Knowledge management systems: A health care initiative with lessons for us all

We are not only in a new millennium but also a new era. A variety of terms such as the Post-Industrial Era (Huber, 1990), the Information Age (Shapiro et al, 1999), the Third Wave (Hope et al, 1999) or the Knowledge Society (Drucker, 1999) are being used to describe this epoch. However, whichever term one subscribes to, most are agreed that one of the key defining and unifying themes of this period is knowledge management. From the mid 90s, we have evidenced tremendous investment in knowledge management and knowledge management systems (KMS). Some of the leaders into this knowledge management abyss have been the big consulting companies. These firms started to incorporate knowledge management as a key component of their strategies and business plans as early as the late 1980s. The literature discussing knowledge management and KMS focuses almost exclusively on this sector. However, KMS are useful in other sectors too. Furthermore, they are prevalent in these other sectors. One area KMS are present, yet the literature is notably silent, is in the health care arena. This paper presents the case of Kaiser PermanenteOhio and their development and use of MARS (medical automated record system); a KMS in health care.