title: A culture and power perspective on the management of health information technology in hospitals.
abstract: The three traditionally dominating professional hospital cultures - physicians, nurses and management - are challenged by the increasing use of health information technology (HIT) in health care. A fourth group of actors, the IT-professionals has become an exceedingly powerful player challenging the boundaries of the traditional hospital cultures. The hospital cultures are being redefined by and are redefining the technologies as well as the divisions of labour between the professional groups. The IT-professionals have become central actors in this and thereby they constitute a fourth powerful professional culture in the hospitals. This study draws out the phenomenon of IT-professionals as a fourth culture through a qualitative case study of both the IT-department and clinical and managerial hospital practices. The study finds evidence of how the IT-professionals and the IT-departments play a central part in the development of hospital practices constituting them as an influential culture and player in the hospitals. The tendency to see IT as merely infrastructure is hereby challenged and the conclusions demand further research into how to consider IT strategically in the hospitals, possibly pointing towards further user involvement in IT management.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark. lonep@plan.aau.dk
authors.forename: Lone Stub
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Pernille
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bertelsen
mesh_terms: D020811:Biomedical Technology / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003718:Denmark; D063025:Health Information Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006739:Hospital Administration; D015279:Organizational Culture; D011209:Power, Psychological