in 2005 the central Norway Regional Health Authority was facing major economic challenges and had to reduce spending on salaries several initiatives were suggested one of them was to introduce a speech recognition software previously the doctors had audiotape their notes and then the secretaries had transcribed the notes into the electronic patient record the new speech recognition software converted the doctors dictation directly into written form and the electronic patient record system this was supposed to streamline the patient management system and reduce the need for secretaries many doctors were skeptical about the new system they complained that their
workload would increase and raised concerns about patient safety despite their lorries the new system was implemented and many secretaries lost their jobs so what happened after a while the problem started to arise from time to time the software would misinterpret the voice recordings and change the meaning of the text there are two wounds on the left foot peen the Kazakh smoked for five years in 1978 the person complained about Pleasant electron less spherical the many errors made the doctors spend an inordinate amount of time reviewing their own records after dictation as a result many of
them stopped using the software in 2012 only 5% used the system consistently and more than 90% reported that the software led to a substantial amount of additional work at the same time secretarial staff continue to be downsized when the software developers tried to improve the system by introducing adaptive learning it backfired by learning new mistake by 2014 more than 50% of all medical records were typed by the doctors so what can we learn from this case first of all it serves as an example of how wishful thinking is not a good approach to manage changes
in organizations the top management failed to foresee the organisational consequences of adopting relatively untested solutions the increased workload and changes in workflows shouldn't have come as a surprise secondly the case may suggest that the management didn't fully understand the role of the secretaries especially when it comes to the tasks that they performed in addition to typing patient records thirdly and more importantly the top management showed little response to the arguments emanating from the end-users securing the end-users acceptance that the project would be worthwhile should have been an important success criterion for the project on the
flip side some doctors were satisfied and an estimated cost reduction of 6.5 million Norwegian kroner were achieved these results represent partial success for the project this project management case is described in detail in the book the road to success narratives and insights from real life projects by Bassam Hussain
