Demand management in healthcare IT. Controlling IT demand to meet constrained IT resource supply

Healthcare is behind other industries in the ability to manage and control increasing demand for IT services, and to ensure that IT staff are available when and where needed. From everyday support requests to large capital projects, the IT department's ability to meet demand is limited. Organizational and IT leaders need to proactively address this issue and do a better job of predicting when services will be needed and whether appropriate resources will be available. This article describes the common issues that healthcare IT departments face in the efficient delivery of services as a result of factors such as budget constraints, skill sets and project dependencies. Best practices for controlling demand are discussed, including resource allocation, governance processes and a graphical analysis of forecasted vs. actual thresholds. Using specific healthcare provider examples, the article intends to provide IT management with an approach to predicting and controlling resource demand.