title: The work practice of medical secretaries and the implementation of electronic health records in Denmark.
abstract: The introduction of electronic health records will entail substantial organisational changes to the clinical and administrative staff in hospitals. Hospital owners in Denmark have predicted that these changes will render up to half of medical secretaries redundant. The present study however shows that medical secretaries have a great variety of duties, and often act as the organisational "glue" or connecting thread between other professional groups at the hospital. The aim of this study is to obtain a detailed understanding of the pluralism of work tasks the medical secretaries perform. It is concluded that clinicians as well as nurses depend on medical secretaries, and therefore to reduce the number of secretaries because electronic health record systems are implemented needs very careful thinking, planning and discussion with the other professions involved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark. pernille@plan.aau.dk
authors.forename: Pernille
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bertelsen
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nøhr
mesh_terms: D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D003718:Denmark; D006739:Hospital Administration; D006801:Humans; D015274:Interdepartmental Relations; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008501:Medical Records, Problem-Oriented; D008502:Medical Secretaries / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D011216:Practice Management, Medical; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D018511:Systems Integration; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis