engleski

A Proposal for Information System Development for Clinical and Hospital Centre Zagreb

KBC Zagreb is a major health institution in Croatia. Currently it disposes with a limited number of own IT staff and with a number of mostly isolated applications. Telemedicine is among such successful islands. However, even there the users have limited access to resources and it cannot be the final solution. Information system development has been recognised as indispensable. The problem how to proceed was considered. There is no doubt that computing equipment should be purchased and that a computer network should be spread to cover the workplaces where information is required and/or generated. It can facilitate office automation and exchange of information and documents in digital form. Temporarily, this can improve many functions, reduce material costs and waste of time. It would also diminish the somewhere still existent anxiety or reluctance regarding the computer usage. A serious problem is how to establish a structured integral information system. One possible way is to apply for a World Bank loan and buy an ERP, or ERP-like integral solution. The authors argue against such approach, having in mind high costs of such software, even higher costs of usually foreign and poor consultancy and a large gap between current level of organisation and the required organisation if such software is to be deployed. On the other hand, the development cannot be the duty of local IT staff. They are too few and there is an intrinsic problem with own IT staff. The more they develop, the more they will have to maintain and there is a proven reluctance to increase their number or raise their salaries. A semi-independent agency is proposed to be formed by local private companies having already certain expertise in this field. A spiral development model is proposed, while the payments to this firm should depend upon the end-users' satisfaction. The Government should provide steady financing instead of taking the loan and paying annuities. Even the World Bank has recently acknowledged that for success of a project "the project should be led by local experts, and adaptation to local conditions is needed" (Wolfensohn, Vjesnik, April 19, 2002, p 9).

information system; hospital

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