UV+General+Hospital

You are the CIO of the UV General Hospital in rural Ontario. It wants to be a leader in delivering healthcare quality to the communities it serves (patients, physicians, and its own employees) with a focus on efficiencies but not at the expense of patient safety. The executive team has developed solid processes around financial planning and budgeting, both capital and operating and is progressive at considering IT as an enabling technology. You have established a process by which you facilitate the organization in its IT-related decision making process.  UV General  Hospital  general information:  §  294 bed general medical/surgical hospital with 13 operating rooms. §  289 staffed beds; admissions - 14,000; outpatient visits - 200,000; births 3,000; operating budget - $173 million; payroll expense - $74 million; number of employees - 1,500. §  The following systems/modules are installed, CIS/EMR (Clinical Information System, with order entry by non-physicians and limited decision support, ADT and scheduling), Laboratory (LIS), Radiology (RIS), Pharmacy (RxIS). §  There are several off-site clinics and a medical staff of 270 affiliated physicians. §  The IT operating budget is 2.9% of the overall organization budget of which 40% represents IT employee costs and 60% represents all other IT operating expenses. §  The annual capital budget for UV General Hospital is $20 million, of which IT generally is awarded around 25% for justified projects. You have formed a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The purpose of TAC is to ensure that financial and human resources are spent on IT projects that are in alignment with the overall business plan of UV General Hospital and that the projects are implemented in the best chronological order providing the most operational benefit to the overall institution.  Each requested IT project that comes before the TAC involves two basic assessments. First, the department owner and/or sponsor of the requested IT project (with the assistance of the appropriate IT and financial staff) must submit the business case narrative and a financial pro-forma for the project. Using this information and a face-to-face meeting the TAC members then score the project. Projects scoring above the threshold for consideration are then carried forward for budgeting, prioritizing and approval by the UV Board of Directors.