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How can managers in the hospital in the home units help to balance technology and physician-patient knowledge?

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

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  • Gabriel Cepeda-Carrión
  • Juan Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro
  • Eva Martínez-caro
  • Stephen Eldridge
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Article numbermzr046
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/10/2011
<mark>Journal</mark>International Journal for Quality in Health Care
Issue number5
Volume23
Number of pages10
Pages (from-to)600-609
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Background: With the passing of time, knowledge like other resources can become obsolete. Thus, people in a healthcare system need to update their knowledge in order to keep pace with the ongoing changes in their operational environment. Information technology continually provides a great amount of new knowledge which can lead to healthcare professionals becoming overloaded with knowledge. This overloading can be alleviated by a process of unlearning which enables the professional to retain just the relevant and critical knowledge required to improve the quality of service provided by them. Objective: This paper shows some of the tools and methods that Hospital-in-the-Home Units (HHUs) have used to update the physician-patient knowledge and the technology knowledge of the HHUs' personnel. Design: A survey study was carried out in the HHU in Spanish health system in 2010. Setting: Fifty-five doctors and 62 nurses belonging to 44 HHUs. Interventions: None. Results: Three hypotheses are presented and supported, which suggest that technology and physician-patient knowledge is related to the unlearning context and the unlearning context impacts positively on the quality of health services provided. Conclusion: The key benefits of the unlearning context for the quality of service provided in HHUs are clear: it enables them to identify and replace poor practices and also avoids the reinvention of the wheel (e.g.: by minimizing unnecessary work caused by the use of poor methods) and it reduces costs through better productivity and efficiency (improving services to patients).