Case Study Problem #2

An EMR management system is a system employed by hospitals to manage and store their electronic medical records (EMR). They typically include software that manages the actual records as well as organizing the records in the system. As the records were automated, the efficiency of the hospital would be greatly improved, as they would be more easily organized and it would be easier to find the records of a specific patient, and therefore would both improve the hospital's efficiency and the patient care, as well as the accuracy, as there would be less potential for human error. These could probably be available in East African countries, as there are software programs available for this purpose online and they can be used to manage their EMR, but there is no way to know for sure.

There are systems that can be downloaded from the Internet and completely supported via the Internet. This may make the employment of this in Africa easier for them to achieve. The software would run on normal operating systems, and would prevent the need to buy pre-built hardware to support the software system, when it could be run off of normal operation systems. Although there are operating systems which can be bought with pre-manufactured systems, it may be cheaper for the African countries to go with the Internet supported systems. The advantages of getting a pre-built system would be the fact that they would be abler to get consistent support and possible on site backup, with personnel training and the actual systems at hand, and close by. A disadvantage would most likely be that a pre-built system would have components that are designed to work with more advanced technology than they might have.

Custom systems on the other hand, may be a very useful for the East African clinics. These systems are specifically designed for the clinics, and would have none of the compatibility issues that the pre-built systems would have. The prices for this would be predictably higher than pre-built systems as would the maintenance costs, but at least it would be capable and easier to use with what the countries have at the location. The advantages of this system would be that the technology would be specifically designed for them, and would therefore be compatible with the tech they already have, and any they are planning to buy. Though the disadvantages would be the fact that it is much more expensive than prebuilt systems.

I would recommend that the government of the western province spend the extra money and purchase a custom built system, as this would have greater capatability would be easier to use, as well as the fact that they would have more back-up and will be able to use easier with thier current technology.