As the contemporary environment takes shape
and hospitals became healthcare organizations
through vertical integration (Conrad, et aI., 1988),
the need to develop institution-wide information
systems for decision making has become paramount.
The increasingly competitive pressures have fostered new incentives for the development
of organizational strategies that reach far beyond
the traditional mission statement that hospitals
have long relied upon (Enthoven, 1988; Harrell
and Fors, 1986). As hospitals attempt to develop
innovative programs and make strategic decisions
about their future direction, the quality and
availability of information for decision-making has
continued to gain greater importance. The rapidly
changing environmental influences that have accompanied
the abundant introduction of assorted
1ST make the health care sector an important
arena for examining the strategic use of information
systems.