TO: Management, Stakeholders & Employees of STARS Air Ambulance
FROM: Sharaz Khan, CIO
DATE: March 1, 2008
SUBJECT: Revamping Information Systems (IS) Unit

Today’s challenging healthcare environment demands an experienced organization that can deliver innovative service solutions, while operating on budget. We at Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society or STARS Air Ambulance service have the experience and expertise to meet these needs, making us the preferred choice for trauma and emergency services nationwide. After my inception as the CIO, I requested our employees and executives to join in an internal dialogue about important issues facing our organization. I’ve been buoyed by the thought and discussion we’ve heard and read over the past few weeks. Even though we are performing well, there are few areas of concern which I think needs to be addressed in order for our organization to perform better.
During my inquiry, I found that STARS needed to review its business and IS infrastructure. Information Systems (IS) never played a major role in any of STARS major operations and strategic planning, which has led to many organizational and operational issues. We need to understand that technology plays an important role in our day to day activities. We employ and leverage the use of information systems to communicate across the organization and also with our external partners. Although we are unable to make optimal use of the IS unit, we need to value the little innovation that IS brings to the organization. In order to bridge this gap between the IS Unit and the organizational activities, few of us from the IS unit analyzed our current IS systems, and initial investigations revealed glaring drawbacks in our organization. STARS needs to reorganize and restructure its entire IS unit. A major concern is that our organization does not have a proper organizational structure. We have various departments dealing with various sets of employees and functionalities, but they do not seem to have well defined roles, objectives and fail in coordinating activities with each other. This is leading to lots of confusion among the various entities involved with the organization. All the departments and employees will be given a clear set of rules and guidelines to make them understand their role within the organization. Each department would be appointed with an authoritative manager to take care of the departmental activities and finances. These managers would be in direct contact with all their departmental employees. Timely updates related to the department and its concerns must be given to the CEO, CFO and CIO of the organization. In addition, the organization needs to streamline the various functions and processes in the most optimal way possible. We need to remove overheads and blockades that restrict the free flow of information and interaction among the various departments. All the employees are expected to adhere to their departmental rules and regulations, and any kind of departmental transaction or activity would require proper directives from the departmental manager explaining the management as to how and why that particular activity is important to the department and the organization. Every employee would be given a job title and would be assigned to a particular department and project. All the appointed employees must work only for their particular department and projects, and anyone who is found to disregard these restrictions would have to face serious disciplinary action.
Another major drawback of our organization is the way the IS related activities are handled by each department. From now onwards, all the glitches and consultations related to technology and its systems would be handled only by the IS unit, and not by the external consultants or by the departments themselves. All the technological information, consultations and infrastructure required will now be provided by the IS unit, and all the technological consultations and work will be done in a formal manner by following all the required guidelines and procedures. We would be reviewing the need for contractual consultants on a quarterly basis, and steps would be taken to see that the workers are used optimally. Any department found to employ the services of an internal employee or an external consultant without prior notice or discussion with the IS unit would have to face serious consequences from the management. Proper training would be given to all the employees of the IS unit such that they are capable of handling all the activities related to technological implementation and services. This would help the organization in reducing the expenditure on external consultations and services. Recent findings revealed that lots of revenue is being spent by the departments on various consultation and services activities from external resources. There was no proper reason given nor a procedure followed while availing all these additional activities. This resulted in hurting the organization financially as we ended up spending lots of revenue on various unworthy services and activities.
From this juncture, it has been decided that the IS unit would be the point of contact for all such financial transactions and requests. The IS unit would hold the complete authority over the IS revenues related to all the departments of the organization. If any department needs any kind of service or consultation help, they need to raise a request with the IS unit, and it would be put through the required procedures before a decision is taken. The next main issue for the organization is the manner in which each department is initiating their own internal projects, procuring technological services and infrastructure without any prior approval from the management. In order to curb this issue, steps are being taken to setup a governance board which would assist the organization in aligning the business activities with IT strategies. This board will help the organization in overseeing the IT project approval requests and IT expenditures. If any department is in need of funding for its projects, the departmental manager should submit details regarding the particular proposal to the board and a decision would be communicated to the concerned department after a thorough review. Initially, this board would be headed by the CIO and the other executive members of the organization. This would help us in lowering additional costs for hiring staff. We have been making minor changes to our obsolete systems and somehow managed to stay afloat with the minimum resources available to us. Even though it is commendable that we were able to manage all the processes with such outdated systems, it is important to recognize the changes around us and start to inculcate the advancements for a stable and competitive future. We have decided to replace all the outdated systems and software with the current generation systems and software.
It is very important to have a stable and influential IS unit in the organization. It would help our organization to align the business activities and achieve operational effectiveness with resourceful technology. It would also be helpful in managing our databases by procuring all the related data and information from our various partners and entities. It would help us in communicating the required information between all our operational partners and entities during emergency situations. We would be able to supervise the usage and procurement of all the technological equipment and services by the organization. An efficient IS unit would help us in improving our operational services, and also in proper organization and management of our resources and business activities. The CEO understood the gravity of the situation and agreed to reorganize the entire Information Systems (IS) unit of the organization. The IS unit is going to be an autonomous department where all the decisions and guidelines are going to be framed by the CIO in consultation with the CEO of STARS. Performance and growth policies of the various units of the organization would be reviewed and announced during our quarterly reports. Efforts to develop and implement the short term and long term strategies of the organization are being devised.
We would be initiating the changes to the IS unit on a tight budget. We are going to lay the foundation for developing the emergency link centre which would help us in bolstering our operational activities. We request all the employees and departments to encourage and support us in our future endeavors. We need to integrate our goals and objectives, coordinate with each other and develop together in order to achieve success. All of the incredible support from the management, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make STARS the best in the business.

Attachments: STARS Organization Chart – STARS Technology Environment – STARS Financial Reports