Healthcare: Application of HRO Principles in Blood Glucose Monitoring

This report examines the application of High Reliability Organization (HRO) principles in a healthcare setting, specifically focusing on blood glucose monitoring. The report discusses the importance of the 'sensitivity to operations' principle, highlighting how an organization's decision to replace existing blood glucose monitoring equipment with a new system aimed to improve data accuracy. However, the report also addresses the subsequent problems encountered, emphasizing the need for 'commitment to resiliency'. The author suggests that the organization should test new equipment for accuracy before implementation. Overall, the report provides a detailed analysis of how HRO principles can be applied to enhance patient safety and operational effectiveness in healthcare.

Running head: HEALTH CARE
Health care
Name of the student:
Name of the Author’s note:
Author’s note

1HEALTH CARE
The five principles of a high reliability organization (HRO) is preoccupation with failure,
reluctance to simplify, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resiliency and deference to
expertise (Christianson et al., 2011). In case of the scenario, it was found that a team made the
decision to replace existing blood glucose monitoring equipment (BGE) with new equipment that
is less costly and have higher quality in data management. However, problems related to
accuracy were seen within two weeks. The principle that was followed in this scenario was
related to sensitivity to operation. This is because as per this principle, HRO continuously
evaluate outcomes and operations to find out if they are serving the objective of the organization
or not. Thus, HRO treat every change in operation to learn more about improvement needed in
real time. Thus, similar to this approach, the organization in the scenario took the approach to
replace existing BGE with that of a new one that has higher quality. This decision was taken to
enhance sensitivity of operation and ensure that better data accuracy is achieved. However, as the
expected outcome is not achieved, the team can follow the ‘commitment to resiliency approach’
by believing in learning to overcome the error (Veazie, Peterson & Bourne, 2019). Hence, based
on identification of anomalies in existing monitoring equipment, the organization can take the
step to look for those devices that better data accuracy. Instead of directly using the system, they
can test the device for accuracy before using it for patient.

2HEALTH CARE
References:
Christianson, M. K., Sutcliffe, K. M., Miller, M. A., & Iwashyna, T. J. (2011). Becoming a high
reliability organization. Critical care, 15(6), 314.
Veazie, S., Peterson, K., & Bourne, D. (2019). Evidence Brief: Implementation of High
Reliability Organization Principles. Retrieved from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542883/