Health Information Management: Integrating Information Technology ...

STRATEGY, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION 139
frame for this vision should be something between three and five years: after all,
IT possibilities can change dramatically in such a period.
As argued in the previous chapter, the information strategy must be a
derivation of the organizational strategy, or, better still, an integral part of it.
That is to say, the information strategy should include a coordinated vision on
the care the health care organization provides, and on the supporting processes
that make this care possible. This vision should subsequently inform the
framework for positioning and testing individual IT activities. The need for such
a coordinated vision is particularly evident given a rough average of some 130
projects requested in a mid-sized health care organization, in the context of the
annual planning and control cycle.
Furthermore, the information strategy must provide a clear framework that
will support and structure the discussions within the organization on IT
expectations. Finally, the information strategy needs to be inspirational, and
should lead to support within the organization for its content. Figure 8.1
illustrates this.
DRAWING UP AND UPDATING THE INFORMATION
STRATEGY
Given the importance to the organization of information management, the
information strategy is drawn up at the request of the Board of Directors. Often a
special task force will be created to develop the information strategy document.
This task force should be chaired by the Board member responsible for the
information management portfolio, or, alternatively, by the institution’s
information manager. Given the importance of the information strategy document,
it is crucial that the task force has a chair positioned at a high level in the
institution’s management hierarchy. The task force should further comprise line
managers who are mandated by their peers to make strategic decisions on topics
that address departmental interests.
The initial writing of the information strategy document can easily take
between three and six months. Most of this time is spent on discussions with a
broad group of strategic and tactical managers in the organization. These
discussions are crucial to reach a mutual understanding and to align the
information strategy with the departmental and organizational strategy. (In
practice, this often implies a mutual adjustment of the organizational to the
information strategy and vice versa.) This time investment, however, will be
repaid through broad support for information management within the
organization.
A good working model for drawing up the information strategy is a small core
team within the task force that conducts interviews within the organization and
prepares the task force meetings. The task force meetings are held in the form of
workshops. One or more workshops are conducted per information strategy theme.
Three rules are important when drawing up the information strategy: