Improving e-performance management in healthcare using intelligent IT solutions

Leading healthcare organizations are discovering the power of a performance management approach, driven by intelligent solutions (Hurst and Jee-Hughes 2001). Moreover, IT solution providers are nowadays developing and providing internet based electronic services (e-services) featuring various intelligent functions. This then necessitates the development of an e-performance management application to improve performance management efficiency in the healthcare area by using such intelligent e-services. Specifically, this chapter examines how a web based performance management application, will transform healthcare as hospitals strive to become more efficient in the way they manage their resources and deliver quality service. Through our proposed application, some services are being put into electronic form at an exponential rate with the result that information can be managed as never before. Such applications provide the possibility to engage clinical staff and patients and their families in decision-making, giving them greater responsibility for their own health. Thus, this chapter explores such technologies as business intelligence (BI) led realtime performance management, both as a concept and as a technology, and defines some of the associated knowledge driven health solutions followed by an e-performance management application.