Example questions
Question 1
Given: Barlow (2017) describes in Chapter 1 of his book that ‘technological innovation in healthcare is
a double-edged sword’.
Question: Please explain this statement by referring to the following three topics: performance of
healthcare systems, outcomes for patients, and costs.
(3 points; max 200 words)
Technological innovation in healthcare is a double-edged sword, because on the one hand it will
improve the outcomes for patients and thereby decrease the healthcare costs, but on the other hand
it will increase the healthcare costs because the performance of the healthcare systems becomes
better, which causes that people will get older, which then causes that the need for care becomes
more.
Question 2 – not in the exam
Given: In a hospital in Heerlen one of the patients from the cardiology department received the
wrong type of medicine and had to be transferred to the intensive care unit as a consequence of this
incident. The manager of this department uses the system approach (Reason, 2000) to analyze this
accident.
Question: Describe which aspects of this accident the manager is likely to analyze and explain why
this fit in the system approach and how this approach differs from the persons approach.
(3 points; max 300 words)
The manager is going to analyze the different layers in the system which caused the accident, like the
pharmacy (if there are medicines who look like each other) or the controlling of the person who gave
the medicine by another person. This fits in the system approach because this is an approach where
the system is blamed for the accident. This differs from the persons approach because this is an
approach where the person is blamed for the accident.
Question 1
Given: Barlow (2017) describes in Chapter 1 of his book that ‘technological innovation in healthcare is
a double-edged sword’.
Question: Please explain this statement by referring to the following three topics: performance of
healthcare systems, outcomes for patients, and costs.
(3 points; max 200 words)
Technological innovation in healthcare is a double-edged sword, because on the one hand it will
improve the outcomes for patients and thereby decrease the healthcare costs, but on the other hand
it will increase the healthcare costs because the performance of the healthcare systems becomes
better, which causes that people will get older, which then causes that the need for care becomes
more.
Question 2 – not in the exam
Given: In a hospital in Heerlen one of the patients from the cardiology department received the
wrong type of medicine and had to be transferred to the intensive care unit as a consequence of this
incident. The manager of this department uses the system approach (Reason, 2000) to analyze this
accident.
Question: Describe which aspects of this accident the manager is likely to analyze and explain why
this fit in the system approach and how this approach differs from the persons approach.
(3 points; max 300 words)
The manager is going to analyze the different layers in the system which caused the accident, like the
pharmacy (if there are medicines who look like each other) or the controlling of the person who gave
the medicine by another person. This fits in the system approach because this is an approach where
the system is blamed for the accident. This differs from the persons approach because this is an
approach where the person is blamed for the accident.
