What Healthcare Organizations Have Instituted Transformational Changes to Create a Learning Organization?

What healthcare organizations have instituted transformational changes to create a learning organization?

Learning organizations are some of the most successful organizations. People keep an interest in their organization as long as things change and something new is learned. In this paper, I will identify two healthcare organizations that have instituted transformational changes to promote/create a learning organization. I will discuss all of the following concerning both healthcare organizations:

• The problems/issues that lead to the change or the needs for change.

• The various stakeholders involved in the change.

• The time frame involved in the change process.

• The financial resources allocated for the change.

• The issues that surfaced during the change process.

• The outcomes of the change.

• If there are institutional lessons learned from the change process.

The two healthcare organizations that I am familiar with that instituted transformational changes to promote/create a learning organization are Emory University Hospital (EUH) and Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA). EUH is a hospital based in Atlanta, GA; their staff is mainly Emory School of Medicine faculty. Their mission “is to provide excellence in patient care, enhanced by education and research.” (Emory Healthcare, 2011). VHA is an organization that caters to military veterans’ healthcare needs. The staff members are generally civilians with and without military experience. The mission of the VHA is “To fulfill President Lincoln's promise “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans.” (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2011).

Both organizations had many problems/issues that lead to the need for change. A couple of the problems that EUH was faced with were patient care and hand hygiene. The focuses of the patient care problem were “reducing patient falls and...