Introduction
An outstanding title for the case would be: ‘Emergency Services: Saving Lives, Time and Resources through Adoption of Modern Technology.” The topic generally revolves around how technology can be used to enhance efficiency in service delivery by reducing the costs of operation and saving time that could be used to perform other duties. In the emergency services sector, time is essential both for the patients requiring the services and the service providers, that is, the patient may be in a critical condition requiring urgent medical intervention, while the service providers need to spare time so that they can attend to other emergencies. According to Goessi (n.d.), one of the most cost-effective means organizations can operate in the harsh business environment is to make their processes and practices more efficient through the use of innovative technology. When organizations conduct their operations in an efficient way, staff members will have ample time to devote to other pressing issues.
Summary of Case
The case orbits around how organizations, especially those offering emergency services, can benefit immensely from the emerging trends in technology through efficient service delivery. The case has used the Washington Township Fire Department (WTFD) to reveal how time is of critical importance when responding to multiplicity of emergency requests from patients in high-risk situations. Accordingly, it is the function of the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to provide first aid services to these victims, while rushing against time to take them to the hospital. It is also the function of the EMTs to provide a patient-care report detailing the nature of treatments already offered to the patient, and a detailed account on any health-related symptoms detected. Lastly, the EMTs must update their records at the base for future forecasting, budgeting, and reporting to relevant authorities. It takes a lot of time and maneuverings to manually undertake all those functions and still remain efficient in offering emergency services to thousands of patients every year. This argument informs the decision to adopt newer and more efficient technologies to enhance service delivery. According to Walker et al (2002), the adoption of tailor-made technology solutions to facilitate service delivery has the latent potential to benefit users and providers alike.
Statement of the problem
According to Walker et al (2002), many organizations across the world are at cross-roads on whether to modernize their services or stick with the traditional manual practices and procedures. However, according to the researchers, systematic research reveals that organizations that have chosen to modernize their services through adoption of relevant technology are way ahead of their peers. The world is becoming increasingly intertwined into a global village, and all progressive organizations must be incorporated in this digital village. Before adopting the MobilEMS technology, WTFD used paper forms to record all the required information about their patients. Not only was the manual method cumbersome and time-consuming, but difficulties arose due to illegible handwritings coupled with issuance of incomplete and often inaccurate information. According to the case, the major challenge for the organization was to come up with a solution that would curtail time wastage – in excess of 1,800 hours a year – manually keying the patients’ medical forms into WTFD’s systems. Indeed, this presented a duplication of functions since the data had already taken considerable time while being manually collected in the field, preventing the WTFD employees from reacting to other emergency calls in time.
Proposing a Strategy
The solution lies in adopting a technology that will enable WTFD employees to multi-task largely synonymous duties instead of having to do them over and over again. In the manual process, they had to re-write the patient’s medical information three times, implying that almost two-thirds of their time was lost in the process. They had to manually take notes in the field, manually present them to the doctors, and manually enter the data into their computer database for future referral. Accordingly, the solution for the department comes in the form of adopting modern forms of technology that can enable the employees to multitask their duties at the touch of a button, and MobilEMS of Clayton I.D.S. Corp. is one such technology. According to experts, such technological devices offer fast, reliable, objective and accurate solutions to basic and complicated challenges affecting organizations (Walker et al, 2002). They are also easy to handle and fairly priced.
Reasons why Proposed Solutions will Work
Tangible evidence from cross-sectional studies reveals that efficient use of technology in work processes is a source of motivation, not mentioning the fact that it opens up the workers’ horizons to the unimaginable (Walker et al, 2002). In the case of WTFD, the use of MobilEMS tremendously reduced costs, enhanced accuracy while completing the required fields in collecting the patient’s physical and medical information, and brought a sense of sophistication due to the fact that the system is easily customizable. This is what technology can do for an organization such as WTFD.
Reference List
Goessi, L. (n.d.). How technology can increase efficiency in a business. Web.
Walker, R.H., Craig-Lees, M., Hecker, R., & Healther, F. (2002). Technology-enabled Service delivery: An investigation of reasons affecting customer adoption and rejection. International journal of Service Industry Management, vol. 13, Issue. 1, pp. 91-106