Discussion: "IT Failure and Management's Role"

Please respond to the following:

From the e-Activity, specify the common IT failures that may occur within health care organizations. Next, speculate on one additional reason (not discussed in the text) why the failure rate of IT initiatives is surprisingly high. Justify your response.

Suggest one way to improve the implementation of a health information system project and minimize the risk of failure, and provide a rationale for your response. Next, discuss the key roles of the management, staff, and stakeholders for implementing a health information system project.

There are many common IT failures that occur within health care organizations. The first failure that may occur is that they do not meet the requirements or standards that are now implemented. This can include software development to non-conformance of business practices. Prior to starting a program for use, one must research what items are absolutely necessary.

Another failure would be if the staff/physicians of the health care organization were unable to become accustomed to the newer technology and understand it's use. I know that when we first got our EHR software at the ophthalmology practice, even the most computer savvy staff was a little overwhelmed. It took a long time to truly acclimate ourselves to what needed to be accomplished.

One reason that IT initiative failures are surprisingly high is because so much research and development has gone into the technology. Computers and electronic information has been out for quite some time that it seems it shouldn't be as difficult as many have concerns with. Training should be through and understood before it is released for use in the office.

To improve the implementation of a health information system, one must first ensure that it works properly and correctly for the organization that is going to use it. Not all challenges will be able to be seen ahead of time, but having the basic system understood will help thwart some problems.

The management's role in health information system is to ensure that all individuals of the organization know and understand the system. The managers also need certain access to reports and such to help run the practice efficiently. The staff has a similar role as management. They need to obtain the training they need and ask questions if they are stuck. Not understanding the system or its use will only have individuals running into delays. The stakeholders must have a different view of the software use. Since they have a financial stake in the program- they want to ensure its making revenue for the business.

Wager, K.A., Lee, F.W., & Glaser, J.P. (2013). Healthcare information systems: A practical approach for health care management (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Kaplan, B., Harris-Salamone, K., (2009), "Health IT Success and Failure".