Using technology to enhance departmental communication

Analyzing the communications situation in a typical hospital purchasing department reveals an amazing and complex scheme of information types and flows. If ever there was a department in need of state-of-the-art information and communication tools, it is today's hospital purchasing department. Unfortunately, the tools given to many purchasing departments are often times analogous to equipping fire departments with water pistols. They are scarcely adequate for the job. This paper attempts to define many of the most severe communications problems and outline some feasible solutions.