How Do Innovative Devices Influence Collaboration In Medical Organization?
Résumé
Democratization of information technologies (IT) enabled Humans to take a different approach on their work. The introduction of these new working supports induces the automation of repetitive tasks, which relieves those tasks from the use of paper. Technologies such as computers, tablets and interactive tables were designed to facilitate the human work; nevertheless those technologies also bring some changes in collaborative practices. These aspects are especially crucial in the medical sector. With an increased life expectancy, and an ageing population, homecare activities raise significantly. Homecare follows a multi-site and a multi-actor process which complicates the transmission of information, be they medical or administrative. The study described in this paper was conducted with the collaboration of a homecare organization and a device manufacturer that designs multimodal appliance for the patient medical monitoring. The implementation of an innovative communication tool is a critical issue and should optimize the transmission of patient information. The objective of the study is to understand the changes in collaborative practices and in the path of the information in a medical organization due to this implementation. Exploratory analysis is divided into two parts. First of all the mapping of the patient's care work process was done through interviews and document analysis. This first step allowed us to consider the importance of collaboration between different actors but also to visualize the path of the information throughout health care of patients. The first step in link with the literature review, allowed us to suggest two hypotheses about the impact of appliance implementation on the collaborative practices of the medical employees: Hypothesis 1: The introduction of the device influences collaborative behaviour of the medical staff. Hypothesis 2: The introduction of the device causes changes on the spatiotemporal attributes of the information. The second step aims to validate our assumptions and to identify how the use of innovative appliances may have an impact on both information and collaborative practices of the medical organization throught user testing. Thus, a sample group was observed during the use of device. The sample group was composed of nurses, nursing auxiliaries, and senior charge nurses that have direct interactions with patient. Scenario of use is based on field observations in order to match more closely with patient's homecare activity. The interaction with appliance is divided into three interfaces: a stylus (writing and navigation), a touchpad (identification, entry number) and three buttons for the navigation. In conclusion, the use of a multimodal device in medical activities has an impact on path and temporality of information captured by the nurses. However, this innovation is perceived by the actors in a very positive and in a time saving way. The use of such media will also limit the double entries and those associated errors that can be detrimental for the patient monitoring. This study continues with the structure to investigate how does the consideration of uses influence the introduction of new technological in a medical organization.