| Course | HS420 Health Informatics |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 2 |
| Paper type | System component overview |
| Length | About 660 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Science |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HS420 Unit 2
Eight Systems in One Small Building: A Unit 2 System Component Overview of a Composite Pediatric Clinic
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HS420: Health Informatics
Unit 2 System Component Overview
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Hollis Park Pediatrics and its systems are composite; the sociotechnical model, the messaging guide and the process mapping article cited are real.
Diagram
A one-page diagram opens the overview: eight boxes, solid arrows for every electronic connection and dashed arrows wherever a person, rather than an interface, carries data from one system to another. Four dashed arrows are marked with a red dot; those are the double-entry points described below.
The Eight Systems
1. Practice management system. Holds appointments, demographics, insurance and charges. Typed into by front desk staff at check-in and by billing staff. Sends demographics to the health record through an interface.
2. Electronic health record. Holds visit notes, orders, problem lists, medications, allergies, growth charts and vaccines given at this clinic. Typed into by providers, medical assistants and nurses. Receives demographics from practice management and laboratory results from the reference laboratory.
3. State immunization registry. Holds every vaccine dose given to the child anywhere in the state, if the giver reported it. The clinic reaches it only through a website login. Nurses type doses into it by hand at the end of the day, and medical assistants look children up in it before visits.
4. State vaccine ordering portal. Holds the clinic's orders and inventory of publicly funded vaccines. The vaccine coordinator types monthly counts into it from paper logs.
5. Refrigerator temperature monitoring. Data loggers in two vaccine refrigerators record temperatures every five minutes and upload them to the vendor's website. The coordinator downloads the reports weekly and keeps copies for the state program.
6. Reference laboratory system. Receives orders and returns results to the health record through an interface. No manual entry.
7. Claims clearinghouse. Receives claims from practice management, checks them and forwards them to payers. No manual entry.
8. Patient portal. Lets parents see visit summaries, vaccine records and messages. Fed by the health record.
Where One Fact Is Entered Twice
Point A: vaccine doses. Entered in the health record at the visit, then retyped into the state registry's website at the end of the day. The registry offers an electronic connection that uses a national messaging standard for immunizations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2018), but the clinic has never set it up.
Point B: historical doses from the registry. When the registry shows a dose given elsewhere, the medical assistant retypes it into the health record so the child's vaccine forecast is right.
Point C: vaccine inventory. Doses used are counted from the health record and retyped into the state ordering portal each month.
Point D: insurance cards. Scanned at the front desk into practice management, then often retyped when a payer requires a different format.
Points A and B are the same fact moving in opposite directions by hand, which is why the clinic's record and the state's record of the same child so often disagree.
Who Knows What
Front desk staff work mainly in practice management and the portal. Medical assistants move between the health record and the registry website. Nurses use the health record and the registry. The vaccine coordinator, a single nurse, is the only person who uses the ordering portal and the temperature system. That concentration is a risk: when she is away, monthly counts and temperature reviews wait.
What the Overview Suggests
Seeing the systems together shows that the clinic's information problems are mostly not inside any one system. They sit in the spaces between systems, where a person carries data across. A sociotechnical approach looks at technology, people, workflow and organization together, and those spaces are where the four meet (Sittig & Singh, 2010). The next unit maps one of those spaces, the immunization history check, step by step using a process map (Antonacci et al., 2018).
References
Antonacci, G., Reed, J. E., Lennox, L., & Barlow, J. (2018). The use of process mapping in healthcare quality improvement projects. Health Services Management Research, 31(2), 74-84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0951484818770411
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). HL7 version 2.5.1 implementation guide for immunization messaging: Release 1.5, 2018 update. https://repository.immregistries.org
Sittig, D. F., & Singh, H. (2010). A new sociotechnical model for studying health information technology in complex adaptive healthcare systems. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 19(Suppl. 3), i68-i74. https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2010.042085
What the HS420 Unit 2 assignment asks for
The second unit usually asks for an inventory of the information systems in one setting, describing what each holds, who uses it and how the systems connect. Expect a diagram and two to four pages of description. Points go to a complete inventory, accurate descriptions of data and users, connections drawn and labeled, and some analysis of where the systems do not work together. Many sections reward identifying double entry or manual handoffs, since that is where errors and wasted time concentrate. Describe systems by function rather than product name. Cite a framework for viewing systems in context and any standard that governs a connection you describe.
How this HS420 Unit 2 example is built
The overview opens with a one-page diagram of eight boxes, solid arrows for interfaces and dashed arrows for human handoffs. A numbered section describes each system in turn: what it holds, who types into it and what it sends or receives. A section lists the four double-entry points, citing the national immunization messaging guide for the registry connection the clinic has not set up; the highlighted sentence links two of those points as one problem. A short section on who knows which systems reveals that one nurse alone handles ordering and temperature monitoring. The closing paragraph argues that the clinic's problems sit between systems and points to the process map in the next unit.
Reading the HS420 Unit 2 grading rubric
System overviews are typically scored on completeness, accuracy, the quality of the connections shown, analysis and presentation. Analysis often separates the strongest papers, because an inventory alone is description, while identifying double entry and single points of failure shows understanding. Completeness rewards including the small systems people forget, such as temperature monitoring. Accuracy covers what each system holds and who uses it. Connection credit goes to diagrams that distinguish interfaces from manual handoffs. Presentation includes a readable diagram, consistent descriptions and citations. A closing section that names where problems concentrate earns marks many students leave on the table. Marking which staff member depends on each system, as the overview does for the vaccine coordinator, is a small addition that graders often notice.
Common HS420 Unit 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them
A common shortfall is an overview that lists only the health record and the billing system, missing the registry, ordering and monitoring systems. Another is a diagram with arrows everywhere and no distinction between automatic and manual transfers. Some students describe product features from a vendor brochure instead of what the clinic actually uses. Others never identify a problem, so the overview leads nowhere. Naming employers or products can create privacy or permission problems. Studying a hospital department or a dental office instead? List the systems you know, and together they can be mapped until the handoffs that matter stand out. An overview that never says who types into each system misses half of what the unit asks.
Get an HS420 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
Some Unit 2 prompts describe a setting, and some leave the setting to the writer. Send either, the grading rubric and a template if one is set, and say how technical the audience is meant to be. Each system is mapped by what it holds, who uses it and where data crosses by hand. Turnaround 24-48h, first custom sample free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HS420 papers and BS in Health Science samples
- HS420 Unit 1: Health Record Readers Discussion Post
- HS420 Unit 3: Workflow Analysis
- HS420 Unit 4: Requirements List
- HS420 Unit 5: System Selection Comparison
- HS420 Unit 6: Data Quality Review
- HS420 Unit 7: Seminar Reflection
- HS420 Unit 8: Privacy and Access Memo
- HS420 Unit 9: Implementation and Adoption Plan
- HS420 Unit 10: Informatics Recommendation Report
- HS345 Unit 2: Descriptive Statistics Exercise
- HS450 Unit 2: Environmental Scan
- HS340 Unit 2: Rate Calculation Set
- HS460 Unit 2: Discussion Board Post
HS420 Unit 2 questions, answered
Is it acceptable to describe the systems at my workplace?
Generally yes, described by function rather than by product or employer name. A small clinic or a hospital department works well because the systems are few enough to cover properly. Avoid screenshots and anything drawn from a real record. Where you are unsure what a system connects to, an honest statement of the gap beats a guess.
How much should the overview say about interoperability standards?
Enough to explain a connection, no more. The example mentions that laboratory results and claims each travel in an agreed format and defines that idea in a sentence, because a manager needs to know agreement exists, not how a message is built. Later units, or a more technical course, carry the detail.
Why does the overview count retyped data?
Because duplicate entry is where the systems' boundaries cost time and cause errors, and the overview is the first place it can be seen. An insurance number typed twice is typed wrong sometimes. Counting those points now gives later workflow and data quality units somewhere concrete to start, so the example closes on them.
Where can I find a free HS420 Unit 2 sample paper?
The full Unit 2 overview is available here, naming eight systems in a composite pediatric clinic and four places where data is retyped.
What is a state immunization registry?
A population-based system run by a state or local health department that holds vaccine doses given to residents by many providers, so a child's complete history can be seen in one place.