I didn't name this blog The Healthcare Information Technology Blog because focusing on technology, especially in the backwards arena of American healthcare, is too limiting. The fact is, all technology does is speed-up processes (or systems if you will), which is where the real opportunities for making improvements - and the real dangers of blind faith in automation - lie.
A lot people - myself included - believe that information technology can solve many of the problems facing our healthcare system and alleviate the crisis that we're in. However, as this Detroit News article illustrates, there's much more to be done than simply throwing PCs and PDAs at healthcare providers and telling them to join the rest of the working world in the 21st Century:
The Detroit Medical Center is on course to post a sizable profit for the first time in nearly a decade without financial assistance from the state -- the latest sign of a dramatic turnaround at the state's third largest health system...
The DMC made $9 million in the first half of 2005 after years of multimillion-dollar losses that threatened to shutter city hospitals and leave thousands of residents without care, according to filings with the state...
Duggan credits an increase in patients for much of the boost. DMC's well-publicized 29-minute guarantee for speedy emergency room service, as well as the recruitment of some high-profile specialists, has attracted patients, he said...
Walter Zuskan checked himself into DMC's Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital in Commerce because he was suffering this week with digestive problems. He used to go to Beaumont Hospital but didn't like the long waits...
Duggan now plans to turn his attention toward streamlining services in the operating rooms... (emphasis mine).
I'd be disingenuous if I didn't say that a healthy amount of cost-cutting, including layoffs, were involved in the DMC's turnaround. Still, you don't honor a 29-minute guarantee for ER services unless you've taken a long, hard look at what's actually going on in the emergency room and addressed shortcomings in the processes. Sometimes all that's required is simply automating what you have, but more often than not real improvement involves change, especially when you bring new technology to bear.