Denison Spotlight

New Case Study Explores How Organizational Culture Can Help Hospitals Implement CPOE

September 02, 2010

Since 2009, the Adventist Health System has embarked on a momentous change effort – to implement Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) systems in each of their 38 hospitals around the country. CPOE implementation represents one of the most sweeping changes hospitals and clinics have seen to their overall organizational systems and workflow in decades. The advantages of CPOE are many including: reducing errors from handwritten notes, preventing harmful drug interactions, improving the time between order and delivery to patient and overall improved quality to patients. Getting it right is critical, however, article after article reports the challenges and resistance hospitals are experiencing to implementing this system effectively.

Adventist Health System has found a process to help their hospitals effectively implement CPOE. Dr. Phillip A. Smith, MD and CMIO and his team of organizational development specialists begin each implementation by assessing the hospitals’ change readiness through the Denison Organizational Culture Survey. By understanding the organizational culture as a whole and addressing some of the issues within that culture, Smith, along with the hospitals leadership team, create an action plan that focuses on organizational challenges and lays the groundwork for a successful CPOE implementation. Read more about Smith’s process in action at one Adventist hospital in our latest Case Study: “Change Readiness at Adventist Health System: How Organizational Culture Can Help Hospitals Implement CPOE Successfully.”

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