eHealth in Canadian Hospitals: Variations on a Theme

Purpose and Objectives

The Branham study was primarily designed to provide insight into the ICT major spending patterns for Canadian hospitals. The intent was to delve beneath the often quoted “percent of operating budget spent on ICT” figures and to identify broad spending patterns. Specific objectives included:

• Identify and categorize the ICT infrastructure currently in place in Canadian hospitals.
• Identify and categorize near-term ICT spending plans for Canadian hospitals.
• Identify key trends that will impact how Canadian hospitals acquire and deploy ICT.
• Determine whether the services supported by the ICT infrastructure align with the needs of healthcare providers.
• Identify the critical success factors associated with healthcare ICT implementations.

Scope

This edition of the Branham study was initially focused on how ICT is used to support acute care delivery in Canadian hospitals. Branham elected this initial focus taking into consideration a number of factors, including:

• A large portion of most provincial healthcare budgets are devoted to acute care. For example, Manitoba estimates that it will spend approximately 40% of its $3.4B healthcare budget on acute care in the current fiscal year.
• Hospitals are “information intense” organizations for which the appropriate application of ICT can provide significant and, to date, largely unrealized benefits.

As the study progressed, it became apparent that the hospitals were not islands operating in isolation from each other or from other segments of the healthcare sector. Further, and equally important, it was also apparent that eHealth was becoming a major consideration in every province, with many provinces creating organizations with an explicit focus on eHealth. Hence, the focus of the study shifted slightly from “the use of ICT in Canadian hospitals” to “the current state of eHealth deployment in Canadian hospitals”. The major impact of this shift was that eHealth initiatives beyond the walls of a hospital that impacted a hospital were also considered as within the scope of the study.