Victorian Auditor-General's Office

4 Outcomes and benefits

At a glance

Background

In order to understand the true value of a transformative ICT investment, there needs to be effective identification and monitoring of benefits after installation, including both expected and unexpected benefits.

Conclusion

The Department of Health (DH) has not established processes to oversee the performance of installed clinical ICT systems for HealthSMART and non-HealthSMART sites.

2 Planning and implementation

At a glance

Background

The original funding decision for the HealthSMART program was to implement the clinical ICT system at all major Victorian hospitals by 2007.

Conclusion

The Department of Health (DH) has failed to complete the expected implementation of clinical ICT systems across 19 Victorian health services. This is due to poor planning and inadequate understanding of the complex requirements of designing and implementing clinical ICT systems.

1 Background

1.1 Introduction

Timely and reliable patient information is fundamental to the effective planning, management and delivery of clinical healthcare. Advances in ICT are having a profound effect on healthcare, including raising expectations that patient information will be readily available to clinicians in electronic rather than paper formats.

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