Chapter 12 IT Alignment and Strategic Planning Learning Objectives To be able to understand the importance of an IT strategic plan. To review the components of the IT strategic plan. To be able to understand the processes for developing an IT strategy. To be able to discuss the challenges of developing an IT strategy. To describe the Gartner Hype Cycle recognizing the wide range of emerging technologies at various stages of maturity. Information technology (IT) investments serve to advance organizational performance. These investments should enable the organization to reduce costs, improve service, enhance the quality of care, and, in general, achieve its strategic objectives. The goal of IT alignment and strategic planning is to ensure a strong and clear relationship between IT investment decisions and the health care organization's overall strategies, goals, and objectives. For example, an organization's decision to invest in a new claims adjudication system should be the clear result of a goal of improving the effectiveness of its claims processing process. An organization's decision to implement a care coordination application should be a consequence of its population health management strategy. Developing a sound alignment can be very important for one simple reason—if you define the IT agenda incorrectly or even partially correctly, you run the risk that significant organizational resources will be misdirected; the resources will not be put to furthering strategically important areas. This risk has nothing to do with how well you execute the IT direction you choose. Being on time, on budget, and on specification is of little value to the organization if it is doing the wrong thing! IT Planning Objectives The IT strategic planning process has several objectives: To ensure that information technology plans and activities align with the plans and activities of the organization; in other words, the IT needs of each aspect of organizational strategy are clear, and the portfolio of IT plans and activities can be mapped to organizational strategies and operational needs To ensure that the alignment is comprehensive; in other words, each aspect of strategy has been addressed from an IT perspective that recognizes not all aspects of strategy have an IT component, and not all components will be funded To identify non-IT organizational initiatives needed to ensure maximum leverage of the IT initiative (for example, process reengineering) To ensure that the organization has not missed a strategic IT opportunity, such as those that might result from new technologies To develop a tactical plan that details approved project descriptions, timetables, budgets, staffing plans, and plan risk factors To create a communication tool that can inform the organization of the IT initiatives that will and will not be undertaken To establish a political process that helps ensure the plan results have sufficient organizational support At the end of the alignment an ...

1. Chapter 12 IT Alignment and Strategic Planning Learning
Objectives To be able to understand the importance of an IT
strategic plan. To review the components of the IT strategic
plan. To be able to understand the processes for developing an
IT strategy. To be able to discuss the challenges of developing
an IT strategy. To describe the Gartner Hype Cycle recognizing
the wide range of emerging technologies at various stages of
maturity. Information technology (IT) investments serve to
advance organizational performance. These investments should
enable the organization to reduce costs, improve service,
enhance the quality of care, and, in general, achieve its strategic
objectives. The goal of IT alignment and strategic planning is to
ensure a strong and clear relationship between IT investment
decisions and the health care organization's overall strategies,
goals, and objectives. For example, an organization's decision
to invest in a new claims adjudication system should be the
clear result of a goal of improving the effectiveness of its
claims processing process. An organization's decision to
implement a care coordination application should be a
consequence of its population health management strategy.
Developing a sound alignment can be very important for one
simple reason—if you define the IT agenda incorrectly or even
partially correctly, you run the risk that significant
organizational resources will be misdirected; the resources will
not be put to furthering strategically important areas. This risk
has nothing to do with how well you execute the IT direction
you choose. Being on time, on budget, and on specification is of
little value to the organization if it is doing the wrong thing! IT
Planning Objectives The IT strategic planning process has
several objectives: To ensure that information technology plans
and activities align with the plans and activities of the
organization; in other words, the IT needs of each aspect of
organizational strategy are clear, and the portfolio of IT plans
and activities can be mapped to organizational strategies and

2. operational needs To ensure that the alignment is
comprehensive; in other words, each aspect of strategy has been
addressed from an IT perspective that recognizes not all aspects
of strategy have an IT component, and not all components will
be funded To identify non-IT organizational initiatives needed
to ensure maximum leverage of the IT initiative (for example,
process reengineering) To ensure that the organization has not
missed a strategic IT opportunity, such as those that might
result from new technologies To develop a tactical plan that
details approved project descriptions, timetables, budgets,
staffing plans, and plan risk factors To create a communication
tool that can inform the organization of the IT initiatives that
will and will not be undertaken To establish a political process
that helps ensure the plan results have sufficient organizational
support At the end of the alignment and strategic-planning
process, an organization should have an outline that at a high
level resembles Table 12.1. With this outline, leadership can see
the IT investments needed to advance each of the organization's
strategies. For example, the goal of improving the quality of
patient care may lead the organization to invest in databases to
measure and report quality, predictive algorithms to identify
patients at risk of readmission, and the EHR. Table 12.1 IT
initiatives linked to organizational goals Goal IT Initiatives
Research and education Research patient data registry Genetics
and genomics platform Grants management Patient care: quality
improvement Quality measurement databases Order entry
Electronic health record Patient care: sharing data across the
system Enterprise master person index Clinical data repository
Common infrastructure Patient care: non-acute services Nursing
documentation Transition of care Financial stability Revenue
system enhancements Payroll-personnel system Cost accounting
Chapter 14 Health IT Leadership Case Studies Faculty members
and others who teach health administration students are often in
search of case studies that can be used to help students apply
theory and concepts to real-life IT management situations,

3. encourage problem-solving and critical thinking, and foster
discussion and collaboration among students. This chapter
provides a compendium of case studies from a variety of health
care organizations and settings. It is intended to serve as a
supplement to the preceding chapters and as a resource to
faculty members and students. Many of these case studies were
originally written by working health care executives enrolled as
students in the doctoral program in health administration
offered at the Medical University of South Carolina. We wish to
acknowledge and thank these students for allowing us to share
their stories and experiences with you: Penney Burlingame
Randall Jones Barbara Chelton Catrin Jones-Nazar Stuart Fine
Ronald Kintz David Freed George Mikatarian David Gehant
Michael Moran Patricia Givens Lorie Shoemaker Shirley Harkey
Gary Wilde Victoria Harkins Most of the cases begin with
background information that includes a description of the
setting, the current information system (IS) challenge facing the
organization, and the factors that are felt to have contributed to
the current situation. (All real names and identifying
information have been changed from the original cases to
protect the identity of the individuals and organizations
involved.) Following each case is a set of recommended
discussion questions. To the extent possible, the cases are
organized by the corresponding chapter(s) to which they relate
(see Table 14.1). Table 14.1 List of cases and corresponding
chapters Title of Case Corresponding Chapter(s) Case 1:
Population Health Management in Action Chapter 4 Case 2:
Registries and Disease Management in the PCMH Chapter 4
Case 3: Implementing a Capacity Management Information
System Chapter 5 Case 4: Implementing a Telemedicine
Solution

4. Chapter 5 Case 5: Selecting an EHR for Dermatology Practice
Chapter 5 Case 6: Watson's Ambulatory EHR Transition
Chapter 5 Case 7: Concerns and Workarounds with a Clinical
Documentation System Chapter 6 Case 8: Conversion to an EHR
Messaging System Chapter 6 Case 9: Strategies for
Implementing CPOE Chapter 6 Case 10: Implementing a
Syndromic Surveillance System Chapters 6 and 12 Case 11:
Planning an EHR Implementation Chapters 6 and 12 Case 12:
Replacing a Practice Management System Chapters 6 and 13
Case 13: Implementing Tele-psychiatry in a Community
Hospital Emergency Department Chapters 6, 7, and 13 Case 14:
Assessing the Value and Impact of CPOE Chapter 7 Case 15:
Assessing the Value of Health IT Investment Chapter 7 Case 16:
The Admitting System Crashes Chapter 10 Case 17: Breaching
the Security of an Internet Patient Portal Chapter 10 Case 18:
The Decision to Develop an IT Strategic Plan Chapter 12 Case
19: Selection of a Patient Safety Strategy Chapter 12 Case 20:
Strategic IS Planning for the Hospital ED Chapter 12 Case 21:
Board Support for a Capital Project Chapters 12 and 13 We
hope you find the cases thought-provoking and useful in
applying the concepts covered in this book to what is happening
in health care organizations throughout our nation. We have
also included at the end of the chapter a listing of other
published cases and webinars that may be useful to you and
your students. Case 1: Population Health Management in Action

5. Although the integration of patient-centered medical homes and
accountable care organizations into the health system is still
emerging—as are best practices and key learnings from these
early efforts—there have been myriad examples demonstrating
encouraging returns and improvement in quality of care. The
Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative recently profiled
several organizations that have adopted patient health
management (PHM) tools and strategies to address the
preventive and chronic care needs of their patient populations.