Healthcare information systems outsourcing

Information systems (IS) outsourcing is a major decision for health care organizations. Analysis of outsourcing costs and benefits have to be made for the departmental or function-specific application of each system. Limited empirical studies have examined healthcare information managers preferences for IS outsourcing. In this paper we report findings from a national survey of more than 16,000 healthcare information managers in the United States, assessing preferences for outsourcing information systems. This included measures of: (1) IS functions most likely to be outsourced, (2) level of satisfaction with performance of healthcare information management (HIM) tasks, (3) factors influencing IS outsourcing decisions, (4) how a healthcare organization’s degree of computerized patient record adoption affects the preference for IS outsourcing, and (5) regional differences in outsourcing policies. Six factors were found to influence managers IS outsourcing decisions, including improved patient care, cost savings, regulations, competition, trained staff availability and space considerations. Implications of the findings for healthcare information management outsourcing are discussed. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.