Case Study: Perfect Balance Holistic Health Perfect Balance Holistic Health offers a holistic approach to health care with an emphasis on preventive medicine as well as traditional medical care. In your role as an IT consultant, you will help Perfect Balance develop a new information system.

Background Previously, you created a business profile for Perfect Balance and looked at some of the processes employed at the organization. After discussing your recommendations, Dr. Jones and the partners decided to move forward with the business support system project and want you to describe the next steps.

To ensure the cost, quality, and timeliness of the proposed system, you suggested that Perfect Balance use a project management approach. Dr. Jones agreed, and he wants you develop a brief presentation that will describe project management concepts and benefits. You realize that most of the partners do not have project management experience, and it is important to deliver a clear, informative presentation that describes the various approaches you might take while managing the project.

You plan to include an overview of project management, a step-by-step description of project planning, and an explanation of key terms. You also need to describe various types of task patterns and show examples of Gantt and PERT/CPM charts.

Perfect Balance also asked you to perform a preliminary investigation for the new business support system. In the preliminary investigation report, you recommended a detailed analysis of four key areas: patient scheduling, billing and accounts receivable, human resources, and payroll. Because these areas are highly interactive, you suggested that an integrated system would provide the greatest benefits. Dr. Jones and the partners agreed, but they also expressed interest in a medical practice support system and asked whether the business support system could be expanded. After research and analysis, you concluded that medical practice support should be a separate system to be considered in Perfect Balances long-term strategic plans. Because future integration would be very important, the business support system design should be compatible with a future medical practice support system.

Develop and include in your presentation a checklist that includes several requirements each for system output, input, process, performance, and control. ?