investment. What are the next steps?

Answer 1

The steps that need to be taken for creating a case for the capital investment will be as follows:

- determining the people that will be involved and effected by this capital investment. The organizationa structure for this prupose needs to be analyzed and how the capital investment in that expentidure will effect every level of the structure.

- creating policies for the investment of capital- the rules and policies have to be clearly mentioned in this as to the duration of the investment which is 3 years in this case, why it is important for the organization, the roles of each level at the organizational structure, the terms and procedures of financing the capital investment.

- developing the schedule charts and instuctions for the investment- When and how the investment needs to be done in the year, the data that needs to be collected through forms and information being stored that will be required in the process has to be specified.

- drafting the program and process for setting the investment plan- after the above steps finally the program for the investment on a particular expense has to be calked down. How the funding will be done, when and how much of the results from it should be expected and what process should be followed for the capital investment.