A bricolage perspective on healthcare information systems design: An improvisation model

Abstract

Pressured by escalating costs, continual demand for high quality, and the speed of technological advances, the need for change and improvisation has become a critical priority for the healthcare industry. Now society demands that healthcare providers offer better patient care through the careful use of information technologies. For that, practitioners are urged to expand the boundaries of innovative IS design strategies. Unfortunately, research on healthcare information systems (HIS) improvisation remains relatively underdeveloped. Thus, this study uses the organizational improvisation and bricolage theoretical lenses, from the perspective of a case study, to examine how strategic improvisation might give rise to fruitful HIS novel design performances. Theoretically, we provide an inductively derived strategic conceptual model of improvisation that couples with network, structure, and institutional bricolage to execute a 'resource-time-effort' model. This enables us to improvise a superior HIS that offers quality patient-centric healthcare delivery and a valuable improvisation model. Professionally, this study contributes three key insights for IS improvisation in the healthcare industry.