Finding Value While Planning a Statewide Health Information Exchange

Implementing a statewide health information exchange (HIE) provides the opportunity to explore the application of IS planning methods to complex inter-organizational systems (IOS). This study describes the HIE planning process followed by one state. The traditional planning steps recommended by the U.S. federal government did not compel project stakeholders to develop a sustainable business value proposition for the system. Unlike traditional project planning methods, planning a complex, relatively undefined IOS such as a health information exchange may require that IT professionals go beyond traditional planning activities and more actively facilitate definition of possible system value. In addition, the results show that technology should be considered earlier in the planning process, underscoring the need to anticipate the impact of IT architecture on the resulting system capabilities and value.