From Business It Value to Public It Value – an Action Research Study of Healthcare in the Faroe Islands

Obtaining business value from IT is a recurring theme that has diffused into healthcare information systems (HIS) where stakeholders often question the value of IT investments. Having finished the implementation of an integrated HIS, the Faroese Health Service (FHS) has started discussions about getting value from their IT investment, and how to reap those benefits is the subject of this paper. In order to fulfil this objective an action research project was started in the autumn of 2010 consisting of three cycles: (1) setting the stage for benefit realisation, (2) benefit realisation in a pilot area, and (3) diffusion of benefit realisation to other areas. This paper reports on the first two action cycles. Consideration of the first cycle reveals that it is not possible to distinguish between working processes and HIS, and the benefit realisation in health care (a public organisation) has a much broader perspective than just financial value. Considering the second action cycle, specific key performance indicators (KPIs) were identified, and a baseline established for a stroke process (pilot area). The outcome is that public value in this case can be measured by the KPIs, classified as: (1) professional quality, (2) organisational quality, (3) patient perceived quality, and finally (4) employee perceived quality. None of the KPIs is a financial value.