Bethesda Healthcare Systems: physician information system

The Bethesda Healthcare Systems: Physician Information System case presents students with the opportunity to consider information systems from the viewpoint of a major healthcare provider. Bethesda Healthcare System (BHS) determined it had a strategic need to improve the communication process between the BHS and the doctors and among the doctors themselves. In the past few years BHS had begun working toward this goal by adopting a Physician Information System (PIS). However, further development on this system had come to a standstill until a decision could be made on the future direction of the PIS. To break this paralysis, BHS needs to make a choice among many alternatives. This case presents five possible alternatives and addresses many issues that affect the choice. Students are asked to help the Corporate VP of Strategy make a recommendation to BHS on which alternative to select. In doing this, they are faced with many issues that are not quantifiable. Thus the decision is not clear cut and allows the students to see the difficulty in making IT related decisions.