We would like to call your attention on this good NPR episode about a hospital that tried to replace pagers with encrypted text messaging and failed.
So what happened? You might already be imagining the classical triad: slow adoption, cultural resistance, skyrocketing costs.
But no, this time NPR does the right thing and investigates for us the consequences of the early "success" of this digital innovation: flow of information and workflows were devastated by the sudden removal of attrition in communication, with the consequence that the very actions the digital tool wanted to improve, lost meaning within the organisation.
In essence: the encrypted texts meant the friction was so low to get a consultation that people started bombarding the on-call residents and they essentially stopped responding to the texts.
This kind of effects is something that anyone trying to introduce technology to healthcare should reflect upon (can we remind you the value chain maturity mapping toolkit?).
Success or failure is determined not by just sheer speed no matter where in your organisation, but by harmonising workflows, team designs, and organisational borders, to ensure information and speed serve your mission, and do not become an obstacle of their own. If you believe every barrier is a problem to attack, think again about the dams in The Netherlands.
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