It is nearly impossible to go through a day without using or being exposed to technology. People all over the world are using it on a daily basis whether it be for personal use or for business purposes. And while technology may often get a bad rap, in the business world it has allowed for more efficient operations, it has helped in developing systems for quality control, and continues to constantly improve day-to-day business activities.
HemaTerra Technologies is an operational software systems provider that allows organizations a new way to manage quality. HemaTerra Technologies strictly deals with biological products, most commonly or popularly known products are blood, platelets, and plasma. HemaTerra lau
nched its web-based Quality Control management system known as HemaComply. With the implementation of HemaComply, unease and uncertainty are taken out of the equation when dealing with everyday Quality Control plans.
How the system works is like this: “from beginning to end, each step in the Quality Control process is recorded, acknowledged and completed before becoming a part of the Quality Control plan history.” By means of this system, dealing with loads of spreadsheets and an assortment of data files is eliminated. This point and click system leaves no room for error, provides efficiency, and assures quality.
Hammering on t
he concept of a continuousimprovement plan, it is important to constantly be measuring the quality of your product or service and seeing what can be done or implemented toensure the maximization of quality.
What came as a surprise to me was that there was not already a software system in place for organizations like this. Ordering or reading a blood type incorrectly and then distributing it can cause serious complications depending on who is receiving it and what the circumstances may be. Before HemaComply whoever was responsible would have to sort through various spreadsheets and data is only broadening the margin for error, and putting patients/customers in danger.
In my experience, all of my medical history has been available online. Medical history I would consider to be on the large scale when it comes to healthcare and/or the medical field. To have such a small facet of this industry (biological products) not already using a system like this seems careless. With HemaComply and other software that guarantees correct and quality information, why even run the risk of inputting data incorrectly? On the large scale, if organizations (in any industry) are aware of more refined quality tools, software, etc. why are they not using them?
Measuring quality and making improvements is a continuous process. In order to yield the greatest results the finest quality control management tools must be put into practice. Withoutdoing so, a business can be doing itself, and more importantly its customers, a disservice.
Article: http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130429-910848.html
Image 2: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/blood.htm
Great post! Technology can be such a blessing and you’re absolutely right. In this case, if this type of technology can help hospitals/doctors avoid mistakes then that’s great. However, your question was: why are some organizations not using them? I thought about it and thought of the privacy issue. Medical records need to be secure and perhaps some organizations simply don’t trust technology yet.
I very much enjoyed your post. To respond to the earlier comment, I think technology such as this is simply too expensive to implement. Perhaps for hospitals that drive on making profit, the benefit of such technology does not outweight the costs.
Very interesting post. To respond to your question about why hospitals aren’t using them already, I believe that costs might be and issue along with sensitive information being put at risks by having everything on a database. I think hospitals need to analyze the risks they can avoid by investing in this new technology, and the guarantees that this new technology offers. If we want to improve the quality of the hospitals and the way patients are being taken care off then hospitals should take into consideration that we live in the information age, and it is important to keep up with the newest technology to improve customer/patient satisfaction and in the long run save more lives. There is no greater investment than saving a life.
I also thoroughly enjoyed this post a lot. I think it’s really interesting that they’re coming out with this new time of technology. I agree with the previous posts that with new technology, it is really difficult to trust whether or not the technology will work. However, I can see how this will be very efficient in the long run and save costs in the end.
Like the others above i think this is a very much related to the class because we all are in the technology world now. I wonder the same thing why aren’t these quality controls being used in places like the hospital where inefficiency can be eliminated. I am also currently taking a statistics class. I am really good at math but i realized the whole call is based on interpreting the data. It might be easy to get the data but using it in the proper way is essential. Making a mistake on interpreting the situation can make everything bad. I think they will gradually make the change once they know how to use this information to their advantage.
Your post in very informative and I think that doctors should start using the technology. We all are human and we make mistakes. There are many cases where an outcome of an operation caused more harm due to the doctor’s mistake. I think technology can be trusted because it seems we cannot live without it now.
This was a great introduction to this technology and I’m interested in learning more about how it improves the process. There are, of course, many things to consider with this system, especially security of the system. It may take a while for hospitals to implement technology like this because they first need to understand exactly how this will improve costs and reduce risks. Until that can be fully tested and understand, it would be a huge burden to undertake implementing this system. Finally, any system implemented would need to be fully scaled to support the entire hospital from the start, increasing costs of implementation and risk of failure.
I completely agree. I think/know the reason life expectancy has grown so much in the last couple of centuries is because of advances and innovations in the medical sector. Without the modern technology, doctors would have a much harder time diagnosing, or even treating illness. I hate to play devils advocate here, but people tend to have a hard time adopting to change. If this type of technology was to become systematized wherever, there should be training courses in place as well.
This is a great operational software system for sensitive information, as it drastically eliminates error like it said. I agree with the above comment, where we should question why aren’t other organizations using this type of process system if it is more efficient. I don’t think it necessary has to be exclusive or applied to just the medical/health industry. HemmaTerra Technologies should definitely expand if they are not already doing so, because the market could be endless for the innovative operational software system.
This is a great operational software system for sensitive information, as it drastically eliminates error like it said. I agree with the above comment, where we should question why aren’t other organizations using this type of process system if it is more efficient. I don’t think it necessary has to be exclusive or applied to just the medical/health industry. HemmaTerra Technologies should definitely expand if they are not already doing so, because they market could be endless for the innovative operational software system.
This was a very interesting and informative post. Similar to what many people above have said, I also believe that the costs of implementing this sort of technology may be too expensive. Although the technology may leave no room for error, I too thought of privacy. Not everyone out there may trust technology. And with technology continuously on the rise, even though this system leaves no room for error, there’s always the question of “what if?”
This post was very interesting. I feel that in today’s world, technology plays a huge part in our day to day lives. Especially in the medical field, I think that technology has come a long way and it is making the doctors and people who work in the medical field’s lives easier. As said earlier, humans do make mistakes and today it is very evident that technology is very reliable and it most of the time leaves no room for error. I think that HemmaTerra technologies, like spr1332khendricks said, should expand for the betterment of today’s society.
Good post! I found it very interesting, and it really made you think about the large effects a simple human error can have. You would think that the medical field would be one of the first to implement software that has the potential to cut out all possible errors and save peoples lives. It’s understandable that some people may have reservations about trying new software, but I think HemeTerra technologies should be a good example to others about how to continually improve your company.
Really interesting post. I would have assumed that most of this technology had already been in existence. The complications that can happen without this software are huge. If however, this software were to have some errors (as most software do) a lot of people would be effected and a lot of lawsuits could take place.