August 2016

IIFT Consulting Course: Final Examination

Please answer all three questions for the below mentioned case study. This
will be marked and evaluated
MSI is one of the largest full-service multispecialty hospital system headquartered in
Melbourne, Australia with a staff strength of over 10,000. It has recently acquired two entities
one is a hospice & palliative care unit (ElderCare) and the second is a specialized cardiac
care facility (HeartPlus) to enhance the gamut of medical services that it provides. The
hospital system now has 3 full service multi-specialty hospitals prior to the 2 acquisitions. The
organization has grown in-organically through M&A over the years. However, each
organization has been allowed to run as its own entity. At this time, all the five facilities are
running separately leading to a highly complicated management and reporting structure
along with lower than anticipated revenues and higher than anticipated costs.
MSI, HeartPlus and ElderCare also possess different compensation mechanisms for their staff.
While MSI and ElderCare and HeartPlus employ all of their staff and pay them salaries, 2 of
the other multi-specialty hospital staff members are paid based on a Fee-for-service model
and are essentially renting out the space in their premises.
Since the organization has grown in-organically, each organization has its own ERP, HIS and
multiple time & Attendance systems as well as various systems for linking Physician records
to the different HIS systems. Integration of these systems even after so many years of has not
happened.
The overall market is highly competitive. Each of the hospitals / service provider units have
multiple competitors within a few kilometers. However, most of the competitor facilities are
not part of any organized chain / provider system
In a recent discussion, the CFO (Chief Financial Officer), CMO (Chief Medical Officer) and the
CIO (Chief Information Officer) have come together to discuss the current revenue crunch and
cost increase which, if not dealt with immediately and effectively, threaten to disrupt the
overall operations of all entities. Last week, in a major development, the family of a recently
deceased patient has brought a lawsuit against the MSI. The patient who was being treated at
HeartPlus was brought to another facility in an emergency and died due to lack of proper care
coordination between the different facilities and physicians.
The CxOs have come to the conclusion that they need the services of a professional
consulting firm to understand and mitigate their problems.

Q1. What is / are the problem(s) that are being faced by MSI?

August 2016

Q2. As a consultant, what is the approach and timelines you would follow for this
engagement?
Q3. What would your final recommendations be?

SOLUTIONS
A1.

The problems faced by MSI, one of the largest full-service multi-specialty

hospital, are the typical problems of IT systems mismanagement faced by a lot of

large chain of hospitals. The problems are both internal and external to the hospital
system as such. Internal problems relate to the organizational structure since due to
growing in-organically, MIS had a lot of unintegrated organizations, each having its
own ERP systems, attendance systems. There were internal problems owing to the
employee compensation mechanism as it was not streamlined and integrated.
External problems consist of integration of all health care services offered by the
multiple entities that come under MSI. Some of the suggestions that MSI could
implement to solve its key issues are: Integrate healthcare systems within MSI, HeartPlus and ElderCare which are
currently organized as networks

Support concurrent and multi-centric clinical and administrative information

utilization and exchange
Facilitate the implementation of all healthcare networks using technological
advancement in systems structure and communications

August 2016
A2. Implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system, Hospital Information
System (HIS) and an ERP into a hospital is a long process. To ensure that the system is
deployed in a timely manner and used in a meaningful fashion, it is first necessary to
establish a realistic timetable for achieving objectives. The project will extend from
preliminary assessments of your current infrastructure to the live launch and beyond
to efforts to sustain the use of the system.

Immediate Attention (2-4 weeks)

Developing workflows for automating documentation and manual data entry
Assess current project management and plan implementation and training
Identify processes which need to be streamlined with respect to concurrent
processes involved in Hospital Information System and Health record System.
Discard redundant processes and establish single process
Medium Term Opportunities (2-4 months)
Establish a single organizational structure for all entities under MSI and
employee hospital staff on a single model
Develop real time HIS which will help in query resolution, target identification
and monitoring of target population
Develop an ergonomic GUI which is configurable to help user acceptance and
adoption across MSI, HeartPlus and ElderCare
Long Term Implementation (1-3 years)
EMR, ERP & HIS for providing tailored services to patients needs
Develop a secure information system which would assist inter-department
communication and reduce waiting time and delay in patient care
A3. New requirements and technological advances occurring in healthcare,
information systems and information technology have influenced the evolving role of
healthcare information systems and related technology. Relevant aspects (our
recommendations) that need to take place in the evolution of systems and technology
in order to appropriately support MSI, HeartPlus and ElderCare are: The need for integration of information systems within MSI, HeartPlus and
ElderCare which are currently organized as networks

August 2016
Dynamic changes in the required role of information systems, following changes
in the role and dynamics of all levels of healthcare delivery and management
Technological advancement in systems structure and communications, facilitating the
implementation of a single integrated healthcare network of MSI, HeartPlus and
ElderCare

Creating diverse organizational healthcare environment of information systems,

which can be adapted by multiple entities under MSI
NIKHIL GOEL(30C)