Students' zone - A selection of Box Cases

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Box case 2.1

Australian Medical Care – changing the culture

Several categories of culture have an influence on innovation: national
culture, business culture and sometimes the culture of a profession. Medical
care is a major part of the service sector, with both public and private hospitals
in most countries. Hospitals have been relatively slow to adopt management
techniques, such as process flow analysis (which can be used to
optimize the speed at which a patient receives treatment) and quality
management. The use of quality management techniques boomed in manufacturing
in the 1980s and approaches such as zero defects (analysing product
manufacturing problems with the aim of eliminating them) were widely and
successfully used. Only now is formal quality management becoming widespread
in the healthcare industry.

The Australian Resource Centre for Healthcare Innovation supports the
implementation of effective and quality improvements in healthcare. It does
this through seminars, publishing reports, producing case studies, and
communicating new ideas to healthcare professionals. The Centre’s website
offers some interesting insights into the reasons that quality management has
been slow to be adopted in healthcare. Reports speak of a culture in the
medical profession that was reluctant to recognize mistakes, ‘adverse events’
were kept quiet, and learning from mistakes was impossible without ‘greater
openness’. Fortunately, the culture of the medical profession is now changing
and, worldwide, the quality of treatment is being improved not only by
improved drugs and medical technology but also through suitable use of
quality management techniques. Innovation is not possible without a culture
of openness.