Case Scenario: Prairie General Hospital
When you think about the significant changes that have occurred in people's lives over the past five decades, clearly the advances in medical science would be at the top of such a list. Diseases have been eradicated and medical procedures and devices have helped save thousands of lives. But do not be too quick to conclude that the health care industry is a model of innovation and efficiency."
Hospitals, in general, have one of the most archaic and costly operating systems of any group of large organizations. Nearly 95 percent of all hospitals currently use procedures and record-keeping systems that were implemented more than 50 years ago. Many doctors and technicians prefer to function the way they have always done. Individuals in this industry have been highly reluctant to accept and use new technologies.
Doctors and hospital administrators at Prairie General Hospital, however, refuse to be part of "the old guard." Consider the following incident that happened in the emergency room at Prairie General. A woman brought her middle-aged husband to the emergency room (ER). The patient, who was very overweight, was complaining of shortness of breath and dizziness. Although the patient claimed he was fine, his wife made him go to the hospital. Immediately the staff at Prairie General went to work. While nurses hooked the patient up to heart monitoring equipment and checked his vital signs, a resident wheeled over an emergency room cart, which contained a laptop computer. Logging in the patient's identification number, the ER doctor noticed that the patient had had an electrocardiogram (EKG) in the past year. By reviewing the past EKG records and comparing them with current heart monitoring results, the doctor determined the patient was in the middle of a heart attack. Within 10 minutes of seeing the patient, doctors had determined that he was suffering from a blocked artery. Clot-busting drugs were swiftly administered, and the patient was immediately taken to the cardiac lab, where an emergency angioplasty was performed to open up the clogged artery. Within a day, the patient was back on his feet and ready to go home. In most other hospitals, the patient might not have been so lucky!
Prairie General is unusual in the health care industry. This hospital is investing money in technology that enables it to provide better service at a lower cost. Through its sys. tem, called CareWeb, more than 1 million patient records are available. Each of these records contains all previous medical orders, such as lab test results and prescriptions, for every patient. When a patient comes to the hospital, that individual's health history is easily retrievable and can be used to assist in the current diagnosis.
What has been the effect of this technology change on Prairie General? The system is saving the hospital more than $1 million each year. It has reduced errors in patient care by more than 90 percent and reduced prescription er-fors and potential adverse drug interactions by more than 5 percent. Patient charts are now available in moments rather than hours or days. Patients are discharged more than 30 minutes faster than they were before CareWleb was implemented.
Cost savings, time savings, increased patient care, and saved lives all these benefits make you wonder why every hospital is not making such changes!
Discussion Question:
Q1. Describe the types of changes that have occurred at Prairie General in terms of structure, technology, and people. Cite examples.
Q2. Why do you think the medical profession resists changing to systems such as CareWeb? Explain.
Q3. Assume you were going to make a presentation to a group of hospital staff (doctors and administrators) on why they should invest in technology such as CareWeb. How would you attempt to overcome their resistance to change and their attitude about continuing to do what they have always done? Discuss.