Reference no: EM132278376

Case Study Background Information The Leonard Williams Medical Center (LWMC) is a 240 bed, community acute care hospital operating in a small urban area in upstate New York. The medical center offers tertiary services and has a captive professional corporation, Williams Medical Services (WMS). WMS is a multispecialty group employing approximately fifty primary care and specialty physicians. WMS has its own board made up of representatives of the employed physicians. The WMS board nominations for members and officers are subject to the approval of the medical center board. The capital and operating budgets of WMS are reviewed and approved during the LWMC budget process. The WMS board is responsible for governing the day-to-day operations of the group. LWMC serves a population of approximately 215,000. There are five other hospitals in the region. One of these, aligned with a large clinic, is viewed as the primary competitor. In its most recent fiscal year, LWMC had an operating margin of 0.4 percent. LWMC has $40 million in investments and has a long-term debt to equity ratio of 25 percent. Information Systems Challenge LWMC has been very effective in its IT efforts. It was the first hospital in its region to have a clinical information system. Beside computing has been available on the inpatient units since the 1990s. The CIO and IT department are highly regarded. LWMC has received several industry recognitions for its efforts. The LWMC information systems steering committee recently approved the acquisition and implementation of a CPOE system. This decision followed a thorough analysis of organizational strategies, the efforts of other hospitals, and the vendor offerings. LWMC is poised to begin this major initiative. During a recent steering committee meeting, it was learned that the WMS physicians were anxious to acquire an electronic health record (EHR) system. Two years ago a rival physician group had purchased an EHR system. WMS, concerned about a competitive threat, obtained approval of $300,000 to acquire its own EHR. The rival group has since encountered serious difficulties with implementation ans has deinstalled the system. This troubled path caused WMS to slow down its effeorts. Now WMS has decided to return to its plans to implement a certified EHR. The physicians have begun to look at vendor offerings but have not involved the LWMC CIO and IT staff. The physicians have ignored the CIO's technical and integration advice and requirements during their EHR search. The CEO is concerned about the EHR process and its disconnect from the medical center's IT plans.

Question 1. What is your assessment of this situation ? What are the physician group's possible reasons for deciding to proceed on an independent path?

Question 2. If you were the CEO, what steps would you like to bring the hospital and physician group IT plans back into alignment ? Should the EHR effort proceed or wait until the CPOE initiative is complete? Should you require that both systems come from the same vendor ? Explain your rationale ?

Question 3. The LWMC board is concerned that the physicians are being native about the challenge of EHR implementation , have established no measurable goals for the system, and have only weak incentives to make the implementation successful. How would you address these concerns?