Implications of Transforming the Patient Record into a Knowledge Management System : Initiating a Movement of Coordination and Enhancement

• Today there is often a need to re-innovate who you are and what you do and re-think the tools that are used and the business models that guide action. The purpose of this paper is to show how transforming a document, such as a patient record, might start a horizontal and vertical movement, a movement of coordination and enhancement in an organizational setting, such as a hospital clinic. The observations presented here and the conclusions drawn were obtained during a three year case study following implications of constructing and computerizing a patient record at three different hospitals. The results were then analyzed, interpreted and discussed within a framework combining theories about knowledge management and with cognitive theories about use of interpretative schemes and representations. This paper tries to look beyond the implications of reconstructing a patient record on a micro-level or explore if it is good or bad to computerize it. Instead this paper theorizes about how re-thinking the interpretative scheme for what a patient record is and how it may be used might restructure a health care setting. It proposes that what the employees want to achieve with the knowledge management system depends on what strategy they have for it.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Språkteknologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Language Technology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Information Systems (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Hälso- och sjukvårdsorganisation, hälsopolitik och hälsoekonomi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Keyword

interpretative schemes

anesthesia patient record

knowledge management system

knowledge management

structuration theory.

Information and language technology

Informations- och språkteknologi

Information technology

Informationsteknologi

Administration of health and care

Hälso- och sjukvårdsadministration

Health and medical services in society

Hälso- och sjukvård i samhället

Technology and social change

Teknik och social förändring

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)