Question:

The financial decisions that a health care organization makes today can have far-reaching consequences for its future survival, from enabling its providers to better deliver care and services to patients to supporting the organization's ongoing clinical research initiatives to facilitating the essential functions and processes its professional staff performs on a daily basis.

To prepare for this Application Assignment, review the information on value realization, return on investment analysis, and using cost information to make special decisions in health care organizations presented in this week's Learning Resource readings, as well as the information on capital investment analysis and return on investment-including financial (revenue-producing) and non-financial (non-revenue-producing) return on investment discussed by the presenters in this week's Course Media. Next, research methods that may be utilized to evaluate both the financial and non-financial returns associated with investments in health information technology. In conducting your research, use both scholarly journal databases and resources available on the World Wide Web from reputable organizations, such as industry/trade associations.

To complete this Application Assignment, write a 3 to 4-page paper in which you:

Discuss the potential financial (tangible) and non-financial (intangible) benefits associated with the adoption of health information technology, providing at least two specific examples of each.

Next, describe in detail at least three methods/techniques that may be utilized for evaluating the returns associated with HIT investments. Ensure that at least one of the methods you selected includes procedures for evaluating non-financial benefits.

Your written assignments must follow APA guidelines. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week's Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate.