Health care information technology (IT) is an essential management tool in the modern delivery environment. Yet for many CEO's and other senior executives, finding easy-to-use resources that help bridge the gap between general management practices and the discipline of health care information systems technology has been a daunting challenge.

Here, the authors offer a variety of tools and techniques for planning and managing health care information systems. Most important, they review the 10 major applications of IT, including financial, managed care, and clinical systems, and identify eight critical factors for successfully managing an information systems department.