> The culture seems to be that individual departments get to decide their own software, based only on their needs.
I think that's a good thing by itself, various parts of a hospital are incredibly specialized and a one size fits all solution will never work. The alternative is some much higher level of management deciding what everyone buys.
HL7 needs to be scrapped though, it does nothing to achieve inter-operability, it's just there to make hospital managers think that it exists and keep smaller players out of the market.
I probably should have expanded on that a bit. In many cases the individual departments don't even communicate purchase intent to IT.
So things like "optional" integration modules go unpurchased. Contract terms don't address basic integration needs, etc.
Or, a specialized department has a software bake off, finds 3 solutions of equal value to them, and picks one at random. Not knowing it's the one least likely to fit in the larger picture.
Or, crossover software that serves more than one department is purchased by only one, with no discussion.
Basically, for whatever reason, healthcare is just more territorial and segregated than most other companies I've worked in.
I think that's a good thing by itself, various parts of a hospital are incredibly specialized and a one size fits all solution will never work. The alternative is some much higher level of management deciding what everyone buys.
HL7 needs to be scrapped though, it does nothing to achieve inter-operability, it's just there to make hospital managers think that it exists and keep smaller players out of the market.