Change Management in Health: The Case of the Introduction of an Integrated Information System in a Public Hospital

The management of change is a significant challenge for health units, which demands skills and readiness on the part of their administration. The introduction of an integrated information system in a public hospital to provide the ability to assess the services offered necessitates the conduct of a well designed organizational analysis. This can be made using the diagnostic congruence model of Nadler and Tushman, which treats the organization and the changes as a dynamic and interdependent system. Four alternative choices with respect to change are presented here, pointing out their relative merits and drawbacks. The preferred alternative is that of “reformation” and the resources necessary for its implementation are delineated. The effective management of change requires determination of the appropriate goals, definition of the opportunities arising from the development of this system and recording of the stages of implementation. Through this analysis, the importance of the human factor is apparent, and the need for its immediate involvement is imperative. Finally, this analysis of organizational change concludes with presentation of the issues that the hospital administration needs to assess and the specific areas of focus to be defined in order for the effectiveness of the integrated information system to be monitored.

Category: Volume 50, N 4
Hits: 436 Hits
Created Date: 15-12-2011
Authors: Ioannis Markovits , Sofia Monastiridou