Smith Business Close-Up

Hospitals Waste Billions Due to Poor Communication

Broadcast Dates:
Thursday, March 19, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 22, 2009, 7:30 a.m.
Monday, March 23, 2009, 4:30 a.m.

Researchers from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business put a price tag on the cost of poor communication in U.S. hospitals at $25 billion per year – wasting nearly as much money as they make every year. 

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Kenyon Crowley, assistant director of the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS), discusses the center’s new research that is the first to quantify the economic impact of a health care system rife with communication delays and failures. Among key findings was unnecessary hospital stays, such as time spent waiting to see a physician or specialist, account for 77 percent of total losses. 

As an academic research center with collaboration from industry and government affiliates, CHIDS it is designed to research, analyze, and recommend solutions to challenges surrounding the introduction and integration of information and decision technologies into the health care system.