Implicit Knowledge Assets in Healthcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Implicit Knowledge Assets in Healthcare - Essay Example In their drive towards improving efficiency and cutting cost, Knowledge Management has come as a concept with immense potential. The present case is of a Spine Unit in USA, which is in the environment as described above, and the paramount need is leveraging the potential of its two key assets, technology and knowledge in a manner which is able to enhance its efficiency and reduce costs. The Spine Care unit has rich knowledge assets comprising of surgeons and medical staffs from the disciplines of Neurology, Neuro-surgery, orthopedics, spine surgeons, psychologists, physical therapists and pathologists. It is a technology intensive unit with advanced technologies deployed at clinical side in the form of medical equipments and in the practice management side it has extensive IT facilities like Hospital Management Information System (HMIS).   The unit has well developed protocols based on data/information from NCQA, medical journals and its own systems. It is clear from the details th at the Spine Unit is not exploiting the potential of its implicit knowledge assets in a structured and strategic manner despite the fact that it has majority of KM technology in place.   The issue is to leverage the unit’s existing strength and deploy a full-fledged KM system. It is beyond doubt that knowledge and its management involves only one thing – people, all others are enablers. Larry Prusak says â€Å"Knowledge flows along existing pathways in organizations. If we want to understand how to improve the flow of knowledge., we need to understand those pathways.† [citation?] The KM solution for the Spine unit has to exploit the KM concept which creates Communities of Practice, enhances sharing and enriching knowledge, promotes networking and bonding among employees. We see a gap in people focused KM mechanisms, systems and technologies. Proposed solution The objective is to create a KM system comprising of compulsory elements and voluntary elements of KM systems. It is with the approach of leveraging and integrating the exiting assets and existing IT technology Compulsory elements: At every decision point viz. admission of patient, diagnosis, surgery, post operative care, people concerned will be required to refer to the KM system. For example while making a decision to admit the patient one will be required to access the system and system will â€Å"Push† relevant information i.e. patient history, probable diagnosis, past experiences, experts list to ensure the best decision in a quick manner. [