Innovation In Health Care Essay

Health care providers are under pressure to improve the safety and quality of the services offered to patients. Health care institutions are striving to cut on costs, reduce patient cycle times in hospitals, improve laboratory and post care services. Change and innovation do not fail because the new strategies and goals are inappropriate but because organizations lack proper implementation mechanisms.Innovation In Health Care Essay

Patient data security and privacy have been a challenge for many health institutions. Many institutions have concentrated on improving electronic health systems to enhance reconciliation, storage systems, drug administration, and recording systems among others. They are implemented to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety (Ciampa & Revels, 2013).

The Case of Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is dedicated to technology and the safety of patients. This has seen the institution achieve recognition in the United States. However, BWH experienced frequent and severe medical errors that occurred mostly during physician ordering and nursing administration stages.

This is what necessitated the introduction of technologies to address medication administration, verification, dispensing, and drug therapy monitoring. A team consisting of nurses, physicians, and pharmacists came together to study the existing workflow in the entire organization. They came up with a system that could be integrated into the existing one and minimize the changes that would be made (Fiumara, et al, n.d).

This strategy may have sounded convincing at the start. However, introducing the new system for employees to adopt would have facilitated the process. Instead, face to face workshops after the initial training would have been used such that the employees would have to fit into the new system rather than fitting the new system into their existing structure.

This could be enhanced through informal personalized assistance by the support teams (Ciampa & Revels, 2013). Once the pilot was done, it was realized that there was a need for multiple changes. Thus, implementation had to be halted. Unlike the existing system, the new system required extra fields for drug names, route, dose, frequency and order instructions.Innovation In Health Care Essay