The success of IS/IT projects in the healthcare sector: Stakeholders' perceptions

Abstract

Healthcare organisations must improve their business practices and internal procedures in order to answer the increasing demanding of health professionals and the general public for better information. Hospitals adopt a patient-centred care approach and invest massively in information systems and technology (IS/IT), in the hope that these investments will improve medical care and patient demands. From the point of view of public service, the focus of healthcare system is the patient, therefore any interventions should be based on their needs and expectations. It becomes more and more important that IS/IT investments support, not only short-term objectives, but also long-term benefits, in order to provide a proper service for organisations, professionals and end-users. The main objective of our research is to study how organisational maturity, enhanced by investments in IS/IT, project management and best practices, leads to successful projects in health system organisations. The Healthcare Data Platform is designed to be a health data sharing system, which facilitates the distribution of clinical information to the different agents that provide healthcare in the country. The rational of our model is that organisational maturity has a positive effect on project success, and that this success is also positively enhanced by the use of project management practices. We emphasise that this combination of approaches can increase the effectiveness of projects. Furthermore, it can also improve confidence that the results of investments will meet stakeholders' expectations, by realising benefits and by adding a perceived value to organisations.