Sustainability and Stewardship in the Healthcare Setting

In a blog post, D’arcy Norman (2017) reflects on the lessons learned in designing Audio Visual (AV) systems at the University of Calgary’s Taylor Institute (TI). The author described the TI building as a “marvel of architecture, design and technology” and a source of inspiration for all who use it. For example, the first floor of the building had high ceilings, glass walls, and retractable walls that could fold into the ceiling to combine different studios to create larger spaces. A key design principle used to design this space at every level was “Transparency and flexibility.” However, due to this flexibility and various uses of the same space, they could not install static displays and searched for something mobile that could move quickly when the space layout was changed. The solution they implemented consists of 33, 50″ Panasonic Touch Displays Mounted to stands on Wheels called “Collaboration carts.” The benefit of these carts was that they were easy to move, and students could quickly connect their devices to them and share their screens for collaborative work. One issue that D’arcy Norman experienced was that the computer that controls these carts was on a different floor in the server room. Therefore, if one display was down, they had to check 15 different items and make multiple trips back and forth to the computer room to try to reboot and fix that problem. The author also shared the need to replace and upgrade systems yearly to stay abreast of new technologies. However, replacing equipment is costly, and planning requires initial capital and additional funds each year to replace and fix the equipment. In addition, day-to-day support and stewardship were essential in ensuring these systems were functional for students.

Sustainability and stewardship are also essential in the healthcare setting when implementing new systems and procedures. For example, one of the most significant change management projects I participated in was implementing a new Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, Epic, at the regional hospital. One of the most challenging aspects of implementing the Epic system was ensuring the long-term viability of the new technology. This included ensuring that the technology was robust and reliable and that the hospital had the resources and infrastructure to support the system in the future. It also included investing in staff training, developing processes to support the use of technology, and ensuring the hospital had adequate IT support. Equipment that malfunctions regularly and requires extensive effort to fix, such as “Collaboration carts” in the TI institute, would not work in the healthcare setting. Reliable equipment, which is quick to fix if needed, is essential in a healthcare setting to ensure patient care is not affected at any time and systems run smoothly to provide prompt and efficient healthcare services to all patients.

Reference:

Norman, D. (2017, March 11). Lessons learned: AV systems design in the Taylor Institute. D’Arcy Norman. https://darcynorman.net/2017/03/11/lessons-learned-av-systems-design-in-the-taylor-institute/

By: Shazia Khokhar

29 thoughts on “Sustainability and Stewardship in the Healthcare Setting

  1. Hi Shazia,

    Thank you for bringing up the importance of sustainability and stewardship in the DL environment. I also think that they shouldn’t be weighted lightly in the technology projects. In my context, the focus on the initial and implementation phases is usually higher than the close out phase. However, I do think they’re equally important. The cost of sustainability and stewardship could increase significantly if the new technology is not reliable in the long term. Thanks for sharing!

    Megan

  2. Hi Shazia,
    Interesting perspective on the use of technology from the healthcare setting. I agree that tech needs to be top-notch in this field because of the impact its failure could have on human life. Coincidentally, a few weeks ago, our provincial health services had a major tech system failure – the entire patient care system went down for almost a full day. I do not work on the front lines, so I don’t have a lot of information about the impact on patients, but I do know, based on the mass emails that were sent out, that this created a huge problem. Thankfully, the tech team resolved the issue and had things back up and running by the end of the day, but it is a good reminder that we should never take what tech offers us for granted and should always plan for its failure so we can react quickly to minimize the impact. Having adequate IT staff, as you mention, is also so important. Thanks for sharing 🙂

  3. Thanks Shazia for sharing your insights of implementing a change in your setting. As both Leah and Megan noted – reliability is that much more important in certain settings where the consequences for a failure are so great. I can imagine a huge system failure would be catastrophic. I once had our main course space (not at RRU) go down, and because we were not on the main system (which also went down), it took about 5 days to get it back. We didn’t have a back up of the course – so it was very challenging to even keep everyone on track by emailing out resources. You make such a good point about having a back-up – and this is definitely something to consider with implementing new technologies (or alternatives if things don’t go well). Sustainability is also something that is often overlooked – and ensuring longevity should be one aspect of decision-making as that front-end investment (in training, time, other resources) is significant.

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