Why Hospitals Fell Behind the Change Management Wave

This is not the 80/20 rulethey were spending more time on the computers than
Everyone under the sun in the management consultingthey were caring for the patients.
world seems to know that 80% of all change effortsInvolvement - a simple, yet miss ingredient
fail.  What I rarely hear ever is why is it that the 20%So, what happened?  Well, in the DMC case, they
succeed.  As a change management consultant whopaid Coopers & Lybrand 50M dollars for the system
began his career carrying around the bags of some ofthat is now in the toilet.  That's right.  They wasted
the best independent OD professionals on the planet, I50M dollars.  The problem was they hired a bunch of
have my opinions.  In this brief article, I will use thehot shot MBAs who came in and thought they knew
hospital industry as an example.everything.  They interviewed the nurses to squeeze
Why hospital change efforts failout of them the information they thought needed. 
My wife is on her 3rd hospital where they haveOnce they thought hey had enough, they cut off
implemented e-charting.  The first 2, the Detroitrelations with their focus group, then designed the
Medical Center and Garden City Hospital, bothsystem themselves.
scrapped their e-charting systems and went back toSounds pretty cool, huh?  Well, I bought the domain,
paper-pencil charting.  Why?  Because the consultingbut have not used it yet.  It is the answer, however. 
firms that built the systems used the 'expert model' toYou can easily use a mixture of electronic surveys,
build the systems.standing focus groups, committees, and a half dozen
If an MBA wants to interview you, hold on to yourother methods of involving nurses from the very
walletbeginning to the very end.
They included as FEW of the nurses as possibleIn conclusion, people support what they help create.  If
when building the system.  In the end, they built ayou involve everyone from start to finish, it is THEIR
system that was unworkable to the nurses becausebaby.  Nobody calls their own baby ugly.