Authors:
Noel Carroll
;
Ita Richardson
and
Marie Travers
Affiliation:
University of Limerick, Ireland
Keyword(s):
Change Management, Healthcare, Hospital, Kotter’s Model, Quality.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomedical Engineering
;
Evaluation and Use of Healthcare IT
;
Health Information Systems
;
Healthcare Management Systems
Abstract:
Changing an Information Technology (IT) system within any organisation is a difficult and complex
process. However, within the hospital setting, additional complexities make such change more difficult.
These complexities include the protection of patient safety and privacy, improving the quality of the patient
experience, protecting information and supporting the clinician in their medical requirements. Our research
indicates that uncovering the process of hospital IT change management is not documented – making it
difficult to build on evidence-based research and instill a ‘lessons learned’ approach in publicly funded
hospitals. We address this gap in this paper. Using qualitative research methods we present the results of
observations carried out in healthcare settings as well as twelve structured interviews with hospital staff. We
employ the Kotter Change Model as a lens to understand this change process. While benefiting from the
structure that Kotter’s model provides, w
e argue for the need to extend this model in an effort to capture the
various influences of healthcare IT-enabled innovation which will, in turn, enable much needed change
within hospitals. Building on our findings, we introduce a Healthcare IT Change Management Model (HIT-CMM).
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