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Essay on Too Far Ahead of the IT Curve

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Executive Summary

Over the years Peachtree had grown from a single hospital to a regional network of 11 institutions. With over 4,000 employees and a million patients Peachtree's IT infrastructure has not kept up with their growth. The current IT system is not reliable, efficient and secure. The company mission is to provide "quality, consistency and continuity care across the entire network" delivered with "efficacy, economy and respect for patients and staff". In addition, unlike the healthcare industry which moved to standardized care, Peachtree believes its focus should be on the selective standardization. In order to achieve its objectives, Peachtree needs to overcome its failing IT infrastructure. This could be attained by …show more content…

Little risk of system failure since costs, challenges and benefits are known. Allows doctors to work together. Provides single set of systems and applications.

Cons: Requires more time to implement. More expensive: $500 mill + Redesign acquired facilities. Limit doctors' independence.

2. Move to SOA based system.

Pros: Allows for continues improvement. Provide opportunities to access, adjust, redesign reprioritize along the way. Quick. Flexible in $ ability to integrate new facilities. Allows replacement only of certain inefficient parts of the existing system. Provides a range of standardization choices.

Cons: Technology is untested in health care environment. Cost is undetermined. Benefits are uncertain. Risk is higher.

3. Make a full scale implementation of the new IT infrastructure.

Pros: If the project is successful it could help the company to achieve its business goals.

Cons: Cost could be substantial. Risk is high. Project is hard to manage and control.

4. Make an incremental implementation and replace only certain parts of the old system.

Pros: Minimizes risk. Makes project more flexible. Makes project easy to control. Allows the IT to shift priorities and be more efficient. System reliability is not compromised. Allows replacement only of the most inefficient parts of the existing system. Cheaper

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