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[Title of Paper]

[Student Name]

[Course/Number]

July 26, 2012

[Instructor Name]


[Title of Paper goes here (same as main title not bolded)]

Because of the New York Public Health statutes, the proposed New York State immunization database must be compliant (New York State Public Health, 2010, p. 1, 2). It must also possess the ability to integrate local and county health department immunization records and databases. Therefore, the proposed statewide immunization database and reporting system should utilize HL7data language, the data fields detailed in the New York Public health Statues, and meet the input and output needs and requirements of the various IT project stakeholders and users (Hefner & Malcolm, 2002, p. 77). Additionally, the New York state immunization database meets HIPAA requirements to safeguard the privacy of the patients and the integrity of the data. Because of this, user groups and access levels must be developed to assure access to datasets based upon the user requirements. Moreover, access must be authenticated through secure gateways (O’Carroll, 2003, p. 234, 235; Babu, 2005, p. 2). Failure to do so in HIPAA compliant ways could lead to legal problems, accreditation problems and thereby threaten the institutions, clinics and health professionals’ offices that utilize the system. Therefore, the state immunization database project must detail the state and national specifications enacted through legislation or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the associative timelines, budget, hardware and software requirements, training and support (p. 235, 236).

Defining the Requirements

Because of all the regulatory requirements, the IT project team would need to consult the national, local, and county stakeholders to further refine the specifications. As stated in the New York Public health statutes, the data fields must include (New York State Public Health, 2010), “Patient’s name, date of birth, gender, and complete address, including county of residence; mother’s maiden name; and vaccine administration date, type, lot number and manufacturer (p. 2).” Moreover, relational fields such as allergies, conditions, age, race, ethnicity, etc., should be required because searches and reports depend upon such associations (O’Carroll, 2003, p. 116, 177, 234). All data fields pertaining to vaccine names, manufacturers, lot numbers and types will follow the CDC guidelines. Therefore, these data field will accept a particular character set. All of these specifications are crucial for developers (Babu, 2005, 2).

Budget and Timelines

Budgets and the timelines specified will define project feasibility (Babu, 2005, p. 2). Since the statutes govern the deadline, the project deadlines should be arranged so that prototype delivery, training, and implementation occur well in advance of the state directives (p. 2). Therefore, any hardware or software problems, absent features or specifications can be addressed before the statute is enforced (O’Connor, 203, p. 232-234). After all, delays could inspire costly fines and/or other sanctions.

For these reasons, stakeholder groups should be consulted during the selection process to assure the proposed project meets the specifications. Of course, any overlooked or emergent regulations or requirements might arise during this time. These would alternately inform the decision.

Conclusion

The proposed New York immunization database is greatly informed by the state laws, national laws such as HIPAA and the CDC standardized data formats. Because the statewide system must facilitate reporting among agencies at the local and county level, as well, project guidelines must include integration or data language translation capabilities. Failure to address these needs could lead to many costly migrations at every level, unforeseen difficulties and user resistance among stakeholders. These threaten the project’s success.

References

Babu, M. (2005). Managing and implementing outsourced projects. Computer World. Retrieved

From http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/107069/Managing_and_Implementing_

Outsourced_Projects?taxonomyId=060&SKC=outsourcing-107069

Hefner, D., & Malcolm, C. (2002). 15 essential steps of IT project management. Healthcare Financial Management, 56(2), 76–79. Retrieved from the Walden Library Business

Source Complete database.

New York State Public Health (2010 July). New York State Immunization Information System

(NYSIIS) frequently asked questions for providers. Retrieved from

http://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/immunization/information_system/docs/faq_immunization_information_system.pdf

O'Carroll, P. W. (2003). Public health informatics and information systems. New York:

Springer.