Executive Summary

Over the years Peachtree had grown from a single hospital to a regional network of 11 institutions. With over 4,000 employees and a million patients Peachtree's IT infrastructure has not kept up with their growth. The current IT system is not reliable, efficient and secure. The company mission is to provide "quality, consistency and continuity care across the entire network" delivered with "efficacy, economy and respect for patients and staff". In addition, unlike the healthcare industry which moved to standardized care, Peachtree believes its focus should be on the selective standardization. In order to achieve its objectives, Peachtree needs to overcome its failing IT infrastructure. This could be attained by …show more content…

5. Implement fully standardized care.

Pros: Easier to support and control. Better integration of applications. Lower cost.

Cons: Could reduce the quality of care. Physicians may resist standardization.

6. Implement selective standardized care.

Pros: Allows to standardized certain areas of clinical treatment safely around the best practises and at the same time provides the physicians with flexibility to decide on the treatment which is best suited for the patient. Increases efficiency, provides for cost savings and higher quality products without compromising patient safety and the quality of the service.

Cons: Could increase cost. Could make difficult infrastructure improvements and coordination. Could lead to very complex system.

It's recommended that Peachtree implements the SOA based system since it best aligns with the company's business model, mission and goals. SOA based system provides a range of standardization choices, reliability, flexibility and cost efficiency. It also allows replacement of only certain inefficient parts of the existing system.
It is also recommended that Peachtree turns toward an incremental implementation of SOA. Peachtree should retain what still works and adds value to the company and replace only the most inefficient parts of the current system. This would be more cost efficient approach and would provide opportunities to adjust and redesign along the way. Also, by