Peachtree Heathcare Paper - Essay Example

Minimal time to implement the system is caused by increased instability of the system, which might affect quality of patient care (Glaser, 2001). The Peachtree HealthCare has two viable options to this challenge. This is either implementing the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) system or a Monolithic based system. The SOA system is flexible and its implementation takes place in stages in order to reduce the risk of failure. There is a potential deal to this system though new and unpredictable in the industry.

The Monolithic system is a full unification of the entire healthcare facilities into a single entity with multiple branches through standardization of the whole business. Four major commentaries exist concerning these two systems. These are George C. Halvorson (CEO), Monte Ford (CIO), Randy Heffner (service-oriented architecture) and John A. Kaster, a professor of medicine(Glaser, 2001). Personal opinion My opinion on overcoming these challenges posed by the IT infrastructure is that a clear assessment of the situation and analysis of an optimal solution should be considered.

Importantly, the business model of the hospital system, its strategies and the impact of the system to the organization should be viewed critically. Additionally, reliability, security of a new system, implementation and the process of service delivery should be considered. Evaluation of the available choices to Peachtree HealthCare and focusing on particular issues to its business and IT system may provide the best solution. The main specific issues that face Peachtree include the absence of standardization throughout the various locations and related problems associated with healthcare and standardization.

A business model and strategy will therefore dictate the requirements of the IT system. Hence, it’s importantto consider them first.Factors such as flexibility, scalability, cost and efficiency are vital evaluation criteria of choosing the viable IT system(Glaser, 2001). A monolithic system allows the implementation of standard procedures across hospitals with minimal chances of failure. The monolithic approach is not new compared to the SOA system hence its challenges, costs and to some level, its benefits are well known in the setting of a healthcare.

A monolithic system reduces the chances of failure by reducing the risk through sticking to its schedule and resisting change. Despite this, a poorly planned system is prone to fail and thus makes even the monolithic system to be risky. Use of a monolithic system reduces risk though it locks doctors into standardized procedures thereby decreasing the quality of care. Therefore, myopinion was that a monolithic system should be implemented to remedy the IT challenges faced by Peachtree. This is because SOA system will be extremely expensive to Peachtree(Glaser, 2001).

However, after reading the commentaries of the four professionals,I changed my opinion on various grounds. First, I recognized the main concern to be the resistance by the doctors regarding standardization and a new system as brought forward by John A. Kaster. He claims that the monolithic system will make surgery almost impossible while the SOA system will fail unless well planned.The use of an IT system