Week 7

Strategy was our topic for the week.  Dave kept stressing to us that health IT strategy is probably the most complicated chapter in the textbook we are using.  I found this an interesting comment to make, but can certainly appreciate it.  IT strategy for a healthcare organization must be aligned with the strategic plan and the overarching goals of the organization.  In today's healthcare environment, successfully setting and implementing IT strategy is complicated because IT must support the human resources and clinical/non-clinical workflows, IT/IS investments are expensive, IT requires significant ongoing labor costs, technology continues to change year after year, and the business and technology models of the organization must be aligned.  In many situations, adding technology to a broken or bad process will only highlight and exacerbate the problems that exist, so it is important to define the function before one attempts to define or add on to the form.

I enjoyed the class activity, in which Larry and Sarah must make a decision about dealing with the requests from Placebo Domingo and Anne Nemia about replacing the old IV pumps with smart IV pumps.  Our groups talked about how senior leadership must stress the importance of thinking about strategy holistically from a higher level.  Strategic development is about setting the true north of the organization and the strategic goals to bring the organization closer to its vision.  It is important for us to think about the need for senior leadership to balance between different needs and priorities with a set budget.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's always a right answer?

Finally, I just want to add that I really appreciate the quote Dave shared with us on the Canvas module.  It definitely captures the essence of what strategy is at its core.  Additionally, the quote also helps us understand why having good strategy is important for an organization.

"Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do.
Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do."- Ksawery Tartakower