#23-4 LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City has a computer system that records all proc

Question

#23-4 LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City has a computer system that records all procedures performed on patients and all drugs administered. The computer system can track which surgeons are the best and which ones are the worst in terms of length of patient stays, complications, and death rates. They found that once a new quality-improvement program was imposed after an extensive study of past practices, nearly all the doctors improved. But some did not. The doctor in charge of the quality-improvement program said,

Explanation / Answer

LDS use of a centralized computer system to track physician performanceillustrates the trade-off between decision management and decision control. LDS is using the computer data base to assemble knowledge to assist in decision making. In particular, by studying past performance trends, they are able to change medical procedures to improve quality and cut costs. However, to assure the accuracy of the data and to prevent physicianssabotaging the system, LDS does not use the system for decision control. If they did, the head of quality improvement predicts the system would collapse. Over time, LDS may be able to begin putting more emphasis on using the data base for monitoring doctors. But this will only work as they begin to build more safeguards into the system to prevent inaccurate entry of information.

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