Challenges to physicians' use of a wireless alert pager

Pagers, personal data assistants (PDAs) and other devices that have wireless connectivity are becoming a popular method for delivering patient related information to medical decision makers. Although medical informatics research has emphasized the design, and implementation of pagers as event notifi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings 2003, Vol.2003, p.544-548
Main Authors: Reddy, Madhu C, Pratt, Wanda, McDonald, David W, Shabot, M Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude of Health Personnel
Hospital Communication Systems - organization & administration
Hospital Communication Systems - utilization
Humans
Intensive Care Units - organization & administration
Interprofessional Relations
Interviews as Topic
Nurse's Role
Observation
Organizational Culture
Physicians
Reminder Systems - instrumentation
Telecommunications - instrumentation
Telecommunications - utilization
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Summary:Pagers, personal data assistants (PDAs) and other devices that have wireless connectivity are becoming a popular method for delivering patient related information to medical decision makers. Although medical informatics research has emphasized the design, and implementation of pagers as event notification mechanisms, researchers have not paid as much attention to how this technology impacts medical work. We present a case study of physicians in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) using wireless alert pagers. The pagers provide a variety of alphanumeric clinical alert messages and are widely used by SICU physicians. However, the use of the pagers has created unanticipated challenges to the physicians' traditional work practices. These challenges include: (1) flattening of hierarchical workflows, (2) coping with information overload and missing context, and (3) lack of feedback. These challenges are tied to both the specific technical design of the system and the traditional structure of medical work.
ISSN:1559-4076