How JCAHO, WEDI, ANSI, HCFA, and Hillary Clinton will turn your systems upside down

JCAHO, WEDI, ANSI, HCFA, the Clinton Administration health care reform task force, and other local, state, and national organizations are having a major impact on the health care system. Health care providers will become part of larger health care organizations, such as accountable health plans (AHPs), to provide health care services under a managed care or contracted fee-for-service basis. Information systems that were designed under the old health care model will no longer be applicable to the new health care reform system. The new information systems will have to be patient-centered, operate under a managed care environment, and function to handle patients throughout the continuum of care across a multiple-provider organization. The new information system will require extensive network infrastructures operating at high speeds, integration of LANs and WANs across large geographic areas, sophisticated interfacing tools, consolidation of core patient data bases, and consolidation of the supporting IS infrastructure (applications, data centers, staff, etc.). The changes associated with the health care reform initiatives may, indeed, turn current information systems upside down.