Considerations for buying/building a DSS - Coursework Example

Considerations for buying/building a DSS There are certain factors that need to be considered when making the decision to build or buy Decision Support Systems (DSS) and these factors shall be explained in this short paper. The steps that are involved in selecting a DSS vendor and package and the reasons that it is important to integrate the DSS with current systems shall be elaborated in this paper. The management must ensure that the DSS that is to be built or bought would work effectively when it is used extensively in the hospital.

The hospital must make sure that they have the expertise that would help them in building a very good DSS. They must also make sure that they have a very strong background in operations research and management science as this would help in the successful management and operations of the DSS (Holsapple & Whinston, 1996). The management must also consider if the DSS would be used for large-scale or small-scale as this would determine the kind of DSS that should be implemented into their system.

Another major factor that is considered in building or buying a DSS is how easily the system would help to control the expenses of the hospital. In order to select a DSS vendor and package, the following steps must be followed: the database must be large enough to contain the necessary information that needs to stored in it, the model of the DSS must be in line with the state of the art technology and the user interface must be clear enough for the operators to see (Turban, 1995). The integration of the DSS with current systems is necessary in order to increase its effectiveness and to improve the quality of patient care.

The DSS can be evaluated by its ability to effectively improve the progress of work or workflow in a hospital. This can be done by measuring the efficacy of the DSS and assessing its value in improving the quality of work done in the hospital. The evaluation of DSS is done based on the purpose they serve as they serve different purposes. But, one universal yardstick that can be used in evaluating a DSS is its consistency in the area that it has been integrated. References Holsapple, C. W., & Whinston, A. B. (1996).

Decision Support Systems: A Knowledge-Based Approach. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, Inc. Turban, E. (1995). Decision Support and Expert Systems: Management Support Systems. (4th Ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.