Abstract
The management of the information technology in a virtual medical service centre is subject to different requirements than the IT-management of a hospital resembling more a closed shop. Building a virtual centre calls for performance of an open shop principle, because the entire treatment chain cannot be mapped within one single institution, but requires integrated cooperation in order to manage a patient’s clinical pathway. Not only the spatial displacement, but also the unavoidable higher process orientation within a virtual cooperation deserves particular consideration. Additionally, the information management is challenged by the fact that the provision of relevant information in standardised form is an indispensable element of a virtual centre. In this context, the question about potential structural assembling, and organisational principles and elements of virtual medical service centres has to be answered in order to conclude on the basic requirements of data management and the appropriate solution approaches. This shall be presented partly using the example of the virtual oncological medical centre in Tyrol.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs): Operation and action instructions. They are there to make sure of the uniform, predictable, and integrated dealing of replaceable process individuals within the framework of working structures.
Process Integration: The process integration specifies the degree of the theoretical and actual commitment of processes within structures.
Directive: Operation and action recommendation with lower commitment than SOPs. Directives describe process paths which should be normally followed during the implementation of the process. Deviations in justified circumstances are allowed.
Guideline: Operation and action orientation with lower commitment that directives. Guidelines provide an operation framework in which the process should move. Deviations are not usually sanctioned.
Process Types: Definitions of certain process types. They are distinguishable from another by characteristics in the area of the degree of standardisation and the degree of integration.
Human Resource Information System (HRIS): Specifically developed software for Human Resource Management (HRM) (e.g., software packets which document, support, and make analysable the digitisable components of HRM). The Human Resource Administration System (HRAS) is an administration-specific subarea of HRIS.
Virtual Centre: Network of organisational commitments in order to reach cooperation without frontiers between different service units even if they are members of different legal organisations.
Effectiveness of Personnel Management: Based on a theoretical maximal quantitative output of an organisation unit in the area of personnel management in connection with costs and efficiency criteria, the effectiveness of personal management is calculated from the difference between the theoretical output and the actual output. It is measured by the different measurement criteria (process quality, data quality, process stability, cost—performance relation, frequency of errors, and so on).