Are the new hospitals in Denmark really really super?

The press has named the new hospitals in Denmark to super hospitals. It is a very ambitious word - super – to be using and it rests heavily on everyone's shoulders to deliver on these high expectations. However, is it actually super hospitals we are building? Let us first define what the word actually means super.

According http://www.denstoredanske.dk/ means SUPER following:

super, (lat. 'above'), Latin and international prefix denoting location, extent or amount, see. superpower, which is a particularly powerful superpower; is also used with reinforcing intention in everyday terms like super good.

We are dealing with a concept that can be compared to top-notch and great (maybe even unique according Gyldendals dictionary. Super has a reinforcing effect and it increases a given value of the word it attaches to. As in the example above, then super good, is better than just good. Let us take two examples

The first is from space:

nova (from Lat. (stella) nova 'new (star)', feminine form of novus 'new'), star whose brightness in a matter of days, from a thousand to a million times greater. During months, for slow novas years, the brightness decreases gradually to a normal for the star.

A supernova is a stellar explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy, radiating as much energy as the Sun or any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span, before fading from view over several weeks or months.

This first is a slow increase in intensity and brightness to eventually return to its original strength. A supernova is a doomsday explosion in a short time that can outshine an entire galaxy. See that is truly super.

The second example is the word man and superman. Superman is characterized by the fact that he has (super) powers, x-ray vision, is invulnerable, can manipulate time and has a super moral that helps him, he fights evil and saves the world again and again. Superman is not any man - no, he is a superman because of his superb qualities.

So a super hospital must be something much more than just a hospital. But as with Superman and his forces, sight, etc., what characterizes a super hospital and are we actually going to build them or are we building minimally improved hospitals that does not deserve the title of super. I can often be in doubt. Especially because the press in Denmark has focused on the lack of founds, the decrease in the amount of beds and overall quality in all the hospital construction projects. I guess the politicians are right, when they say that you cannot judge the future hospitals superpowers by the amount of beds. The clinical area will change much within the next 8 years, so to talk about the design, architecture and the correlation to the future healthcare delivery is just not possible.

But then it is also obvious that the argument goes both ways – you do not know the healthcare sector of the future – and therefore you do not know if your future hospital will be super!

The only real fact is, that the hospital will be new, shining, white, single patient rooms etc. But if super is new way of delivering healthcare, new ways technologies that supports the healthcare of tomorrow – you don’t know. Super in that equation is new as in a new building – the rest is pure speculation.

So what is a super hospital is the million dollar question that everybody assumes they know – but none articulate it in detail. The. Expert Committee has identified areas they believe characterizes a super hospital. You must increase the hospital operation efficiency by 8 per cent , build single man patient rooms, increase productivity and convert treatment towards more day surgery, thereby allowing the closure of almost 20 per cent beds. Very practical but probably not the full picture of a super hospital

New OUH's vision is trying to define the super hospital, but if you are going a step deeper: what characterizes it in detail - no one knows - but everybody says it - super!

It would be interesting, now that politicians are the fathers of the super hospitals', to hear their views on what is a super hospital for them? And also what is it for the patients, the employees and of course the general Dane – we are paying for the party through taxes and we expect a super hospital. I guess we all fail if super is not defined.  It is difficult – maybe it is because it is not super at all.

What is a super hospital for you?

Leadership mindsets for IT success

I have recently started teaching University students in IT, Communication and Organization. Basically it is a subject regarding basis IT skills (What is cloud computing, how is the internet designed etc) and secondly it’s about strategy and aligning IT with business objectives. As I have previously mentioned in this blog I find the subject of IT and business fascinating, and I hope to at least empower my students with the knowledge about how it can be done and how hard it actually are to achieve.

Anyway, during my research for the class. I came by a very interesting and accessible little piece regarding the leadership mindsets in business. The article is written by Professor Donald Marchand and Professor Joe Peppard and was released in The European Business Review in March-April 2014 issue.

What I like about the article is, that it focuses the main points and arguments in a short form and in the end; it points the reader to the future by some practical advice.

The authors main point in the article is basically that with different mindsets on IT and information within the business, the role of IT will change: "…these differences in mindsets and thus perceived roles and responsibilities of senior managers and CIOs, the implications for how information recourses, IT, and knowledge are managed in the company will differ.. dramatically."

So the mindset of senior management and the CIO will affect how the company will use and regard IT investments. No new knowledge in that. However, the article suggest a Matrix where the business manager roles on on Axis and the CIO on the other.

http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/?p=302

An excellent matrix, that gives the necessary input to a discussion on how we regard IT today and where would we like to be. A strategic talk about IT and business.

In the end, the authors suggest two key questions that should be explored during the strategic discussions senior management and IT have. They are as follows:

Where are your group or business unit management teams and CIOs today in terms of mindsets, behavior, and shared language?

Where should your business unit management teams and CIO be in the future related to the strategic management of information, IT and knowledge resources.

I can only recommend the small 4 page article to all management teams – both business and IT – It’s a great start for further elaboration and discussion on how will we regard and ultimatly use IT in our business to gain for example a competitive advantage.