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INFORMA TION
technology

I.T. Tip of the Month!
Leading Improvement Initiatives How a $50 Battery Backup

Can Save You Hundreds
ccording to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, “Leadership for
whole system improvement requires specific leadership tasks and the
Aknowledge of how to do them if leaders are to drive measured improve- BY BOB KRISTAL
ment across all conditions, all departments and all offices in a health care sys-
tem.” Your office is busy. Patients are waiting, people are on
Leading improvement in healthcare organizations requires clear direction, the phone making appointments or asking for docu-
specific goals and careful selection of teams to develop and implement the ments. You are in the middle of preparing a document or
actions required to achieve the goals. Leaders must measure and constantly e-mail and suddenly the power “blinks” just long enough
monitor outcomes to determine if progress is being made. This usually requires that your computer goes down. Your data is lost and
that a “performance scorecard” be developed to help everyone involved in the everything comes to a brief, but annoying halt. In the
improvement initiative to see the impact of their collective efforts. Leaders interim, old fashion paper can be used but then everyone
must also allocate sufficient financial and physical resources to implement the has to go back and re-enter everything. How much did
improvement plans while actively helping improvement teams overcome natu- that cost in time lost and aggravation? It may not sound
ral resistance to change. like much until you multiply it by everyone in your office
These leadership responsibilities may seem to be straightforward and rela- and that can add up to a lot of money in no time.
tively easy to fulfill. However, the difficulty rests in details such as providing BY BRIAN WILSON We suggest you purchase a battery backup known as
meaningful CQI education for staff, addressing critical concerns with proposed an UPS (Un-interruptible Power Supply). The UPS main-
action plans, ensuring meaningful engagement in the improvement process by tains power to critical loads during power outages since
key stakeholders, and ensuring that the investment of time and money to improve results is yielding a signifi- it has a battery as a secondary source of power and will
cant return in reduced cost, improved patient satisfaction or reduced turnover. prevent it from going down. Depending on how much
We sometimes assume that those we ask to lead improvement initiatives have the skills they need to be suc- equipment needs to be plugged in, the price can range
cessful and then become discouraged when improvement teams move too slowly or our investment in the from $49.95 and up for most PCs. Larger units are avail-
improvement initiative does not yield significant returns. Providing refresher training in basic CQI tools coupled able and, in our opinion, are mandatory for companies
with periodic coaching from a business improvement expert are inexpensive ways to ensure that you will get the on any type of multi-workstation network. They can be
results you are looking for. purchased at most electronic stores such as CompUSA,
Best Buy, or Circuit City. NIA Technologies also carries a
Brian Wilson, Vice President of the Healthcare division, The Doug Williams Group, complete line of them. Please call us at (954) 255-2003
can be reached by phone at (305) 598-9880 or via e-mail at brian@thedougwilliamsgroup.com. and we’ll make sure you get the correct size, deliver it,
To view services and success stories visit the firm’s web site at www.thedougwilliamsgroup.com. and set it up.
Bob Kristal is President of NIA Technologies.

6 December 2007 hospitalnews.org South Florida Hospital News