Contextualist Inquiry into Hospital Revenue Cycle Transformation: Bridging Research and Practice

Abstract

Approximately a quarter of all US non-for-profit hospitals operate with negative margins. In this unsustainable situation, revenue cycle management (RCM), the business process which drives revenue collection and account receivable administration, becomes increasingly crucial for healthcare organizations. RCM is at the center of an incredibly complex network of external and internal links and its success chiefly depends on a smooth flow of timely, accurate information. While IS research increasingly focuses on the clinical potential of health information technologies (HITs), the adoption and diffusion of IT as an enabler of hospitals' administrative activities remains by and large an unexplored frontier. To advance the conversation on the administrative potential of HIT, we draw on Pettigrew's contextualist framework of organizational transformation inquiry. We review a diverse body of RCM academic literature and juxtapose the findings with the prevalent RCM discourse in practitioner publications to reveal the major themes and opportunities for future research.