Workplace Observation - Hardware

Workplace Observation Ð'- Hardware

Information system users must work closely with information system professionals to define business needs, evaluate options, and select the hardware and software that provide a cost-effective solution to those needs (Stair and Reynolds, 2004).

My team consists of administrative staff. Computers play a significant role in accomplishing our jobs. A computer is a machine used for manipulating data according to a list of instructions known as a program. Our jobs consists of arranging travel plans for the physicians, typing protocols for oncology studies, communicated with others inside and outside of the institution and also to input patients data into databases.

Another piece of hardware that is used within my organization is a scanner. A scanner is a device that can read text or illustrations printed on paper and translate the information into a form the computer can use. Scanners are used for inputting our medical records into databases on the computer. This is an excellent advancement that our institution has made. Without the use of this system, our medical records department would still be struggling with huge patient charts. This also makes it more convenient for our release of information department. They are responsible for releasing authorized medical records requests. Instead of having to thumb through

huge charts, they are now able to go into the computer system, called Clinic Station, access the needed information and print it out.

LCD Projectors are also used within my organization. My team organization is responsible for hosting at the least, 4 meeting a week. We host oncology planning meeting, women cancer research meetings, multidisciplinary meetings and faculty meetings. The LCD Projectors are used to display slides that are created for the subject of each meeting, which brings me to another type of hardware that we use, the thumb drive or flash drive. They hold more data than the floppy disks or compact disks. These are what our hostess use when saving data to present at the different meetings.

Another type of hardware we use a pagers. In a hospital facility physicians are on call all day and night. In order to be able to contact the physicians they must wear a pager. The pagers are capable of receiving alpha and numeric pages. The pager system can stand to have