Acquiring new technology and surviving environmental pressures.
BACKGROUND
The U.S. health care system faces increased pressures to expand coverage to the elderly, the uninsured and the poor, while maintaining costs and quality of care. Because of the federal budget deficit and continued fiscal uncertainties, resource allocation will become even more scrutinized.


OBJECTIVE
How does a health care system allocate limited funds and still provide quality care using innovative technology?


METHODS
This article reviews the literature on the acquisition of new technologies from a theoretical perspective, using positron emission tomography (PET) as an example. A unified model, including concepts from the resource dependency theory (RDT) supplemented with organizational survival concepts from the ecological theory, was used to analyze resource acquisition for technological innovation and organizational survival. An attempt was made to evaluate a hospital's profit maximization, recognition as a center of clinical excellence and role as a technological leader of the community with respect to acquisition of PET equipment.


CONCLUSIONS
Organizations acquire new technology for a variety of reasons that can be explained by RDT and ecological theory concepts. In terms of the profit maximization motive, hospitals purchase PET equipment to enhance revenue generation. From the clinical excellence perspective, organizations seek the best available technology to meet the needs of their patients. Finally, hospitals adopt new technology to enhance their image as a technological leader.
McNally
R David
RD
Department of Radiation Oncology, Southeast Georgia Health Systems, Brunswick, GA, USA.
D002201:Capital Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003657:Decision Making; D006295:Health Resources / Q000600:supply & distribution; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D009684:Nuclear Medicine Department, Hospital / Q000191:economics*; D040841:Resource Allocation; D013675:Technology, High-Cost; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States