Information networks in intensive care: a network analysis of information exchange patterns

The communication and delivery of clinical information is the basis for coordination of patient care. Information exchange in acute care practice, however, is becoming increasingly complex, in part due to the expansion of electronic sources of information. In this study, we attempted to describe this complexity by using Network Analysis (NA) to depict information use patterns among ICU nurses with information technology tools as full nodes in the network rather than as mediators of information exchange between nodes. Including information technology tools as full nodes, enabled an examination of their direct role in the information-sharing network. Analysis of these data using NA allowed the explication of three dominant information use patterns, corresponding to three phases of care experienced by patients in this unit: admission phase, monitoring phase, and discharge phase.