Critical Factors for the Creation of Learning Healthcare Organizations

Abstract

The need to transform the U.S. healthcare system became clear during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Katrina was not an unexpected disaster nor was it an exceptionally large event. And yet in the wake of Katrina the loss of life was tragic and emergency health care following the storm was severely hampered by the lack of paper health records that had been washed away or ruined. What is required is a transformation of the current health system to an intelligent health system that maximizes technology and utilizes valuable knowledge assets. To effect such a change healthcare organizations must become learning organizations. The objective of this chapter is to provide a link between principles of organizational learning and knowledge management in order to build the learning healthcare organization. The major thrust of this approach is that the human side of the organization must lead knowledge management technology and not the other way around. The chapter distinguishes between organizational learning as a structure laying the foundation for learning, and the learning organization as a process for maintaining and perpetuating continuous improvement in the organization supported by incorporating a process-centric view of knowledge management (KM) realized through the establishment of a KM infrastructure. Moreover, it emphasizes that since health care is a knowledge intensive industry knowledge management is an integral component in building the learning healthcare organization.