René Fitterer

Towards assessing the networkability of health care providers: a maturity model approach

This paper presents a networkability maturity model as an approach to assess a health care organisation’s capacity with regards to being able to efficiently engage in business relationships. Continuously rising costs and increasingly restrained budgets for health care put pressure on the public health systems. A low division of labour and integration of processes along cross-organisational patient therapy provides large potential for improvements in efficiency and efficacy. It is the aim of the presented model to enable identification of potentials for improvements and respective measures to advance the ability to benefit from specialisation and collaboration along the value chain. The presented model is developed based on a classification of related state-of-the-art in maturity models to assess individual factors of networkability which are integrated to form an overall framework comprising six components and respective factors to be assessed. As networkability maturity addresses the interrelation of strategy, organisational design and information systems design, the paper adheres to requirements for effective design science research applied to the process of construction of a networkability maturity model applicable for health care providers. It therefore concludes with a case-based evaluation according to the design research literature and identification of further research.

A Taxonomy for Multi-Perspective Ex Ante Evaluation of the Value of Complementary Health Information Systems - Applying the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology

Healthcare providing organizations realize astonishing advancements in treatment procedures and medical technology that strongly impact health outcome. Despite recognition of potential contributions of health information systems (HIS) its adoption is comparably low. Existing design research artifacts for IS evaluation conceptualized for domains other than healthcare produce inadequate results due to an inappropriate set or balancing of value indicators. Their application hence results in unclear value of HIS, hindering investments. Given the socio-technical character of HIS, behaviorist research on acceptance can be considered a good theoretical foundation for designing methods for ex ante evaluations of IS in healthcare. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, six key variables are applied for a concept-driven literature research of criteria determining value of HIS. The resulting taxonomy contributes to the knowledge base a more detailed understanding of domain-specific HIS value indicators, which is tested for validity through a factor analysis.

Taxonomy for multi-perspective assessment of the value of health information systems

Healthcare-providing organisations realise astonishing advances in treatment procedures and medical technology that strongly impact health outcome. Despite recognition of potential contributions of Health Information Systems (HIS), their adoption is comparatively low. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, six key variables are applied for a concept-driven literature research of criteria determining value of HIS. The resulting taxonomy contributes to the knowledge base a more detailed understanding of domain-specific HIS value indicators, which is tested for validity through a factor analysis.

Enabling pervasive healthcare by means of event-driven service-oriented architectures The case of bed management in mid-sized to large-sized hospitals

Healthcare providing organizations have achieved considerable achievements in efficiency and effectiveness due to the use of Information Systems (IS) in the past. However, focus was generally targeted towards “managerial IS”, often resulting in additional efforts for doctors and nurses. This paper proposes event-driven service oriented architecture as a means for improving the convenience of care delivery, i.e. the satisfaction of care providers and patients, while at the same time improving performance of back-end processes. Based on the case of pervasive bed-management this paper exemplifies how IS can be integrated with smart devices to create value in such a specialized and inherently event-driven context as can be found in hospitals.

Component-Based Distributed Modeling of Collaborative Service Processes A Methodology for the Identification of Reference Process Building Blocks

Documenting complex and collaborative business processes is time-consuming and cost-intensive. Reference modeling offers compositional mechanisms which provide the ability to overcome such challenges by supporting component-oriented procedural structures. This paper describes a methodology for the domain-independent development of components, in the following called reference process building blocks (RPBBs), which can be used for distributed, i.e. asynchronous collaborative, modeling of complex and cross-departmental process structures. Initially, fundamental requirements and the structuring of RPBBs into activities and information objects are discussed. The RPBB generation procedure consisting of identification, evaluation and revision is then applied using the public sector as an example and the resulting RPBB catalogue is presented. Finally, formal and contentual evaluations are described which both confirm the applicability of the identified RPBBs for distributed modeling of complex, collaborative processes as well as the usability of the designed methodology.

Does a hospital’s IT architecture fit with its strategy? An approach to measure the alignment of health information technology

Hospitals as the main entities of healthcare need to respond to policy initiatives affecting in particular the quality, efficiency and costs of health service delivery as well as cope with continuous technological advancements. Considering the information intensive character of healthcare, a shift in a hospital’s business policy also induces potentials and pitfalls to the management of health information technology. In this sense, this paper strives to find an answer to the problem how to reduce misalignment of the business and IT architecture in hospitals. Following the design science research methodology, this paper emphasises the description of a method named H-BIT, which may support decision-makers in overcoming this alignment problem. Implications for healthcare practice are reported based on the experiences that were gained from the exemplary application of the method at a larger hospital.

Patientenidentifikation und Prozessorientierung – Problemstellung und Grundlagen

Die Aufgabe des Gesundheitswesens liegt in der „Gesamtheit des organisierten gesellschaftlichen Handelns als Antwort auf das Auftreten von Krankheit und Behinderung und zur Abwehr gesundheitlicher Gefahren“ (Schwartz u. Busse 2003, S. 519). Als zentraler Teil des Gesundheitswesens umfasst die Gesundheitsversorgung die Erbringung, Organisation, Finanzierung und Steuerung von Leistungen zur Heilung und Linderung von akuten Krankheiten, zur Gesundheitspravention oder zur dauerhaften Versorgung chronisch kranker Personen. Diese Leistungen werden von verschiedenen, hoch spezialisierten Berufsgruppen, den Wissenstragern des Gesundheitswesens, erbracht. Die Strukturen und Verfahren des Gesundheitswesens kombinieren in Prozessen und Organisationen die arztlichen Leistungen unterschiedlicher Disziplinen, beispielsweise Chirurgie oder Innerer Medizin, mit denen der Pflege, Physiotherapie etc. und den teilweise hoch spezialisierten Leistungen wie der Intensivpflege oder der Anasthesie sowie den medizinischen Querschnittsleistungen des Labors, der Pharmazie oder der Radiologie.

Information model-based configuration of situational methods – a foundation for design research applying situational method configuration

Design research as an information systems research paradigm aims for the construction and evaluation of innovative artifacts for relevant problems Design science reflects the design research process aiming to create standards for its rigor Design science produces guidelines and metrics for the construction and evaluation of artifacts In the field of method engineering design science established situational method engineering as a means to maintain rigor of artifacts, while at the same time integrating situation-specific adaptation mechanisms to increase applicability and thus improve relevance The design science knowledge base on situational method engineering however lacks a systematic integration between the semantics of a method and the semantics of the situations it is adapted for The work presented in this paper applies ontological meta modeling to address a better representation of the interdependencies between method elements and configuration rules in situational method configuration and demonstrates its exemplary application on an existing artifact.

Überblick technischer und konzeptioneller Grundlagen einer prozessorientierten Patientenidentifikation

Die vorherigen Artikel beleuchten im Detail verschiedene, primar fachliche Aspekte sowie solche Fragestellungen, die an der Schnittstelle zwischen Fach und IT (engl. IT/Business Alignment) stehen. Wie bereits die Diskussion der Implikationen fur die Systemlandschaft verdeutlicht, ergeben sich jedoch auch aus Sicht der IT-Architektur, d.h. der Gesamtheit bestehender Software- und Hardwarekomponenten sowie deren Vernetzung und Integration, relevante Herausforderungen. Das Ziel der folgenden Ausfuhrungen ist es, die Grundlage fur das Verstandnis technischer Herausforderungen zu legen. Deshalb geben die folgenden Abschnitte eine Ubersicht technischer Standards und Empfehlungen sowie Verweise auf entsprechende Quellen, deren Kenntnis fur die Fragestellung der prozessorientierten Patientenidentifikation als wichtig erachtet wird.