Strategic and Financial Planning for Clinical Information Systems

Abstract

Information systems can comprise up to 30 % of a healthcare institution’s capital budget and 3 % of its yearly operating expenses. As the size of the organization grows, this expenditure can easily reach into the tens of millions of dollars. For this reason, clinical information systems require robust strategic and financial planning.Strategic planning starts with creating mission and vision statements, environmental scanning and evaluating assets, such as the application portfolio and technical architecture. The next step is to choose and initiate projects according to the software development lifecycle, including planning, design, implementation and support.Creating a solid business case requires understanding managerial accounting principles, such as: capital and operational budgets, investment appraisal, value determination and cost modeling.Ranking projects according to profitability uses metrics such as: Accounting rate of return; Payback period; Net Present Value; and Profitability index.