Title: Healthcare providers and IT-enabled organisational processes: the case of the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata of Verona

Authors: Alessandro Zardini; Cecilia Rossignoli; Armando Suppa; Francesca Ricciardi; Pier Paolo Benetollo

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, Via dell'Artigliere 19, 37129, Verona, Italy ' Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, Via dell'Artigliere 19, 37129, Verona, Italy ' Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, Via dell'Artigliere 19, 37129, Verona, Italy ' Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, Via dell'Artigliere 19, 37129, Verona, Italy ' Health Department, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata di Verona, Piazzale Aristide Stefani 1, 37126 Verona, Italy

Abstract: The use of information and communication technology (ICT) has become a primary lever of national and international public administration reform (Moon, 2002). The adoption and use of ICT by public organisations to facilitate the administration and delivery of citizen services is defined by the literature as 'e-government' (Grönlund, 2004a). An IT-enabled public administration and e-government are the pillars of the reforms launched by the more industrialised countries and this has led the Italian Government to assign priority to electronic healthcare (Bergamaschi et al., 2006), and in particular, to the creation of the electronic health record (longitudinal) or 'EHR'. This study investigates the implementation of a core element of the EHR, electronic medical records (EMRs), by the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata (Integrated NHS-University Hospital) of Verona, the deployment of which is expected to spur internal efficiency and pave the way for the development of the longitudinal EHR of the future. It then analyses the organisational impacts of EMRs on the healthcare provider's structure.

Keywords: new public management; NPM; information and communications technology; ICT; information technology; electronic medical records; EMRs; e-government; electronic health records; EHR; case study; electronic goventment; electronic healthcare; e-healthcare; healthcare technology; Italy; organisational impact.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHTM.2014.067130

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 2014 Vol.14 No.4, pp.272 - 289

Received: 21 Oct 2013
Accepted: 04 Jul 2014
Published online: 07 Feb 2015 *

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