Experiences Implementing a Decision Support System (DSS) Within a Management Plan

Abstract

In 1988, Stanford University School of Medicine, facing a period of rapid growth and increased complexity in the business of academic medicine, begun implementing a strategic plan for management of the School which called for decentralizing programmatic decisions and responsibilities to departments of the School. The School management realized that enhancing the competency, skills, and motivation of department business managers would be essential to the success of the plan, and, in addition, a sophisticated decision support system would be a necessary tool in the managers' arsenal. After a brief introduction to the plan, the paper discusses three major aspects of the implementation of the decision support system: technical implementation; data quality issues; and, integration of the technology into the workplace. Finally, it lays out current and future directions as influenced by the successes and failures of the project.