SCMI: Hospital IT Development (B)

In early 2007, Shanghai Changning Maternity & Infant Health Institute (SCMI) experienced dissatisfaction with its IT system and poor relationships with its IT vendors. President Dr. MA Jun hired a consulting firm called Dorenfest to comprehensively assess its IT development and to provide solutions to these serious problems. Ten months later, Dorenfest formulated a final report after observing operational processes in every department and talking with front-line doctors and nurses, department heads, hospital management, and external vendors. Contrary to Dr. Ma’s perception, Dorenfest believed the IT development at SCMI was quite successful and that it was SCMI’s ambiguous operational processes, inexperienced management, and improper manner of working with external vendors that had caused the difficulties, not the attitude or capability of the vendors. Dorenfest suggested that SCMI improve its operation and information management capabilities, instead of looking to vendors to provide better service. These results frustrated everyone at SCMI. Dr. Ma had to evaluate the credibility and feasibility of this report, and determine a direction for the IT development at SCMI.