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IT Strategic Assessment PEDIATRIC AND ADULT PROMPT CARE
John Hopson | CIS 410-02 | 19 April 2018
Table of Contents
Executive Summary................................................................................................................... 1
The Problems ............................................................................................................................ 2
Software ................................................................................................................................. 2
Hardware ............................................................................................................................... 3
Security .................................................................................................................................. 4
Web Presence ........................................................................................................................ 5
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s Environment ....................................................................6
Industry Competitive Analysis .................................................................................................9
Mission Statement ................................................................................................................9
Organizational Structure ......................................................................................................9
Porter’s Five Forces ...............................................................................................................9
Threat of New Entrants .....................................................................................................9
Threat of Substitutes ....................................................................................................... 10
Bargaining Power of Suppliers ........................................................................................ 10
Bargaining Power of Patients ........................................................................................... 11
Intra-industry Competition ............................................................................................. 11
Stakeholders ............................................................................................................................. 12
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s Doctors ........................................................................ 12
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s Staff ............................................................................. 12
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s Patients ....................................................................... 13
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s Competitors ................................................................ 13
Recommendations .................................................................................................................. 14
Software ............................................................................................................................... 14
Effect on Stakeholders ..................................................................................................... 14
Effect on Stakeholders ...................................................................................................... 15
Effect on Stakeholders ..................................................................................................... 16
Hardware ............................................................................................................................. 16
Effect on Stakeholders ...................................................................................................... 17
Effect on Stakeholders ..................................................................................................... 18
Security ................................................................................................................................ 18
Effect on Stakeholders ..................................................................................................... 19
Effect on Stakeholders ..................................................................................................... 20
Web ...................................................................................................................................... 20
Effect on Stakeholders ...................................................................................................... 21
Appendices .................................................................................................................................i
Appendix A: Additional Resources ........................................................................................i
Appendix A.1: Upgrading to Windows 10 .........................................................................i
Appendix A.2: Networking Windows 7 and Windows 10 Machines ................................i
Appendix A.3: Securing Your Domain ...............................................................................i
Appendix B: Hardware and Software Inventory ................................................................. ii
Hardware .......................................................................................................................... ii
Software ............................................................................................................................ ii
Appendix C: Works Cited ................................................................................................... iii
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Executive Summary
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care should be aware of a number of issues related to the
clinic’s information technology in areas like software, hardware, security, and web
presence. The top concerns include:
1. Use of unlicensed software
2. Mismatched Windows operating systems
3. Lack of an integrated system for patient and clinic management
4. Hardware purchasing methodology
5. Computer networking
6. Lack of digital auditing
7. Securing hardware and data form theft or damage
8. Lack of official business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan
9. Not owning the clinic’s domain name
10. Lack of professional email tied to domain
There are solutions available for all of these issues by doing things like purchasing
licenses, upgrading the clinic’s hardware to a lite client network, switching to a fully
integrated management system for billing, patients, and clinic operations, hiring a third-
party auditor, purchasing security equipment to lock computers, creating detailed plans
for continuity and recovery, and purchasing your domain when it becomes available again
at the end of May. It is up to you to weigh the risks against the benefits and decide the
best path forward for Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care.
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The Problems
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care have a myriad of concerns. As a small healthcare clinic,
information technology seems to be treated as a secondary concern instead of an
integrated solution for running the clinic, providing a more integrated experience to
patients, and connecting the offices for communication and patient care. This is not
unexpected but viewing the technology in this way potentially limits the effectiveness of
the clinic.
SOFTWARE
Software is an important component of any organizations information technology. The
Microsoft Office products used at Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s clinic are all
matched, as Office 365 is used. The problem is that the office product is not owned by the
clinic, but rather a student’s Office 365 account is utilized provide access to the software.
This is problematic for a number of reasons. Therefore, the most important issue is using
unlicensed software, or software outside of its licensed use is illegal. Software trade
groups like BSA The Software Alliance, which includes Microsoft, regularly perform
software audits. According to an article on Tech Crunch, “the overwhelming majority of
companies targeted by these associations are small businesses, with limited technology
and legal resources” (Scott). The BSA, which has collected more than $81 million in
settlements, estimates 22% of all North American software is unlicensed, making it the
4th most common information technology mistake made by small businesses (Dadian).
The cost of getting caught using unlicensed software far outstrips the cost of purchasing
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legitimate licenses. In one case, a small business was ordered to pay more than $200,000
when the BSA found them using unlicensed software (Scott).
With only three computers and one server in the clinic, there are two different operating
systems on the network. Two computers are running Windows 7 and the third computer
and server are running Windows 10. Windows 7 machines can be networked with
Windows 10 machines, but it takes a moderate level of technical skill and knowledge of
Windows networking difficulties between these two quite different operating systems.
Because these computers aren’t networked properly, it limits how easily files and
applications can be share amongst the four computer systems in the office.
The clinic’s current electronic medical record software, AltaPoint, has only been in use
since 2015, but is no longer providing the service the clinic requires. What is needed is a
fully digital patient and practice management system for tracking patients from check in,
to diagnosis, through billing, all the way to follow up. The clinic is still using a paper sign
in sheet and doesn’t utilize a digital scheduler.
HARDWARE
Hardware is also an important piece of an information system. The main concern is the
inconsistent manner in which hardware is purchased and the age of some of the systems.
Purchasing decisions for hardware don’t appear to be a part of long-term planning, as the
clinic doesn’t have an annual budget, so information system acquisitions are not
budgeted for either. Investments in information technology infrastructure are not
insignificant purchases, even for a small clinic. This is why it is important to include in a
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monthly budget for future hardware purchases as part of a long-term strategic plan.
Choosing at purchase how long you want to use a piece of hardware before replacing it
allows for precise budgeting and planning for the replacement of hardware.
The computer network, or lack thereof, is another concern. The third computer is in a
back room and is neither connected to the Internet or the office’s local area network, in
fact, all of the computers are not properly networked together due to the afore mentioned
operating system compatibility issues.
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s hardware is somewhat mismatched in age and
specification, but are all PCs, so doesn’t include computers that are unable to be
networked together. At the moment the mismatch isn’t critical, as the specification of
each system is close enough together and compatible.
SECURITY
The clinic’s information security is lacking. While all computers require logins and
passwords to access them, this is the bare minimum in security. There is no auditing of
event logs to help track who is accessing what systems and what they are doing when
they are on the system. This means there is also log auditing looking for anyone probing
the network looking for patient data.
The hardware is not secured in a way to prevent theft and there is no security system to
protect the clinic when it is closed. There is a security camera, which is connected to the
network via Wi-Fi, but it only streams a live feed, it doesn’t store historical footage, which
is vital in enabling police to track down criminals. A further concern with the security
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camera lies in its potential vulnerability to hacking. For instance, hackers once hacked a
casino’s aquarium thermometer which was connected to the casino’s network via Wi-Fi.
They then used the thermometer’s network access to gain entry to the network and
eventually was able to extract the casino’s high-roller database (Williams-Grut).
The clinic lacks a formal disaster recovery plan or business continuity plan. A business
continuity plan is a strategy to help ensure that business processes can continue during a
time of emergency or disaster. They can include solutions for things like backup
generators, uninterruptible power supplies which can continue to provide power to
computers systems during short power outages.
WEB PRESENCE
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care has a very professional looking website. There is little
interactivity built into the site, but it probably is best used as a way to market the clinic
online. A contact form would be nice but isn’t necessary. The key problem with the clinics
online presence is that it doesn’t own its domain, and the people that built their site
won’t return phone calls about it.
The clinic does have a domain but doesn’t have professional email associated with the
domain. Having an email associated with the clinics domain projects a professional image
to patients, suppliers, and other medical institutions.
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Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s Environment
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care is an urgent care clinic that opened in January of 2008.
The clinic caters to the health care needs of both children and adults served by its two
doctors, Dr. Abdul Haq and Dr. Akasha Haq, part-time nurse practitioners, the help of
various medical students, and part-time front-desk support staff. The clinic is located in
downtown Louisville, at 219 E Broadway and specializes in after-hours care, with hours of
4:00 PM to 10:00 PM, and are open 365 days a year. This means Pediatric & Adult Prompt
Care is most suited for treating those injuries and illnesses that need immediate attention
but are not serious enough to require an emergency room visit. The clinic’s specific
services are treating sore throat, allergic reactions, rashes, pink eye, asthma, fever,
gastroenteritis, sinus infections, cuts and lacerations, sprains and simple fractures, coughs
and colds, cysts draining, earaches, flu symptoms, minor burns, sports injuries, vomiting
and more. Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s clinic is open to all but has developed a
niche market segment in the Muslim community, especially amongst Somalis.
The competition for Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care is not small and includes
emergency rooms as well as urgent care clinics linked to major medical facilities, and
chain urgent care centers. The top competition includes Kroger’s The Little Clinic, Baptist
Health Urgent Care, Norton Immediate Care Center, and KentuckyOne Urgent Care.
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care is a small, locally owned clinic competing with a
growing trend in healthcare with hospitals understanding the potential for growth by
expanding into the urgent care market. Urgent care visits rose 19% from 2010 to 2015, and
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urgent care clinics give hospitals the opportunity to service relatively healthy people at a
lower cost than opening a primary care facility (Sweeney).
This trend toward hospitals expanding into urgent care is worrying to private entities,
who have dominated the market. These private enterprises include single clinics owned
by a doctor or partnership up to major chains that specialize in urgent care facilities like
MedSpring Immediate Care of Austin, and Concentra Urgent Care, as well as many
others. Private clinics still dominate the market nationally owning about three-fourths of
the more than 7,000 urgent care clinics in the country. The concern is with hospitals
elbowing their way into the market, patients will be encouraged to visit hospital-owned
in-network clinics for their urgent care needs, which flip the model, leaving private
operators on the outside looking in (Sweeney).
The urgent care market started in the 1970s and has grown to more than 10,000 locations
in US in 2017 and the urgent care clinic market continues to grow rapidly. Kalorama
Information published a report detailing this growth and stated the market grew from
$11.8 billion in 2011 to $15 billion in 2017. They estimate the average urgent care clinic in
2016 saw 294 patients per week and had around 15,300 patient visits throughout the year
(Kalomara Information). As of the end of 2016, the four largest private companies
operating in the market were Concentra, U.S. Healthworks, American Family Care, and
MedExpress, but none of them are expressly large themselves (Cison PR News).
Each operator may utilize different approaches to running their clinics, the business
model they employ is quite consistent. It involves providing basic health care services at
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as low a cost as possible. The care provided is intended to supplement care provided by
one’s primary care provider, especially for common illnesses and injuries where diagnoses
and treatments are relatively simple and clear cut. The business model also includes
convenient hours of operation. The typical urgent care clinic is open from 7:00 AM to 8:00
PM Monday through Friday, and eight-hour days over the weekend. Only about 31% of
primary care doctors, on the other hand, have similar hours. This schedule is much more
convenient to most patients that traditional physician’s offices. Another key feature of the
business model is service time, with most visits taking 10 to 15 minutes.
High visibility and adequate parking are another part of their business model, so centers
are often located in freestanding buildings, though they can be located in strip malls, and
sometimes within a hospital complex with a separate entrance. On average, and urgent
care clinics footprint is between 3,500 square feet and 12,000 square feet. The difference
being common practice and the extent of services offered by the clinic (Cison PR News).
According to PR Newswire, a 2010 Health Affairs report found 27% of emergency room
visits could have been handled by an urgent care center, which has the potential revenues
of around $4.4 billion. A separate report by the Urgent Care Association of America
pointed to cost saving to patients who utilized urgent care facilities could be as high as
$18.5 billion, which is a major factor in the industries growth.
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Industry Competitive Analysis
A competitive analysis is a critical part of a company’s marketing plan. The purpose is to
understand factors that impact on the performance of the industry, and as well the
performance of firms within the industry.
MISSION STATEMENT
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care is an urgent care clinic catering to the health care needs
of both children and adults operating in a cost leadership strategy due to the low
switching costs of patients moving to other providers and the relative undifferentiated
nature of the industry.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
There isn’t a traditional business organizational structure for Pediatric and Adult Prompt
Care, but most closely resembles a functional organization with duties split based on
their function.
PORTER’S FIVE FORCES
Analysis of Porter's Five Forces is a vital tool for understanding the influences that mold
and shape competition within an industry. Overall, Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care
operates in a moderate to high risk industry sector.
Threat of New Entrants
The threat of new entrants is low to moderate in the urgent care clinic, as new entrants
have to have the time invested in a doctor’s education, attract nurses in an industry
perpetually short of qualified nurses. Financially, a startup needs an initial capital outlay
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to invest in buildings, equipment, medications, information technology infrastructure, as
well as bookkeeping, office productivity, patient tracking, and medical processing
software. A key concern is the low switching cost to patients moving in moving to a new
provider.
Threat of Substitutes
The urgent care clinic market has a moderate to high risk of substitutes from other
healthcare providers such as primary care clinics and hospital emergency rooms, as they
are already capable of providing the same services. These alternatives already maintain
relationships with patients either by being their primary care managers or via their
insurance providers. This gives them an advantage in customer relations, but it comes at
the cost of expediency and in the case of primary care clinics patients often sacrifice
immediate access. Unlike with new entrants, there is a concern over the relatively
moderate switching cost to patients moving to an urgent care facility with no familiarity
with their healthcare history from their primary care facility or an emergency room that is
part of the healthcare system they are already members of.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
The bargaining power of suppliers is quite high, as clinics are highly dependent of drug
suppliers, proprietary medical equipment, and other healthcare related equipment and
tools necessary to do their work. The smaller the clinic, the less they are able to mitigate
the strength of suppliers’ bargaining power.
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Bargaining Power of Patients
Urgent care clinics face significant hurdles in the bargaining power of its customers
because there is little to no switching costs for a customer to go to a different healthcare
provider, and in some cases going to an urgent care clinic they’ve never been treated at
may produce higher switching costs to the patient. The very nature of urgent care needs
also means patient are more likely to take their business to the nearest and/or most
convenient location for them to be treated.
Intra-industry Competition
Intra-industry competition in the urgent care industry is stiff, with more than 7,000
clinics across the country and more than 40 locations spread out amongst the Louisville
metro area. Because the switching costs for patients to go to any urgent care facility are
relatively low, and the nature of the services required when one seeks urgent care
treatment it is likely they will patronize the closes facility. Pediatric and Adult Prompt
Care’s chief rival is Norton Immediate Care Center. Recently, however, the clinic has
begun to see an influx of new patients from Norton due to complaints of wait up to five
hours to be seen and the lack of doctors on site.
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Stakeholders
A review of the people affected by Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s decisions produced
the following set of stakeholders.
PEDIATRIC AND ADULT PROMPT CARE’S DOCTORS
Decisions made in the purchase and implementation of information technology impact
the doctors of Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care in two ways. New technology presents a
relatively high effort expectancy in learning new systems but also carries with it a
potentially high performance expectancy by making the clinic more efficient and
providing better care to patients. A fully digital patient care system has the benefit of
easing the burden of paperwork and can ensure patient data isn’t lost during
emergencies, while also ensuring patient records are fully digital. The doctors also bear
the financial burden as the owners of the clinic, so when an information system is
purchased that doesn’t function as intended, the hit to the clinic’s bottom line is also a hit
to the owners’ bottom line.
PEDIATRIC AND ADULT PROMPT CARE’S STAFF
The staff’s stake in information technology changes stem from the potential for it to
enable them to become more efficient with their time. This efficiency coupled with
helpful technology solutions will help staff offer the best customer service possible to the
clinic’s patients.
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PEDIATRIC AND ADULT PROMPT CARE’S PATIENTS
Patients of Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care stand to benefit by having their visits
become shorter and more efficient. Systems that could enable easy sign-in and prompt
notification to doctors there are patients waiting can shorten patient wait time and the
time necessary to carry out examinations.
PEDIATRIC AND ADULT PROMPT CARE’S COMPETITORS
Implementing better information systems to aid the clinics doctors and staff has the
potential to provide competitive advantage over Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s
smaller competition and could help them compete with clinics backed by big healthcare
systems.
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Recommendations
The following section outlines some solutions you could implement to ensure your
hardware functions properly, your data is secured, and your customers get the best
service and care possible.
SOFTWARE
In a cost-benefit analysis, the cost of purchasing an Office 365 license for a business is as
low as $8.25 a month. That comes to a total $495 over the course of five years. In one case,
Microsoft became aware of a small business potentially using unlicensed Office products
and contacted the BSA. The company in question ran the audit software provided by the
BSA, which detected unlicensed software, after which the BSA demanded a penalty of
more than $200,000. The recommendation is the clinic purchase its own Office 365
product license. It is still possible to buy a license for Office 2016, which is a one-time
purchase of $399.99. This is a little cheaper than 5 years of an Office 365 subscription but
gives up the no extra charge upgrades when new versions of Office products are released.
You can also protect against licensing errors and penalties and help ensure the fastest
recovery times when failures occur, by carefully documenting and tracking all software
license purchases and deployments.
Effect on Stakeholders
The clinic’s doctors stand the most to gain from purchasing a Microsoft Office license.
There is a legitimate risk to the clinic if it is discovered using unlicensed software. If only
one recommendation is implemented from this assessment, this is the most critical. This
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issue also affects the clinic’s staff and patients if the software is discovered and a large
penalty is assessed as a result. A clinic closure would negatively affect everyone.
The operating system mismatch problem has a couple of fixes, both of which require a
little technical know-how. My recommendation is to upgrade the two machines with
Windows 7 to Windows 10. As of January 2018, it is still possible to upgrade from
Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free, though it isn’t as easy as it was up to the end of 2017
(See Appendix A.1). As an alternative solution in case the free upgrade no longer
functions, networking Windows 7 and Windows 10 systems is possible. The process is a
bit more technical and is a little more complex, though (See Appendix A.2).
Effect on Stakeholders
The key stakeholders in networking the office’s computers are the doctors and their staff.
Networking the clinic’s computers will help the office to run more efficiently allowing the
sharing of files and interactivity between each computer or tablet on the network. If the
clinic is running more efficiently, that means greater service for its patients as well.
An integrated system of clinic and patient management would be extremely beneficial.
An example of such an integrated system would be CareCloud. This service company
offers a cloud-based software suite of business solutions targeted at medical practices.
There are different solutions for revenue cycle management, practice management, and
electronic health records. This suite combined with some new hardware would increase
the efficiency of the clinic by digitally integrating the clinic’s administrative processes,
billing, and medical practice.
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Effect on Stakeholders
All of Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care’s stakeholders would be affected by utilizing an
integrated system of clinic and patient management. Doctors and staff’s efficiency would
increase, the likelihood of mistakes would go down, and the culmination of this would be
a greater customer experience by the patients. If Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care is able
to continue to grow its patient list while streamlining its operations to keep visit times
low, they will continue to siphon off patients form their competition.
HARDWARE
Business benefits of new computer hardware are numerable. Your hardware determines
everything from how fast you can do your work, to how well the computers are able to
interact with each other. You should view your computer hardware as an investment, but
one that has to be reviewed and reinvested as necessary. When analyzing your hardware
needs, you have to approach it as more than a financial business decision. To start with,
you have to consider the benefits new hardware can provide for your clinic. Some of the
potential benefits of computer hardware include: reducing costs by automating routine
tasks, such as record-keeping, accounting, and payroll, improve customer service, develop
more effective communication within the business or with customers, increase business
efficiency and staff productivity, increase employee morale, develop competitive
advantage by implementing the right business technology.
You have to analyze the business needs and benefits you are looking for before you decide
to buy new hardware. First, you should identify the key hardware investments you are
considering then perform a cost-benefit analysis for each piece of technology. My
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recommendation is when you are next ready to make an upgrade in your hardware, to
invest in a thin client system. A thin client is a lightweight computer that has been
optimized for remoting into a server-based computing environment. The server does
most of the work, which can include launching software programs and storing data. Since
you already own a server, this could be a cheap way to ensure all of your computer
systems are using the same operating system, because there will only be one system with
an operating system installed.
An alternative suggestion would be to move from your current process of buying
computers and replacing them only when one stops performing well, to leasing your
infrastructure. A lease allows you to avoid the upfront costs of outright purchasing
hardware and by its nature lends itself to planning and budgeting for hardware upgrades.
Effect on Stakeholders
Purchasing and installing a lite client network would have a positive effect on the clinic’s
bottom line, and therefore on the owners. It kills two birds with one stone. First, this
solution also relieves the need to either upgrade the Windows 7 operating systems to
Windows 10 or the alternative of networking the Windows 7 machines with the Windows
10 machines. Second it updates your hardware and ensures it is all of similar
specifications and will be completely compatible with each other. Even if you go with the
alternative solution of leasing your information system architecture, you will see the same
benefits. You can even combine the two and lease the entire lite client network and
ensure your network is updated on a periodic basis to ensure you provide the best
possible service for your patients.
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Part of integrating all aspects of the clinic’s business and medical processes would be
benefitted by purchasing a tablet that allows patients to quickly sign in for appointments
and walk-in visits. An integrated system would then update the doctor’s computer to let
them know a patient is ready. An alternative that would still allow for a more professional
image would be to purchase phones that have an intercom function. This would allow the
front desk staff to inform the doctors of waiting patients without having to yell.
Effect on Stakeholders
Purchasing and tablet and using it to admit new patients is yet another way to streamline
a business process to the benefit of patients who can be presented with easy ways to enter
their information a choose why they are there. Once they submit their check in, an
integrated patient management system would update the front-desk staff’s and doctor’s
computers, making the entire system more helpful and efficient. Even if the previous
recommendation is implemented, there will be time patients will overlap in the
examination room and the waiting room. Buying a phone system with an integrated
intercom would allow for a more professional way of alerting doctors to ready patients
over yelling from room to room. I found an office phone with an intercom feature on
Amazon.com for $85.
SECURITY
Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care should consider having a third party audit their
computer systems periodically. This is crucial for detecting any potential data breaches as
soon as possible. This would be a first step in a layered defense of your data. An audit can
identify weaknesses in your network. If a breach does occur, these audits are the fastest
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way to detect them. This will also identify holes in your defenses and allow them to be
shored up. Paying for this service might not seem to be important, but if a data breach
occurs, you don’t want to deal with the financial ramifications or the loss of confidence
from your patients.
It is recommended that Pediatric and Adult Prompt Care secure their critical hardware to
help prevent theft. Hardware cable locks sell on Amazon.com for less than $20 and can
help prevent theft of everything from tablets, to desktops. It is probably best to locate the
server in a room that is not so accessible to the public as well. Not only does this help
prevent unauthorized access, it means the server could be overlooked during a burglary.
If you are running a light client network as suggested above, the loss to the clinic would
be significantly mitigated.
Effect on Stakeholders
Strengthening the physical and digital security of your information systems is critical for
both the doctors and patients of the clinic. Loss of hardware or a breach of the software
could put patients personally identifying information at risk and expose the clinic to
liability for the loss.
Because things will inevitably go wrong, a business continuity plan and disaster recovery
plan are crucial to ensure you can reopen the clinic as soon as possible following
catastrophic events like theft of hardware, natural disasters, or breaches that result in loss
of data. A business continuity plan involves planning and analysis of your clinics primary
functions and should involve:
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1. Analysis of organizational threats
2. A list of the primary tasks required to keep the organization operations flowing
3. Easily located management contact information
4. Explanation of where personnel should go if there is a disastrous event
5. Information on data backups and organization site backup
Effect on Stakeholders
Ensuring the continuity of the clinic’s operations is essential to being able to serve your
customers 365 days a year. Equally important is having a plan for recovering your data
after any data loss so you are able to get up and running as soon as possible so Pediatric
Adult and Prompt Care can start serving its patients.
WEB
It is critical that you control ownership of your clinics domain name,
pediatricandadultpromptcare.com. Currently the owner and contact information of the
domain is masked by WhoisGuard. The good news is that the current registration expires
on May 24th of this year. If the vendor who built your website doesn’t renew the
registration, you should be able to purchase it back and manage control over your
domain. You can use any number of options for purchasing your domain with it becomes
available (see Appendix A.3).
Once you regain control of your domain, it is recommended that you add professional
email service linked to your domain. Creating an email address that looks professional
and official like, abdul.haq@ pediatricandadultpromptcare.com will project an air of
professional competence for the doctors and staff at the clinic and make it easy for
patients, peers, and other business contacts to reach you. There is the added benefit of
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separating personal and business communications. Adding this service usually costs
about $5 to $10 a month.
Effect on Stakeholders
In the 21st Century, any organization’s best marketing is done online. If the clinic cannot
regain control of its domain name, it has no way to update its site with new information,
like opening a new location. Coupled with the fact there is no contact link to email the
clinic on the page and without domain linked email there is no info@ email address,
communication between patient and clinic is hampered. This could have a negative effect
on the number of potential patients that can reach out to the clinic and who have up to
date information about the clinic and its staff.
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Appendices
APPENDIX A: ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Appendix A.1: Upgrading to Windows 10
The following article details how to upgrade your PCs from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for
free. This method worked as of the end of January 2018. It takes a little work but doesn’t
require significant tech skills.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2018/01/26/how-to-get-windows-10-for-free-in-
2018/#18a17a5f5145
Appendix A.2: Networking Windows 7 and Windows 10 Machines
This article explains how to properly network Windows 7 computers with Windows 10
computers on the same network. This is doable as well but requires more technical skill
and overall familiarity and confidence in dealing with Windows and installing operating
systems.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17145/windows-homegroup-from-start-to-
finish
Appendix A.3: Securing Your Domain
Once your domain expires on 24 May, you can use a number of different services to
reclaim your domain. Currently, Namecheap is the registrar for your domain. Some other
suggestions would be Google Domains or GoDaddy. All of these services will walk you
through the process of registering your domain.
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APPENDIX B: HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE INVENTORY
Hardware
• HP Compaq 600S Pro (front) Windows 7 Pro SP1 AMD Athlon II Dual Core
• PCQuest (back room) Windows 7 Pro SP1 Intel Pentium Dual Core
• Custom PC (exam room) Windows 7 Pro SP1 Intel i5 Dual Core
• Lenovo TD340 ThinkServer Windows 10 Pro Intel Xeon Dual Core
• Brother All-in-one printer
• POS terminal
• Television (used as a message board)
• CCTV camera
• Two phones
Software
• Team Viewer
• Google Drive
• Intuit Payroll
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Office 365
• Foxit PDF reader
• Brother’s Control Center
IT Strategic Assessment Hopson
PAGE iii
APPENDIX C: WORKS CITED
Cison PR News. "Urgent Care Market Reaches $15 Billion as Locations, Patient Visits Rise." 5 April
2017. PR News Wire. Web. 12 April 2018.
Dadian, Dina. "Is Illegal software going to cost you your business?" 15 March 2015. Power Solution.
Web. 13 April 2018.
Kalomara Information. "Urgent Care Market (Clinic Growth, Revenues by Procedure, IVD and
Vaccine Sales)." 23 January 2017. Kalomara Information. Web. 12 April 2018.
Scott, Robert J. "Software piracy claims can ruin your business and reward those responsible." 10
May 2016. Tech Crunch. Web. 13 April 2018.
Sweeney, Brigid. "Patients are flocking to urgent-care clinics. Now hospitals are, too." 15 May 2017.
Modern Healthcare. Web. 12 April 2018.
Williams-Grut, Oscar. "Hackers once stole a casino's high-roller database through a thermometer
in the lobby fish tank." 15 April 2018. Business Insider. Web. 15 April 2018.