Trusting the Record

K. Clarke; M. Hartswood; R. Procter; M. Rouncefield; R. Slack

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1634228

Methods of Information in Medicine, Table of Contents

Methods Inf Med 2003; 42(04): 345-352
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634228

Original article

Schattauer GmbH

Trusting the Record

K. Clarke

¹Department of Computing, Lancaster University, UK

,

M. Hartswood

²Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems, Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK

,

R. Procter

²Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems, Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK

,

M. Rouncefield

¹Department of Computing, Lancaster University, UK

,

R. Slack

²Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems, Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Summary

Objectives: This paper aims to contribute to a longstanding interest in documents and paperwork in healthcare work through an examination of everyday work with patient records in a clinic.

Methods: An ethnographic study of record keeping practices in a deliberate self harm clinic was conducted to consider the role that document work plays in the development of trust in the routine social interactions of a working division of labor.

Results and conclusions: Issues of trust are seen to play central roles within the complexities of organizational working and some consequent implications for the deployment and use of electronic medical record systems are considered.

Keywords

Trust - paperwork - affordances - electronic medical records

Full Text

References

References
1 Berg M, Bowker G. The multiple bodies of the medical record, towards a sociology of an artifact. Sociological Quarterly 1997; 38: 511-35.
2 Heath C, Luff P. Documents and Professional Practice:‘bad’ organizational reasons for ‘good’ clinical records. Proceedings of CSCW’96. 1996: 354-62.
3 Hertzum M. Six roles of documents in professional’s work. Proceedings of ECSCW’99. 1999: 41-60.
4 Star SL, Griesemer JR. Institutional Ecology, ‘translations’, and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39. Social Studies of Science 1989; 19: 387-420.
5 Komito L. Paper ‘work’ and electronic files: defending professional practice. Journal of Information Technology. 1998 13: December 1998.
6 Garfinkel H. Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall; 1967
7 Zimmerman D. Record keeping and the intake process in a public welfare organization. In: Wheeler S. editor. On record, files and dossiers in American Life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation; 1971
8 Yates J. Control through communication, the rise of system in American management. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press; 1989
9 Hughes J, King V, Mariani J, Rodden T, Twidale M. Paperwork and its lessons for database systems: an initial assessment. In: Shapiro D, Tauber M, Traunmuller R. editors. The design of computer supported cooperative work and groupware systems. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996. pp. 43-66.
10 Fitzpatrick G. Understanding the paper record in practice, implications for EHRs. Proceedings of HIC’2000. 2000
11 Gambetta D. editor. Trust, making and breaking cooperative relations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell; 1990. Available online at www.sociology. ox.ac.uk/trustbook.html
12 Luhmann N. Trust and power. Chichester: Wiley; 1979
13 Fukuyama F. Trust, the social virtues and the creation of prosperity. London: Penguin; 1996
14 Kipnis D. Trust and Technology. In: Kramer R, Tyler T. editors. Trust in organizations, frontiers of theory and research. London: Sage; 1996. pp. 39-50.
15 Axelrod R. Complexity of cooperation, agent based models of competition and collaboration. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1997
16 Luhmann N. Familiarity, confidence, trust, problems and alternatives. In: Gambetta D. editor. Trust, making and breaking cooperative relations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell; 1990. Available online at www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/trustbook.html
17 Strathern M. Audit cultures, anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the academy. London: Routledge; 2000
18 Hughes J, King V, Rodden T, Andersen H. Moving out of the control room: ethnography in system design. Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW’94). 1994: 429-38.
19 Goffman E. Interaction ritual, essays on face to face behavior. New York: Pantheon Books; 1982
20 Goodwin C. Professional vision. American Anthropologist 1994; 96: 606-33.
21 Ellingsen G, Monterio E. A patchwork planet: The heterogeneity of electronic patient record systems in hospitals. Proceedings of the Information Systems Research Seminar in Scandinavia (IRIS’2000) Uddevalla: 2000
22 Dick RS, Steen EB, Detmer DE. editors. The Computer-based patient record, an essential technology for health care. Revised ed. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1997
23 Pories W. Is the medical record dangerous to our health?. North Carolina Medical Journal, 1990; 51: 47-55.
24 Berg M. Rationalizing medical work, decision support techniques and medical practices. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press; 1997
25 Hartswood M, Procter R, Rouncefield M, Sharpe M. Making a case in medical work, implications for the electronic medical record. Comp Supp Coop Work; forthcoming.