AZ Sint-Augustinus is a regional general hospital with over 200 authorized acute hospital beds. Today the hospital has defined a number of priorities in terms of policy, including a new construction project, accreditation, possible collaborations with other specialised centres and hospitals as well as the further automation of the hospital.
In 2014 the hospital experienced a number of challenges in terms of IT. Because of the essential role of the IT strategy and organisation to further optimise the hospital, the management and medical board asked Hict to organize an audit with the overall objective to bring IT to the next level. The audit was designed to gain insight in the current IT policy, the functioning of the IT department and possible options for improvement.
The audit had to answer the following questions:
Based on a number of intensive workshops with a representative group of IT users (doctors, medical-technical services, support services, nursing and administration), policy bodies (executive committee and medical board) and interviews with IT staff, Hict gained insight into the current performance of the IT department.
The participants were interviewed on different topics. The focus was mainly on the strategy, policy, internal processes, service levels, projects, applications and integration. The more IT technical issues were excluded, such as security, systems & network and infrastructure.
After processing the workshops and interviews, the content was validated by the participants. Furthermore an observation of the IT department took place.
All the input from the workshops, interviews and observations was then processed in a SWOT analysis. This SWOT has been formulated based on the ‘organisational’ criteria of the quadrant method (EFQM).
The interactive approach based on workshops and interviews, led to valuable insights and a substantiated consultation. Also the combination with the observation of the ICT department gave a clear view into the policy and its functioning.
