An enterprise technical architecture for the implementation of the South African National Health Insurance

Abstract

The South African National Health Insurance (NHI) faces challenges due to a lack of an enterprise technical architecture (ETA) solution, for the implementation. This study aims to propose an ETA, to enable and support the implementation of the South African ETA. The qualitative method was employed in the data collection. Actor-network theory (ANT) was applied as a lens to examine the data. The findings reveal several critical influencing factors, including readiness assessment, geographical locations of stakeholders; diversity of healthcare facilities; flexibility of technology solutions; and synchronization of processes and patients' data. The study highlights the need to provide governance for the technologies that influence the implementation of NHI. Based on the influencing factors, a framework was developed. The framework is intended to provide architectural governance (principles, standards, and policies), to efficiently and effectively, facilitate, support, and enable the implementation of the South African NHI.