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 Ethernet NIC

Tape Backup: Power Vault 110T, LTO2-L Tape Backup, 200/400 BG w/ Controller

Hard Drive Configuration: Integrated SAS/SATA No RAID, SAS5/I Integrated

Power Supply: Redundant Power Supply with Y-Cord

MS SQL Server: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard (5 CAL), OEM, NFI

Tape Backup Media LTO2, Tape media cartridge, 200/400 GB, 5PK.

Uninterrupted Power Supply: Dell 1500VA Uninterruptible Power Supply, Stand Alone, 120v.

As mentioned above, our servers will have uninterrupted power supply. This is important in that it will ensure that the offices will have access to the system at any time. It was also noted in the above description that there will be back ups that run nightly. An additional contingency feature will be back up between the two servers.

Network Operating System (NOS) components for clients and servers.

Our servers will be running Windows Server 2003 R2. These will be kept up to date with Microsoft patches deployed on a monthly basis. Workstations will run Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office Small Business Edition for all the clients.

Topologies and protocols used in the system. Maped against the TCP/IP reference model.

The following protocols, which are broken down by layers of the TCP/IP reference model, will be used in our system:

Application layer - SMTP (routed through our ISP)

FTP - For web site updates

DNS - Web browsing / research

Transport layer - TCP & UDP

Network layer - IP - Packets

Physical layer - 802.3y 100 base t for wired connections (server - router & router to modem)

802.11g (54mbps Wireless LAN for workstations to router)

The software used for transaction processing and for managerial information requirements.

The software used will be Visionary Medical Office by Visionary Medical Systems, Inc. (See appendix for detail). This software will enable many necessary features. For example, it will allow the offices to manage their patient records electronically, including the initial conversion of paper based records to electronic records. The software will allow for electronic appointment scheduling with reporting features. Multiple types of documentation will be able to be entered and posted to customer accounts, including consultation documentation, laboratory documentation, and integrated chart documentation. Also, this software has the capability to handle billing and collections for the offices very efficiently. In addition, the software if fully auditable, providing audit reports showing proper access to sensitive data as well as validation of financial record keeping.

In addition to the Visionary software, we will be contracting with ADT, a security monitoring and alarm system. It will be possible for this to integrate with our current computer system. It will also be able to be accessed remotely. The ADT system is $249 per location for installation, and $419 per location for the annual service fee.

The networking devices used, such as switches, routers etc.

The network infrastructure of the offices is relatively simple. Most network communication will be handled for each site via a single router. We will use the Netgear fwg11p prosafe wireless 802.11g firewall with USB print server to connect the server to the network (via 10/100 Ethernet) and use the 54g with WEP and MAC address filtering security to block out unwanted visitors. Traffic being routed through to the internet will move from the router to the DSL modem