Methodist Hospital Case Study

There were numerous management, organization and technology factors responsible for the systems problems at Methodist Hospital. Where management is concerned, information systems were planned without any user input so their was a lack of commitment for adopting them. Instead of insuring all departments had a uniform technology, management allowed a lack of planning to have frustrated department heads buy their own systems which were incompatible. Management also allowed the outdated technology to be maintained instead of replacing it with new technology. The organizational structure created problems for the systems used as Methodist as well. All the departments using the old system had no problem internally, but they were not connected with any other departments. There was no common database and this caused inefficiency like doctors not being able to use computers in their office to download a patient's records.

Technology was the biggest aspect of the problem with Methodist's information systems, not a lack of commitment or desire on their part to have an effective system. However, they spent money updating and maintaining and old system that was so outdated it created a backlog of five to seven months worth of information. Further, the mainframe system could only be accessed from terminals inside the hospital which made it inaccessible to doctors, patients and other interested parties. Only current informatio

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