Standardizing implementation of a surgical information system in Danish hospitals--a comparative study

Implementation of IT-systems in modern healthcare organizations is associated with large, complex, and expensive projects. Purchase of the system is costly, but resources used to implement the organizational changes that follow, can be extensive. In an attempt to reduce costs, and at the same time to provide a thorough basis for local implementation, Corporate IT in The Capital Region of Denmark developed a standardized system-specific implementation concept for use by the hospitals' local implementations of a Surgical Information system. The system has been implemented in five hospitals within the Capital Region. Through document analysis and interviews with the local project managers, we investigated the use and effectiveness of the standardized implementation concept across five hospitals involved. The study shows that total resource requirements and duration of projects are difficult to compare due to different constructions of the project organizations. We conclude that the implementation concept supports local IT-implementations, but parts of the concept are difficult to translate into practice, while other parts are directly operational.