At 09:33 AM 1/04/2014, Bernard Robertson-Dunn you wrote: >Health information is too important to be left to technologists.
Yeah, I was going to say that, but thought better of it. ;-) Including human systems analysts is a must. It's not about the tools; it's about the design, which includes ALL the factors, not just the 'information', but also human behaviour and implementation planning. In regard to this project, the article doesn't provide enough detail as to who was directing it. If it was totally subcontracted, their systems people failed. If the health bureaucracy had their hands in it, then they missed out some critical aspects they should have known better, e.g. sending out the letters and expecting they would be understood. I place that goof at their feet as it is highly unlikely that the systems implementers, subcontractors or otherwise, would have been involved with sending letters. The one about not accounting for staff holidays was something BOTH sides (client and provider) should have found in any testing if they had done it properly. That was negligence or incompetence or being overwhelmed by a complex system that wasn't well analysed. What always gets me about these problems is that they are not new. Booking systems should be pretty standard by now. That they screwed this up tells me that Austin Health bought lowest bid tender and didn't consider some critical aspect, like if the staff from the provider had done a booking system before (unknown to us). Note: "the staff". Just because a company has done something in the past is not adequate information if the staff turnover is "common" or if the provider is subcontracting to a third party. QA is stuffed. And this relates to an even broader issue: outsourcing IT management and not having in-house expertise with corporate knowledge available. I don't know this to be the case at Austin, but you gotta wonder about the capabilities they had if this was a mess. More cost cutting?? I agree with your sentiment that health services (especially direct care provision) must have a higher threshold of quality assurance. Unfortunately, too many decision makers just don't understand that. Jan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia [email protected] Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how do you fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space. ~Margaret Atwood, writer _ __________________ _ _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
