Growth in Health Care Free Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: As technologies diffuse, why do some firms adopt them before others? What are the features of healthcare technologies that would make them more likely to be adopted most quickly? Most slowly? Answer: In current era, technology is one of the key ways towards innovation and change implementation. Adoption of new technology has been highlighted by practitioners or researchers as one of the key opportunity provider for business both at organizational and strategic levels. In this context, health care sector is also adopting several health care based technologies for improving the service qualities as well as patient outcomes. However, it has also been reviewed by several studies that there are significant barriers in regards to technology adoption in health care sector. Technology adoption or implementation is not without risks and obstacles.Cost of adopting these innovative technologies is a growing concern in the context of why organizations are struggling with the complexities of technology adoption decisions (Skinner and Staiger 2015). Although, several health care firms are adopting these technological tools for improving their performance efficiency and patient satisfaction, by resolving these barriers. Therefore, this essay will focus upon investigating the factors that are promoting and hindering health care firms to adopt technology aligning with technology diffusion. There are several factors, which are motivating different organizations to adopt technological tools, through technology diffusion. It has been suggested by several literatures that some organization adopts them prior to others, however, there are several factors, which motivates these organizations to adopt these technologies earlier. It is clear that these organizations consist less level of barriers of technology adaptation, which may be faced to higher extent by others organizations. For instance, profit principle is one of the key factors, which promote adoption of technology by some firms. New technology enables firms to earn higher profit than the firms, which have not adopted the technology (Chandra and Skinner 2012). Introduction of new technology would improve the patients outcomes significantly and would satisfy the service users as well as employees. Thus, the organization, focusing more on profit principle would attempt to adapt new technology prior to the other organiza tions, irrespective of the presence or absence of the factors, hindering the technology adaption. However, a comparison between the level of profit gained from the technology and the level of barriers present in the organizational context determines the fate of technology adoption by the organization (Olson et al. 2011). The second reason is information channel. The organization, having a strong and diverse information channels are usually observed to adapt technology faster than others having weak or less diverse information channel. Especially, social media plays a significant role in dispersing knowledge among people throughout a wide range of area. Moreover, various sources of information like social media, colleagues, peers, seniors, relatives or any other people in the community can inform about the pros and cons of adapting a new technology (Gagnon et al. 2012). Therefore, information channels play a significant role in influencing an organization to adopt a new technology in the organizational context. Another reason of adopting new technologies by the organizations faster than other is the economic sustainability. For instance, Lian et al. (2014) argued that adoption of new technologies too some extent contributes to increase organizational cost, small or new organizations, which has small infrastructure and financial back up, would not be able to bear the cost of adopting new technology, whereas a medium or large organization, which has potential financial structure and sustained revenue rate, would be able to bear the additional cost for new technology. Another reason, which can promote a firms technology adoption faster than the others, is the human resource and opportunity to explore resource. Adoption of new technology would lead to an organizational change, which needs to be communicated and supported by the employees and management. Thus, the organization needs to shape their human resource to accept the change positively. The organization having a structured and adaptive human resource, who are communicated well, would be able to adopt the change faster compared to an organization with unstructured human resource (Cresswell and Sheikh 2013). On the other hand, more opportunities present in the organizational context would make the environment favourable for the organization to adopt new technologies, by managing or eliminating the risk factors. Finally, leadership also plays a significant role in influencing the organization towards adopting technology faster than others. For instance, leaders, who follow transformational leadership are able to accept changes more quickly and are able to manage risks associated with the change adoption (Cresswell and Sheikh 2013). On the other hand, leaders following others leadership style may not have such skills to adopt changes accordingly. Although adaptation of health care technologies is quite challenging due to the presence of several barriers, there are several features presented by some of the technologies, which makes them more likely to be adapted by the health care firms (Mair et al. 2012). In the below section, the key characteristics that make a technology more attractive to the organizations are discussed: Cost effective- Cost is the key feature that makes a technology more likely to be adopted by both the firm as well as service users. Cost effective technology helps to manage the additional cost for the technology in the total operational cost by the organizational management. Profitable- A firm will always look for profit, whether the technology adoption will give the organization the opportunity to earn more profit from the profit gained prior the technology adoption or not. Identifies the real problem- Within the recent health care technology trends, it has been revealed that most of the technological tools are unable to hit the real problem, for which the technology has been adopted by the organization (Cresswell and Sheikh 2013). Therefore, it is necessary for the company to understand, whether the technology is potential for identifying the key problem, based on which it would be adopted. User friendly- It is a key feature for the organization. The organization need to adopt such technology that can be easily manageable by the technical staffs as well as general staffs, during emergency. However, more complex technologies are unlikely to be adopted, as it will always need a strong technological staff resource and shortage of technological staff is one of the key issues in health care (Putzer 2012). Easy to carry- technologies, which are portable, are more likely to be adopted by the organizations. For instance, the wireless technology is rapidly being adopted by the health care industry, it is making instruments portable and pocket friendly, which would be helpful to be adopted by the service users. Easy to communicate- It is another major feature that attracts health care facilities to adopt a technology. Integration of a technology and successful implementation of the technology needs the acceptance from the employees, for which the technology related awareness should be communicated within employees. However, communication would require significant knowledge regarding the technology and the more critical the technology communication is, the less that particular technology is being adopted by organizations (Peek et al. 2014). Has commercial potential- Commercial potentialis referred to the opportunity of commercialization of a technology. A new technology needs to thrive in a constantly changing and impulsive business environment in order to reach market. Therefore, a technology, which is able to sustain these kinds of environment, is selected to be adopted by most of the health care organizations faster compared to the other technologies (Dnnebeil et al. 2012). Need less training and education- Health care sector deals with the health and well being related issues of the care users, thus the quality of services needed to be harmless and effective to the service users. However, technologies which are more familiar with the organizational context are more readily accepted by the employees, as they need to adapt less skills and knowledge to use the technology compared to an entirely innovative technology, for which they would need a thorough training procedure (Putzer 2012). SMART- It is the ultimate criteria for any services or goals. It states that the technology, which is adopted by health care organizations readily should be specific for a purpose, should be measurable through health care activity, attainable through suitable service, reliable and time-specific. All of the above mentioned features make a technology more likely to be adopted by the health care organizations. The opposite features discussed above, for instance, high cost, low commercial potential, less user friendly and the implementation of the technology in the health care context, are not readily accepted by employees are the key factors, which hinder the technology adoption (Putzer 2012). A non-user friendly and expensive health care service would not be readily accepted by the health care organization, making the innovative technology adoption slower than other technologies, for gaining a positive fate in the health care organization. There are several factors, which are making the technology diffusion slower in the health care industry. For example, recent reports have reported that some technologies are not addressing the actual problem for which it is being adopted by the organization. For example, new health care technologies, like wristbands, sensors, headsets and smart clothes gains a wide range of data on anything from heart rhythms to blood pressure. However, there is very few evidences about those, wearing these gadgets have overcome abnormal heart rhythms or elevated blood pressures in significantly higher rate compared to those, who do not use it. On the other hand, physician finds it hard to manage all these data provided by these technologies and they presume that these are unlikely to make a significant clinical difference (Lian et al. 2014). There are several applications available in the health care sector, which claims to modify behaviour through alerts, real time feedback and reminders; however, very few of them have shown a proven and measurable success. The second factor that is making the technology diffusion slow in health care sector is very high cost of the technologies. Moreover, there is a discrepancy in the health care sector that no one wants to pay for the adoption of new technology. Patients, health care facilities, physicians, insurance companies want to experience the benefits and value of the new technology. However, every stakeholder believes that others should pay for it. On the other hand, the financial difficulties embedded in the health cares fee-for-service payment model, which indicates that technologies that will reduce patients visit or will cost lower for patients, would show reduced adoption rate by the physicians or health care organizations (Skinner and Staiger 2015). It is because, the payment model ensures financial rewards for doctors and hospitals regarding the service volume and cost they provide, instead of the quality of outcomes they achieve. Another factor that makes health care industry to adopt some significant technologies is that physicians are not always willing to reveal patients all medical information to them. For example, electronic health record is one of the most known health documentation system with proved efficiency. This technology helps to reveal all the health related information of a patient to them. However, many doctors believe that some of the documents needed to be kept out of patients reach, as these may be harmful if read. Sometime, doctors are using these health data on screen to educate patients for improving transparency, improving physician-patient relationship (Chandra and Skinner 2012). Organization or entrepreneurs, addressing these aspects important, are adopting these technologies faster than others. On the other hand, many recent reports are suggesting that for the average physician, it is tougher to enter patients data into an EHR, rather than keeping paper records. It is both time consuming and difficult for the physicians following traditional paper documentation, as it follows structured format and the applications prevents doctor to skip steps or leave out clinical details, which they can do in a paper documentation. Another factor is that, many physician find technology as impersonal (Putzer 2012). For example, with the introduction ofgene sequencingand other related medical information, doctors would not be able to meet unique medical requirements of individual patients without advanced IT systems. By adopting innovative technologies, the operational efficiency as well as the service qualities delivered by the organization is improved. The range of positive impacts of technology adoption include increased improved products and services; markets; reduced costs; substantial productivity gains; increased avenues for communications; innovative ways of doing business; bridging the digital divideand more effective and efficient business processes. Research suggested that health care sector is reluctant to adopt new technologies. The factors making a technology attractive or non-attractive to a health care organization has been demonstrated along with the positive and negative factors affecting the technology diffusion in health care industry. Reference Chandra, A. and Skinner, J., 2012. Technology growth and expenditure growth in health care.Journal of Economic Literature,50(3), pp.645-680. Cresswell, K. and Sheikh, A., 2013. Organizational issues in the implementation and adoption of health information technology innovations: an interpretative review.International journal of medical informatics,82(5), pp.e73-e86. Dnnebeil, S., Sunyaev, A., Blohm, I., Leimeister, J.M. and Krcmar, H., 2012. Determinants of physicians technology acceptance for e-health in ambulatory care.International journal of medical informatics,81(11), pp.746-760. Gagnon, M.P., Desmartis, M., Labrecque, M., Car, J., Pagliari, C., Pluye, P., Frmont, P., Gagnon, J., Tremblay, N. and Lgar, F., 2012. Systematic review of factors influencing the adoption of information and communication technologies by healthcare professionals.Journal of medical systems,36(1), pp.241-277. Lian, J.W., Yen, D.C. and Wang, Y.T., 2014. An exploratory study to understand the critical factors affecting the decision to adopt cloud computing in Taiwan hospital.International Journal of Information Management,34(1), pp.28-36. Mair, F.S., May, C., O'Donnell, C., Finch, T., Sullivan, F. and Murray, E., 2012. Factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of e-health systems: an explanatory systematic review.Bulletin of the World Health Organization,90(5), pp.357-364. Olson, K.E., OBrien, M.A., Rogers, W.A. and Charness, N., 2011. Diffusion of technology: frequency of use for younger and older adults.Ageing international,36(1), pp.123-145. Peek, S.T., Wouters, E.J., van Hoof, J., Luijkx, K.G., Boeije, H.R. and Vrijhoef, H.J., 2014. Factors influencing acceptance of technology for aging in place: a systematic review.International journal of medical informatics,83(4), pp.235-248. Putzer, G.J., 2012. Are physicians likely to adopt emerging mobile technologies? Attitudes and innovation factors affecting smartphone use in the Southeastern United States.Perspectives in health information management, p.1. Skinner, J. and Staiger, D., 2015. Technology diffusion and productivity growth in health care.Review of Economics and Statistics,97(5), pp.951-964.