The move excluded some clinicians from the Center Radiation-Therapy Design Room, which hosted specialized material and software and was the space for interdisciplinary groups to gather and plan treatments for cancer patients.
“This room was a very vibrant, interdisciplinary space,” she says Jillian chownAssociate Professor of Administration and Organizations in Kellogg.
In a recent study, Christopher Liu of the University of Oregon and a set of clinical doctors and staff from the Cancer Center explored how the center expansion and subsequent relocation influenced the workflow of clinical doctors. With part of the group now located farther from the design room, the researchers wondered how clinicians could respond. Chown and Liu amazed by what they found.
Not only did the clinicians who moved to another building used the treatment room less frequently, but also the clinicians who stayed in the main building, even though they had easy access to the room. Instead of designing treatments together in the room as they used to, the radiation groups were increasingly turning to e -mail communication.
The results emphasize a often unexpected consequence of the development of an organism: fewer face -to -face interactions.
“Organizations that are developing or moving can cause disorders between their workers’ interactions,” says Chown, who studies how healthcare organizations adapt to changes. “It can affect both communication and cooperation, and this research shows that organizations must be prepared for these consequences.”
Consistency of group separation
To study the impact of relocation staff on the group, Chown and Liu worked with hospital staff to collect information on email standards of 232 healthcare providers and signal data for the two months before and four months after relocation.
“We thought it was a particularly interesting situation where some clinical doctors had to move, but they had clear demands to return to the main hospital building,” Chown says. “We wanted to know how the move eventually influenced the nature of interaction between these groups.”
The change was remarkable. Prior to the movement, members of the radiation oncology group visited the average treatment room on average 2.96 times a week.
But after traffic, this fell to 1.1 visits a week. The use of the treatment room was reduced for everyone and especially for those who moved to the new building.
“It was certainly expected that people who were removed would use it less, but we didn’t expect everyone to use it less,” Chown says. However, it made sense: If the room was designed for three team members to gather and plan treatments and one member of the group was not able to come, it would not be so effective for the other two members to meet without the person.
The consequence, says Chown, is that “suddenly, you do not have people to work together in the same way they used to.”
Instead, clinicians shifted much of their treatment planning to email. Chown and Liu looked at 53,592 unique pairs of e -mails between the clinics, categorized by the Department and the location of the building. They found that, after relocation, e -mail exchanges increased among the clinics that now worked in different buildings by 1 percent – a small but statistically significant increase. And email exchanges increased by 1.8 % in all e -mail pairs.
“Email prices have definitely increased for everyone,” says Chown. “It seems that treatment planning may have been moved from the room to email.”
Regardless, it seemed that clinicians continued to use the treatment room for the most complex cases, Chown found. “These were cases where people were still appearing,” he says.
Understanding what work can be done remotely by staff
In investigations, the hospital found that patient satisfaction was not reduced after relocation. But researchers believe that it will be important for the hospital to study how the change in treatment planning will affect the long -term effects of patients.
The study also offers clear effects on leaders outside a healthcare environment. For one, don’t just focus on the immediate impact of escalation. Make sure you have also examined the possible unintentional consequences.
“It is important to be careful about how you grow up and plan your organizations as to where the offices and teams are, because it has such a big impact on the way people interact,” says Chown.
In the post-wide world, where remote work has become more common, it often remains for the workers themselves to understand what work can be done remotely, says Chown.
“In this study, it appeared that clinical doctors made the right call, still coming together in the most complex cases,” he says. ‘But that’s what leaders need to know-when It is very necessary for workers to work together in person. ”
