Management information systems in UK primary health care: The need for a strategy

摘要

The UK primary health care system is being reorganized to create an internal market for health services. This will only succeed if local family doctors (general practitioners) take on responsibilities for budgets and as purchasers of specialist services. According to auditing mechanisms the visible discharge of these responsibilities can only be done using computerized management information systems. This paper investigates the effects of rapid expansion of information systems in an organization without clear strategic direction.