How Employee Suggestions Could Cure Technology Woes in Healthcare

Doctor and author Robert M. Wachter has a fascinating op-ed in last Sunday’s New York Times about the disappointment of technology in health care. He concludes while technology has finally made in-roads in improving health care procedures in America, it's incorporation has left a lot to be desired. In his conception, it's in a state of version 1.0.

Evidence seems to support his argument - A 2013 RAND survey of physicians found widespread dissatisfaction with electronic health record systems. Poor usability, time-consuming data entry, needless alerts, and poor work flows were among the problems noted by respondents.

Perhaps the most significant issue in this widespread disappointment is the removal of human connection. Wachter cites the story of the doctor fiddling with a laptop while meeting with a patient. The patient recounted, “I had seen him a few years ago and I liked him but this time was different. He asks me a question, and as soon as I begin to answer, his head is down in his laptop. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. He looks up at me to ask another question. As soon as I speak, again it’s tap-tap-tap-tap.”

How Technology Can Help

As an extremely information laden industry, healthcare can very much benefit from technological improvement. But to perform optimally, humanity should dictate how the technology is used and not the other way around. Technology should be about creating, organizing, and enhancing communication channels in an organization to support the free flow of information to the right people. Returning to pens and paper is not a realistic option but we don’t want doctors tapping on their tablets when they should be listening to patients.

In fact, the greatest resource in the healthcare industry is it’s workforce. As skilled professionals, healthcare workers know their job and what they need to do it. When given a channel to communicate those needs and suggestions for organizational improvement, the results can be enormous.

For example, Newton Medical of Kansas saved $1.7 million in one year as the result of putting in a comprehensive employee suggestion system. In one year, 121 ideas were suggested and a little more than half were implemented. Another hospital, Cambridge Memorial, saved even more - $3 million in one year after receiving 200 suggestions - through their employee suggestion program.

But the best example may be IU Health Goshen, a 123-bed hospital in Goshen, Indiana.

This hospital challenged its staff to come up with with a cost reduction initiative that ultimately saved the hospital $6.3 million in just one year. Best of all, the saving at Goshen was not achieved through wage reduction but rather by offering employees cash incentives to find ways to save money. Technology and systems that motivate employees with the carrot rather than threatening them with the stick can produce enormous dividends.

Hopefully hospitals will see the value and continue implementing technological solutions despite the growing pains. When technology serves to enable employees to feed suggestions up the value chain, it can be a tremendous tool.