Health information technology governance: A perspective on investment decision processes

Eman AbuKhousa, Nabeel Al-Qirim

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    Abstract

    Realizing value from IT investments continues to be a challenge for most healthcare organizations. IT governance (ITG) is envisaged to solve many of these challenges. ITG is the practice that establishes accountability framework for IT investments by allocating decision rights among major participants involved in IT decision processes. As ITG is relatively new in healthcare industry, it is expected that knowledge about how healthcare organizations govern their IT decisions is limited. This research aims to extend this knowledge and to assist both researchers and professionals by providing insights on how IT decisions are made and governed in healthcare organizations (HOs). This research adopts case-study methodology to investigate IT governance in two distinctly different HOs. The research findings indicate that HOs implement ITG to achieve alignment between business objectives and IT. Both HOs set up a five-stage IT decision process to identify, evaluate and prioritize IT investment ideas. They also established generic committee-structures that clearly defined roles and decision authorities to govern such process. It is suggested here that ITG in HOs is heavily influenced by strategic priorities, organizational structure, governance experience and governmental initiatives. Effective ITG in HOs is challenged by IT alignment, policy government, involvement of healthcare executives, and lack of business metrics to justify and evaluate decisions. The research proposes recommendations to address these challenges. AbuKhousa & Al-Qirim

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationACIS 2012
    Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems
    Publication statusPublished - Dec 1 2012
    Event23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems, ACIS 2012 - Geelong, VIC, Australia
    Duration: Dec 3 2012Dec 5 2012

    Publication series

    NameACIS 2012 : Proceedings of the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems

    Other

    Other23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems, ACIS 2012
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    CityGeelong, VIC
    Period12/3/1212/5/12

    Keywords

    • IT decision process
    • IT governance
    • IT investment in healthcare

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Information Systems

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