There are three potential projects. They are:

1. Hybrid to digital conversion
2. Centralize departments
3. Remote work

They are mutually exclusive, so mentioning one project in the other is not allowed.

So, focusing on #2 only. Please answer the question based on the scenario.

You are the HIM senior director leading a project of consolidating the 5 HIM departments into one centralized department.

.Discuss the scope of the process improvement project by doing the following:

1.List the project deliverables.

2.Explain how long the process improvement project is expected to take.

3.Determine the budget for your process improvement project, based on the information provided in the scenario.

a.Explain the budget allocations.

Include your sources

Also, please disregard the texts in the physician section in the scenario as they fall under project #1 and we are only focusing on project #2, consolidating the departments into one HIM centralized department.

Fielder Community Hospital Scenario Fielder Community Hospital (FCH) has five campuses. Each campus is in a different geographical location: North (rural), South (suburban), Downtown (metropolitan/city center), Children's (metropolitan/city center), and Long-Term Acute Care (LTAC) (suburban). There are 227 physicians, physician assistants (PAs), and nurse practitioners (NPS) at FCH. Many of these individuals see patients at all five facilities. Each campus currently uses a hybrid medical record and stores paper records at each of their respective facilities. Health information management (HIM) staff are responsible for retrieving records from the floor of each facility and carrying them back to the facility's HIM department for indexing and scanning . The hospital will also be merging the HIM department from each campus into one centralized location. Currently, each of the five HIM departments has a director, with subdepartments to support release of information (ROI), coding, and deficiency tracking/data management duties. Departmental staffing has traditionally been structured per facility. Each department will be merged into one centralized location, under the leadership of one HIM system director. The new centralized space will hold 125 people (reference the Current HIM Staff table), with room for 10 percent growth. The number of employees is expected to increase with facility growth. The facilities with 35 or fewer employees move at a slower pace due to the patient volume and size of the facilities. The facilities with more than 50 employees are fast-paced and numbers-driven. Of the five facilities, only the South facility has great patient satisfaction scores. The Downtown facility is one of the larger facilities and has very low patient satisfaction scores. The other facilities have scores that need improvement. The South facility, that scores well, does not want to be associated with the poorly scoring and mediocre facilities. HIM Staff . FCH Leadership: Hospital leadership suites are located at the North campus, and most business is handled virtually. The leadership team does not have a personal relationship with the employees at the other campuses, and they are not aware of the cultural differences among employees. Leadership is currently working to implement several major projects: transitioning from a hybrid to a fully digital EHR, merging the five HIM departments into one centralized department, and moving employees from working in- house to working remotely. Physicians: The hospital has encountered difficulty recruiting young physicians due to . antiquated technology and processes. The transition to the new EHR will improve recruiting efforts by providing more efficient and productive technology. The seasoned providers (physicians and nonphysician practitioners) have expressed resistance to thetransition to a fully digital patient record due to the time required to train. These seasoned providers believe that patient care will be affected as they train on new skills outside of their traditional roles. HIM Leadership: Training on the new EHR will cause downtime within the departments that will affect the organization's revenue stream. Each department director will work with the new HIM system director to create downtime procedures to ensure essential functions are completed during the transition period. Management will also have to reassign roles for positions that will become obsolete. HIM Staff: There has also been resistance to the transition to the new EHR from the HIM staff. The staff are concerned about the possible reassignment of duties and reduction in staff. This fear has affected their daily work performance and morale. Some employees are threatening to quit or retire because of the changes that are expected as a result of transitioning to a fully digital record. As with the physicians, there are seasoned employees and new graduates who have different opinions about the transition. The HIM staff are responsible for developing downtime procedures for the six-month duration of the project. Things to be considered include the potential of losing staff, the reassignment of many current staff to new roles, and the learning curve of adapting to the new processes. Employees need to expect a learning curve. They will need time to adjust to the new processes and become acclimated in the new system. The new system will also require staff to perform system maintenance and resolve problem tickets. Currently, there is no additional compensation for transitioning into a new or different position. HIM staff that previously completed manual tasks such as picking up records from the floor, sorting the records, scanning the records, and storing old records for 90 days before destroying them will now complete digital administrative tasks. These digital tasks include ensuring digital records are complete and assigning them to a work queue if additional signatures or authorization is needed before they are sent to Revenue Cycle Services. This will cause a reduction in staff. There is no grandfather clause that will automatically allow employees to keep their positions. Current HIM staff will have to interview for the new HIM positions. Release of Information (ROI) staff will no longer have to print and fax records as they did in the old system. Now they will be able to fulfill record requests directly from the new EHR. 2o This will cause a reduction in staff needed in this role. Current ROI staff will have to interview for the new HIM technician positions Those who are not chosen will remain to scan paper records on a six-month contract. At the end of the six months, they can either transfer to another department or accept a three-month severance package Deficiency Tracking/Data Management staff will no longer assign deficiencies and take paper charts to the incomplete room. Deficiency analysts in the digital system will assign deficiencies and will serve as a liaison between the HIM department and clinicians in support of optimizing the EHR workflow. Physicians currently have incomplete paper records at multiple sites. Once the EHR system is implemented, physicians will have a mix of incomplete paper and digital records until all paper records are signed and complete. They will perform deficiency assignments by sending them to the provider's inbox in the system. They will also work on transcription errors and "missing documentation" work queues. This will cause a reduction in staff. Current Deficiency Tracking/Data Management staff will have to interview for the new HIM deficiency analyst positions. Those who are not chosen will remain to scan in paper records on a six-month contract. At the end of the six months, they can either transfer to another department or accept a three-month severance package. A new Clinical Documentation Improvement team will be located in the centralized location. There will be four new positions created for this team. They will be able to work onsite or remotely. This will be a lateral move for the coding staff. The salary for the new positions will come from the existing allocation for the Revenue Cycle staff. The role requires a Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) or Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) credential and five years of experience. o Seven of the current coders are considering this position, yet only three are academically qualified, possessing an RHIT or RHIA. The remaining four coders hold a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) certification, and they have been with the organization for over 10 years. They are also familiar with the physicians. Leadership must consider that some patients have records in the master patient index (MPI) for more than one hospital campus. This means they have multiple medical record numbers. Staff will be needed to help consolidate the MPI. Leadership must also consider that the backup server and microfiche are currently housed off-site. The centralized location will add over an hour to the commute for some employees. A retrieval policy will need to be created. The HIM directors do not feel like they had ample time to inform their staff of the merger and the possibility that some positions would be realigned or changed to a remote status. 3