Medical Technologies - Free Essay Sample

Introduction

Technology is believed to make work easier. Most hospitals and other facilities have incorporated technology in their undertakings to reduce errors and improve transparency. It is however surprising that that was never the case with Springfield General Hospital. The hospital used technology to help them minimize errors but instead, more errors were generated. We will try find out why it happened that way in the paper and later identify the remedies the company would have opted for.

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Reasons

This would have happened because of several reasons. A technology depends on what you feed it. For an example like a computer, what you key in, is what is given out. In cases where an error is made when typing the patient’s name, the same will be produced on the other screen of the person dispensing medicine. Since names are usually almost a like, another person goes home with the medication belonging to another person. The reason might have been an error in inputting therefore affecting the entire cycle to the output of the information.

The problem may also have occurred because technology drains the mind. As much as technology is known to make work easier, it is mostly time consuming and mind draining when it comes with feeding in information (Day et al.,2012). The person in charge of updating the medicine available in store and those not available, out of fatigue of long working hours, might have forgotten to update some out of stock drugs. This problem is what causes discontinuation failures. The CPOE may display a dosage that is not in stock and then the pharmacist will have no option but to give a slightly higher or lower dosage without the clinician’s consultation.

The other problem that may have occurred, leading to the development of more problems in the hospital might be lack of proper training for the staff. Before introduction of any new product line in a company, the staff should be given adequate training to make them conversant with the skills. Problems like patient confusion, as explained from the case study, included problems like small font. If proper training were provided to the staff, they would be familiar with the correct size of font to be used that will make the details more visible. Alternatively, the staff would have decided upon one font type and size that they are both sure is okay with them. So possibly, the staffs were not given enough training before implementation of the new computerized medical systems.

Source of Distraction

Lastly, technology is a major source of distraction. When one is using a computer, they are likely to be distracted by other stuffs on the internet. The human brain is so limited and a small distraction may cause a huge impact. After being caught up in watching some videos online, or listening to music, or whatever the person will be doing, it will definitely be hard for them to get back to serious business instantly. It is because of such destructions that a pharmacist at Springfield General Hospital might have ended up giving an incorrect prescription that they never intended to.

Change strategies are components that need to be put in place before organization changes their way of doing things. Initially, Springfield General Hospital used offline processes in their medication and later on opted to go for an automated medication process. They decided to incorporate technology in their methodologies. There exist few strategies they failed to look in to before making the changes. Such strategies include, employee involvement in decision making.

Decisions

It is crucial that before any decision of change is made in the company. All employees should be informed why the company wants to change the system. Employees if possible should be invited to share their suggestions on what they want introduced in the company. This way, they will be ready to learn and work with the new change introduced in their company (Woznicki et al.,2011). Employees at Springboard General Hospital should always be involved in any decision making in their place of work that affects them.

Another strategy to be put in place before implementing change is communicating why the change is necessary and removing all barriers that bring down the change. It is always easier to work with a system whose purpose is known to the user. Employees should therefore be told the usefulness of the change to them and to the company. It is also through communication that the employees are trained on the skills needed for the implementation of the change.

Lastly, an organization should always test the change process before adopting it. After all the strategies have been put in place, the change should be adopted in a small scope as a design test. Here, the company should monitor the change’s effectiveness in the company. If the change proves to be productive, it should be applied to a wider scope. If otherwise, another change should be introduced and this one dropped. Weiner (2020), states that organizational readiness is evaluated at this point. If the organization is ready for the change, they will be able to bring out its effectiveness in the change test process. If the hospital had put all these change implementation strategies into considerations, their new change would probably be more effective. Fewer errors would have occurred in the process and not as many errors as they did without strategy implementation.

If I were given the role of solving the problem at Springfield, I would still consider new technology. This time round I make use of some strategies that would ensure the change is effective. First, I would start by making use of the new technology by connecting online with other hospitals around an asking them how they do their businesses. As it is said in a book on the advantages of technology that the internet makes the world a global village (Braunovic and Konchits, 2017), I would maximize on consultations at the global village level. Alternatively, I will also Google and find out if there are people with similar problems like those at the hospital. I will also try to find out how they managed their problems.

After collecting information online and from other hospitals, I would look into what is the main cause of the problems at Springfield General Hospital. Here, I would welcome every staff member to write down what they think is the cause of the problems and what they think is the remedy of each problem. Researchers say that in order to deal with a problem, one must be aware of what causes the problem (Hrebiniak, 2013). It is easier finding a remedy to a problem whose cause is known. If the cause is physical, from the workers, I may consider firing them for negligence and carelessness and employing a new team. If they are not the cause, I will introduce the use of computerized systems to make work easier. This time round, I will only ensure I have offered relevant training to the staff and emphasize to them the need of having effective results in to the patients and to the hospital’s reputation as well.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is with great sorrow that the change strategy implemented in Springfield General Hospital did not work. I would like to challenge the entire management team for not following the change implementation strategies. Had they followed the strategies, the change would definitely work to their favor. The strategies always help to ensure the intended purpose of a process is achieved.

References

Braunovic, M., Myshkin, N. K., & Konchits, V. V. (2017). Electrical contacts: fundamentals, applications and technology. CRC press.

Day, A., Paquet, S., Scott, N., & Hambley, L. (2012). Perceived information and communication technology (ICT) demands on employee outcomes: The moderating effect of organizational ICT support. Journal of occupational health psychology, 17(4), 473.

Hrebiniak, L. G. (2013). Making strategy work: Leading effective execution and change. FT Press.

Weiner, B. J. (2020). A theory of organizational readiness for change. In Handbook on Implementation Science. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Woznicki, S. A., Nejadhashemi, A. P., & Smith, C. M. (2011). Assessing best management practice implementation strategies under climate change scenarios. Transactions of the ASABE, 54(1), 171-190.