Implementing IT Initiatives for a Healthcare Organization

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1. What is the most important critical success factor when implementing an IT initiative for a healthcare organization? Basically what factor or step in the process of implementation.

There is no consensus in the literature about which factor is the most critical to success as steps work together as a whole. However, when implementing an IT initiative for a healthcare organization, the most critical success factor could be building the infrastructure to support the IT initiation, which will be aimed at enhancing quality care using IT. For example, the manager needs to create a culture, organization and mechanisms that promote safe, high quality care and then enhance the health professions workforce through education and organization; and then implement the IT. (http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/techbarr.htm)

There are other critical factors as well, such as shared vision, executive leadership, decision involvement, expectation setting, communication process, project management, system access, communication process, workflow process and others (see extra reading below, which is an IT initiative in nursing).

Others would argue that the communication process drives the process which is most critical to success.

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EXTRA INFORMATION

ARTICLE

FindArticles > Nursing Economics > Sept, 2000 > Article > Print friendly
Critical Success Factors for Implementing a Clinical Information System

AS THE STRESS in health care magnifies and competition intensifies, the greatest challenge to the nursing profession is to prove its value. How do we ensure patients receive safe health care, the core of our mission as nurses, and that nurses are valued and in control of their practice? The answer lies in the data -- clinical data.

Professional nursing organizations are clamoring for ways to collect quantifiable data to demonstrate the value of nursing through clinical and patient-focused outcomes. The American Nurses Association is focused on data collection of nursing-sensitive quality indicators linking patient outcomes to nursing staffing. Nursing specialty organizations such as the Emergency Nurses Association are developing benchmark data sets to demonstrate clinical value and nursing best practices. Even the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations evaluates hospital performance based on the collection and analysis of aggregate data that support patient care and operations (Standard IM.8). All of these initiatives are based on access to clinical data.

The information system infrastructure of hospitals has historically been focused on the core transaction and financial systems. However, with data needs changing, backbone information systems are rapidly becoming oriented toward clinical needs. It is imperative that nurses have access to clinical data to define and validate their value to patient care. The challenge then, is how to implement clinical systems in an already chaotic environment? How do we as nurse leaders manage such a comprehensive organizational change while also trying to overcome ...