MoH Business Case Guidelines for Investment in Information Technology
It is a Ministry requirement that any District Health Board IS related business case (with the exception of PACS) with a capital value of over $500,000 is submitted to the Ministry for consideration and approval.   IS business cases over $3m are also required to be signed off by the Minister of Health.

In recognising that this requirement was not backed up with a framework and guidelines, the Ministry contracted HealthMAP to draft guidelines for DHB IS business cases.   The creation of this framework involved 12 months of research and consultation with the National Capital Committee, senior Ministry and DHB representatives and the Office of the Auditor General.  Following the consultation period, HealthMAP compiled a set of guidelines that incorporated international best practice with the New Zealand health sector specific requirements.

The result is a Ministry of Health publication providing detailed guidelines and a framework for DHB’s to use when developing business cases for IS expenditure.  The document sets a benchmark for the structure and content of any IS business case. It also includes a set of evaluation criteria designed for DHB IS staff, executive management and Board members

National Non-admitted Patient Feasibility Study and Business Case
The outpatient (non-admitted patient) component of the health sector requires funding of approximately $1 billion per year and the Ministry of Health was concerned that there was no information collected about this activity.  HealthMAP was engaged by the Ministry of Health to determine the feasibility, costs and benefits of establishing a national collection of non-admitted patient data.  HealthMAP also made recommendations on the approach required to address information gaps in relation to the outpatient sector to improve service quality and service delivery effectiveness.

National Integrated Mental Health Information System Feasibility Study and Business Case
In 2004, the Ministry of Health initiated a project in support of the over-arching goal of National Mental Health Systems, ie to improve the knowledge of the health of mental health consumers in order to improve the mental health outcome of consumers.  HealthMAP was engaged to develop a business case for the Ministry.  The goals of the business case were twofold: firstly to determine the feasibility, costs and benefits of an integrated national Mental Health Information System; and secondly to make a recommendation on the implementation approach and the funding model required to establish an integrated National Mental Health system.

2005 CIO and NZHIS Stakeholder Survey
HealthMAP provided assistance to the New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS) in the preparation of their stakeholder survey. NZHIS was required to survey its stakeholders about its performance as the initial step in a quality improvement project.  The objectives of the survey were to provide the NZHIS with:
a baseline assessment of customer satisfaction
information on what the customers need/ want to support their decision making
assessment of the fit of national IS priorities vs local IS priorities
value of current products of NZHIS, eg publications, analysis services
identification of products NZHIS should develop

stocktake on sector capability

HealthMAP designed the stakeholder survey questionnaire and processed the survey results for NZHIS.

IS Business Case Reviews – Waikato DHB, Capital and Coast DHB, Canterbury DHB, Auckland DHB

As part of HealthMAP's lead role in the development of the IS Business Case Guidelines and following on from the successful completion of that project, the Ministry has contracted HealthMAP to review a number of the IS Business Cases presented to the Ministry for consideration. HealthMAP has reviewed these business cases using the guidelines and corresponding criteria and reported to the Ministry on the specifics of the business case in question.  These reviews have covered large multi-million dollar IS business cases from a number of district health boards and a range of systems.  In reviews involving business cases worth > $3m, a Health Report (report prepared for presentation to the Minister of Health) has also been completed by HealthMAP.

A HealthMAP report to the Ministry will cover:

a summary of the process undertaken to arrive at the business cases

a review of the options analysis

the outputs and signoff points

any gaps between the items in the draft IS Business Case framework and the DHB business case

any observations and recommended follow-up actions

Telemedicine Infrastructure Project
HealthMAP provided project management services to the Ministry of Health’s Telemedicine Infrastructure Project.  With the increased interest and use of telemedicine nationwide, the Ministry of Health has taken a role in national co-ordination and strategy development to ensure that telemedicine use continues to grow in a consistent and sensible fashion.  The Ministry’s aim is to avoid duplication of effort, equipment and scarce resources.  The Telemedicine Infrastructure Project, led by Megan Gibbs of HealthMAP, was established with the objectives of:
reviewing existing telemedicine use with the mental health setting
evaluating the effectiveness of this use
identifying any gaps
developing a national strategy for telemedicine development and use with New Zealand mental health services.

WAVE Project
The Ministry’s WAVE programme objective was to produce an information and technology plan for the New Zealand health sector.  The aim of this plan was to improve health outcomes through the effective use of information at the least cost.  The programme involved six key streams of activity:
Electronic health records
Data architecture
Privacy
Systems infrastructure
Investment
Organisation design

HealthMAP initially provided project management and resource for the Investment stream before taking a key role in the core programme team, drawing the analysis together and then working through the approvals and publication processes.  The Investment stream tasks included:
an assessment of the current state of NZ health IS investment in comparison with other countries
identification of key health IS investment drivers and measures nationally and internationally
a review of current New Zealand IS infrastructure and systems
identification of the likely financial benefits through a coherent, co-operative and strategic investment approach.

 

HealthMAP - Enabling Better Outcomes