Continuous Technology Implementation and Sustainability of Sociotechnical Change: A Case Study of Advanced Intravenous Infusion Pump Technology Implementation in a Hospital

Recently, much public attention has been on medical errors and patient safety. Healthcare organizations are being pressured to improve their systems and processes and implement various technologies in order to prevent or mitigate medical errors. This focus on the implementation of technology for patient safety has not necessarily achieved all of the expected patient safety benefits, probably because of insufficient consideration for the human factors of technology implementation and use. This paper describes the implementation of advanced intravenous infusion pump technology in a teaching hospital. Emphasis is placed on the understanding of the effects and impact of the technology after the actual implementation. The implementation of the technology can be interpreted in the conceptual framework of episodic versus continuous change proposed by Weick and Quinn (1999). The emphasis on continuous change requires organizations to focus on continuous system adaptation and improvement; this new focus can contribute to sustainable technology implementation and use.