McKinsey Quarterly released an assessment of IT leadership needs in turbulent economic times, which, despite the US government’s financial incentives, could be considered now. Looking at the traditional IT paradigm, MQ’s writers proffer that “the combination of functional productivity and business value creation” will be a competitive differentiator exploited by executives willing to innovate and divert from the typical “head-in-the-sand” C-Suite approach to IT.

More specifically, the report discusses Factory IT and Enabling IT. With the onset of Meaningful Use Stage 1 eligibility a month ago, and Stage 2 eligibility beginning in less than 13 months, Enabling IT seems better capable to deliver objectives to healthcare providers. According to McKinsey:

Enabling IT can help support an organization’s innovation culture. To work well, the model requires three components:

• Nimble, flexible, and focused work groups embedded in the business and responsible and accountable to both the business unit leader and CIO (in contrast to a highly standardized and structured organization).
• A more qualitative approach to measuring performance—focused on the IT team’s contribution to the business unit and its overall results—rather than enterprise-wide goals for costs or efficiency.
• Credible, deeply knowledgeable IT leaders and team members who are seen as an integral part of the functions and businesses they enable.

This sounds like essential HIT -- and also VCS – practices. Feel free to check out the full report here; then feel free to respond below. Even if EHR, HIE, and Meaningful Use eventually create a “standardized” patient record, the various, proprietary and  evolving HIT applications are going to require nimble championing. Right?