User-centered design in clinical handover: exploring post-implementation outcomes for clinicians.
This paper examines the outcomes for clinicians from their involvement in the development of an electronic clinical hand-over tool developed using principles of user-centered design. Conventional e-health post-implementation evaluations tend to emphasize technology-related (mostly positive) outcomes. More recently, unintended (mostly negative) consequences arising from the implementation of e-health technologies have also been reported. There remains limited focus on the post-implementation outcomes for users, particularly those directly involved in e-health design processes. This paper presents detailed analysis and insights into the outcomes experienced post-implementation by a cohort of junior clinicians involved in developing an electronic clinical handover tool in Tasmania, Australia. The qualitative methods used included observations, semi-structured interviews and analysis of clinical handover notes. Significantly, a number of unanticipated flow-on effects were identified that mitigated some of the challenges arising during the design and implementation of the tool. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of identifying post-implementation user outcomes beyond conventional system adoption and use and also points to the need for more comprehensive evaluative frameworks to encapsulate these broader socio-technical user outcomes.
eHealth Services Research Group, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Tasmania, Australia.
Ming Chao
MC
Wong
Elizabeth
E
Cummings
Paul
P
Turner
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D006747:Hospital Communication Systems; D062209:Patient Handoff; D012984:Software; D013648:Tasmania; D014584:User-Computer Interface