Information management and technology strategy development in the UK's acute hospital sector: a maturity model perspective

To integrate systems to provide centralized control, successive UK governments have funded a large number of IT initiatives in the National Health Service (NHS) using external management consultants and systems developers. Many of these projects have failed to deliver. This paper demonstrates that the historical context of the NHS IM&T strategy and infrastructure, combined with the pace of technological change, places acute hospitals in an invidious position when attempting to respond effectively to key goals set by strategic policy-makers and argues that, to be successful, they must re-evaluate their implementation strategies.