New Thinking
When my son and I talked the other day about "green" technology, I suddenly realized the obvious: solar, wind and biofuel technologies are very old. (Think greenhouses, Don Quixote and wood heat). Is it possible to create new thinking with old technology?
The oft-repeated saying is "If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting." (Never mind "If you do what you used to do, you'll get what you used to get").
This simple epiphany is so fundamental to success--beginner's luck excluded--that I wondered if all of the nagging, persistent problems that seem to evolve past our ability to solve them do so because we expect them to change on their own.
What does this mean for the lab?
- It isn't paperless, it's how information technology can do what paper can't.
- It isn't gadgets, it's how handheld devices can identify patients in ways we can't.
- It isn't the information system, it's how data transformation can do what people can't.
In other words, new technology should suggest new thinking. It should enable a change in behavior, thus changing consequences.
For example, an office may use their information system for point-of-care order entry. These orders are printed, signed and faxed to the laboratory, which orders and runs the tests, prints results in the office and scans the requisition. The office staff then scans the paper reports into their system. All boast an "electronic" medical record, but it is in addition to paper. Providers wait longer for results--they call the lab more often--and the only "solution" is hiring more people to scan. It's for patient safety, after all.
Although it looks like an EMR, it's just a layer of technology. Because the process hasn't really changed, three things have happened: technology errors add to the old process errors (delays); expectations of the new technology fall short (hire more people); and new goals are invented (patient safety).
Has the failure of new technology changed your goals? Or does it suggest new thinking to help you reach your "unreachable" goals?