Allan Hansen, Jess Bring-Larsen and Simon Lei Fredslund: IT supported coordination: Development of a conceptual design supporting articulation work between three hospital departments. Master Thesis in Danish [IT-støttet koordination: Udvikling af et konceptuelt design til understøttelse af samordning mellem tre hospitalsafdelinger], ITU, September 2005, IT University of Copenhagen, September 2005.
Departments at hospitals are getting increasingly more specialized, so in order to treat patients correctly it is necessary for each of the specialized departments to increase focus on how to cooperate with other departments. Hospital work is moreover characterized by being hectic and the personnel are highly mobile. These factors among others increase the level of complexity of the cooperative work. To solve this complexity, different coordinating artefacts are being used, among which the operating schedule is the primary.
This master thesis focuses on two departments: Thoraxkirurgisk klinik and Thoraxanæstesiologisk klinik at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen which have to cooperate in order to treat its patients. One of the aims of this master thesis is, via CSCW-principles, to analyze how the cooperative work is carried out between and at these departments and how the patient flow can be supported by information technology.
To answer this, studies of the relevant literature about hospital work in general and at these departments in particular are done. In order to increase the understanding of the departments, a minor field study of the departments is carried out. In order to support the patient flow, different devices that can support the personnel in their work are analyzed. The chosen devices include PDAs, Smartboard and desktop computers. As a result of this a conceptual design for these devices is made that supports the personnel in their cooperative work. Finally a prototype is constructed to demonstrate the conceptual design.