Communication in Healthcare: Opportunities for information technology and concerns for patient safety
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Understanding healthcare workflow is fundamental for design and implementation of information systems. Communication and information exchange between healthcare professionals plays a pivotal role in developing smooth workflow within and between healthcare organizations. The study in this thesis analyzes the interaction between Information\nTechnology (IT) and the medication process within and between healthcare organizations. The focus is on the interactions that lead to communication problems and as a result lead to unintended negative consequences on patient safety. The thesis examines several cases of IT\nintervention to improve intra- and inter-organizational communication.\nIt raises important implications on how to design and implement IT\nsystems that support healthcare processes without jeopardizing patient\nsafety. The author concludes for IT to improve healthcare communication\nand patient safety, at intra-organizational level, it has to support the\nhighly integrated nature of the shared healthcare work. At\ninter-organizational level the main challenge is that different pieces\nof the shared work are not sufficiently integrated.
Author: Habibollah Pirnejad
Language: English
Subfield: Health Information Management
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1955847765