Case Study in Globalization of Hospitals
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2008
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59904-939-7.ch151
Abstract
This chapter demonstrates the application of the GET process in the area of Tele-health, to a hospital. The reason for selecting the domain of Tele-health for this exercise is significant. In the modern communication age, there are still many situations where people who are in pain and/or have an acute need for help have to travel hundreds of miles just to be close to a physician or a healthcare specialist. This scenario is exacerbated by overworked physicians and surgeons, and ever shrinking funds for health care from governments and other funding bodies. Thus the need for, and the value of, being able to provide medical facilities and support by utilizing technology is at its highest leading us to believe in the extreme importance of Tele-health in today’s world. Tele-health is all about the use of technology to ease the ability to provide medical care beyond physical distances, especially in rural areas. Tele-health is also about alleviating the routine pressures on doctors beyond the needs of their own specialist or generalist skills. Tele-health goes further beyond patients and doctors, and also involves education, research and administration in the field of medicine. Given this tremendous importance of Tele-health, it is appropriate that the concepts of globalization discussed in this book, in all its previous chapters, are applied to a case study that deals with a hospital. In this chapter, we have appropriately considered the area of hospital management and patient access to care, in demonstrating the concepts of the GET process, as applied to a hospital. Needless to say, this remains a relatively small part of the overall effort required in globalizing a hospital. Nonetheless, we believe this is an excellent demonstration of most of the concepts discussed here. This chapter results from our attempts at verifying in practice the principles discussed in this book. Therefore, although the entire case study is hypothetical, it has its roots in a real life hospital, with real doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and of course, real patients. By considering the application of GET to Tele-health, we hope we will not only demonstrate the process to our readers, but also show how this process will come in handy in the health domain where globalization is going to become extremely important.
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Case Study in Globalization of Hospitals, in F. B. Tan (Ed.), Global Information Technologies: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, IGI Global, p. 2115-2120
Scholar Commons Citation
Lan, Yi Chen and Unhelkar, Bhuvan, "Case Study in Globalization of Hospitals" (2008). School of Information Systems and Management Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications. 51.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/qmb_facpub_sm/51
