Local knowing and the use of electronic patient records: categories and continuity of health care
The electronic patient record (EPR) is a constitutive element of medical practice and can be conceived of as a multi-purpose tool that is intended to support a range of activities such as planning, decision-making and evaluation. Each of these activities is quite complex in its own right. The aim of the present study is to explore how the standardized format of EPRs intervenes in the work of sustaining continuity in patients care. In doing this we analyse how this standardized format contributes to structure the production and use of information concerning patients mundane problems in the context of rehabilitation. Data consists of observations, informal interviews and video-recordings from a ward for patients affected by stroke. The results show that there is a tension between the highly uniform structures and standards for documentation in EPRs, on the one hand, and, on the other, how information is designed and put into use by care providers. When staff members use EPRs, they constantly have to contextualize what is written in relation to what they know about patients and/or the current situation. On the local level, the increasing standardization that follows the introduction of EPRs will make it even more necessary for professionals to engage in such interpretative work to close the gap between the standardized categories of the EPR and contextually relevant health care interventions. In spite of requests for increasing standardization there will always be a need to adapt to specific needs for more flexible information structures. Otherwise, there may be the risk that non-standard features the initial standardization was intended to reduce may be re-introduced.
electronic patient records categories professional knowledge coordination