Partners HealthCare. Creating and managing an integrated delivery system.

Supporting the "integration" of an integrated delivery system is an exceptionally complex and difficult challenge. Lack of organizational clarity about integration strategies and value, political challenges in effecting integration, the idiosyncratic and evolutionary nature of integration, and the technical challenges of integrating heterogeneous technologies all contribute to the scale of the challenge. Information systems integration strategies and tactics should be guided by overall concepts that frame the organization's understanding of the nature of integration. Effort must be directed to working with IDS leadership to define the approach to specific classes of integration, e.g., clinical integration. And, as always, one should learn from the experiences of others. While it may be difficult to fully define the value of integration in an IDS, the IDS seems to be a permanent feature of the healthcare landscape. And the integration of the IDS has value, value that is often nuanced, intangible, and complicated. Hence, the efficient and effective application of information systems to further integration is a critical organizational undertaking.