Caregroup
Caregroup – Individual Case by Jess Møller Knudsen 1. List several strengths and weaknesses of Caregroup in its competitive environment at the time of the case.
A) Strengths:
- Merge of the hospitals improved economic results as they were able to lower the total costs
- Merge improved the bargaining power against HMOs
- Wide range of specialty services close to where the individuals lived or worked
B) Weaknesses:
- Operational coordination across the hospitals had turned out to be extremely difficult.
- High diversity of healthcare services makes it challenging to manage the business
2. List at least two strengths of the IT environment at Caregroup. List at least three weaknesses that led to the collapse.
A) Strengths:
- High complexity and storing detailed customer information
- MEDITECH – “State of the Art” IT system that link the individual IT systems – considered to be the not only best within healthcare, but in any industry.
- All applications were web enabled.
- New hardware – over a five-year period all desktops were replaced by new PCs. holding. B) Weaknesses:
- Cisco found that the network should be modernized – this did not happen.
- Only one employee had great knowledge about the IT network (network guru) and when he left his position this knowledge was lost.
- No formal policies for updating the IT system
- Insufficient back-up system
- No control of when old network components should be replaced.
3. Whom would you blame if you were a stockholder of Caregroup? Justify your choice.
In this case I believe that the CIO should be blamed for the collapse as he has the overall responsibility of the IT system. First of all I think that several of the issues that led to the collapse could have been prevented if the IT department had had a detailed risk analysis. The CIO should ensure that the risk analysis is conducted and updated frequently. Secondly, most of the issues listed as “lessons learned” appear to me as
A) Strengths:
- Merge of the hospitals improved economic results as they were able to lower the total costs
- Merge improved the bargaining power against HMOs
- Wide range of specialty services close to where the individuals lived or worked
B) Weaknesses:
- Operational coordination across the hospitals had turned out to be extremely difficult.
- High diversity of healthcare services makes it challenging to manage the business
2. List at least two strengths of the IT environment at Caregroup. List at least three weaknesses that led to the collapse.
A) Strengths:
- High complexity and storing detailed customer information
- MEDITECH – “State of the Art” IT system that link the individual IT systems – considered to be the not only best within healthcare, but in any industry.
- All applications were web enabled.
- New hardware – over a five-year period all desktops were replaced by new PCs. holding. B) Weaknesses:
- Cisco found that the network should be modernized – this did not happen.
- Only one employee had great knowledge about the IT network (network guru) and when he left his position this knowledge was lost.
- No formal policies for updating the IT system
- Insufficient back-up system
- No control of when old network components should be replaced.
3. Whom would you blame if you were a stockholder of Caregroup? Justify your choice.
In this case I believe that the CIO should be blamed for the collapse as he has the overall responsibility of the IT system. First of all I think that several of the issues that led to the collapse could have been prevented if the IT department had had a detailed risk analysis. The CIO should ensure that the risk analysis is conducted and updated frequently. Secondly, most of the issues listed as “lessons learned” appear to me as