Deploying a new model for clinical information delivery

Information is a dynamic, potentially high-value resource that institutions can use to achieve superior performance. The myriad of advanced information technology projects, however, delivers to the institution's clinical and business processes unpredictable deluges of information objects, both paper and electronic, that may add little value to the processes. Also, because the information arrival is often a trigger for work steps, its illogical arrival may actually dilute productivity and quality. The article describes an information distribution engine in use at a large hospital in the southwestern United States that allows remotely located recipients to define individualized rules for controlling the subset of diverse information that they receive, select its transmission and display media, and choreograph the sequence and timing of its arrival at their desktops.