Related Experiment Videos
Challenges to physicians' use of a wireless alert pager
Madhu C Reddy1, Wanda Pratt, David W McDonald
1School Management and Information Systems, University of Missouri, Rolla, USA.
AMIA ... Annual Symposium Proceedings. AMIA Symposium
|January 20, 2004
Summary
Wireless alert pagers in surgical intensive care units (SICUs) offer clinical alerts but disrupt physician workflows. Challenges include information overload, flattened hierarchies, and lack of feedback, impacting patient care delivery.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- Clinical Workflow Analysis
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Wireless devices like pagers and personal data assistants (PDAs) are increasingly used for transmitting patient information to healthcare providers.
- Existing research in medical informatics has primarily focused on the design and implementation of pagers for event notification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of wireless alert pagers on the work practices of physicians in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU).
- To identify unanticipated challenges arising from the use of this technology in a clinical setting.
Main Methods:
- A case study approach was employed.
- The study focused on physicians utilizing wireless alphanumeric clinical alert pagers in a SICU.
Main Results:
- Physicians using wireless alert pagers encountered several challenges impacting their traditional work practices.
- Key challenges identified include the flattening of hierarchical workflows, difficulties in managing information overload and missing context, and a lack of system feedback.
- These issues are linked to both the pager system's technical design and established medical work structures.
Conclusions:
- The implementation of wireless alert pagers, while intended to improve information delivery, introduces significant workflow disruptions for SICU physicians.
- Addressing these challenges requires considering both technological design and the inherent structure of medical work to optimize the use of these devices in clinical environments.