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Interruption Management for Hospital Communications Systems

Authors:
Bernd Talsma
Terje Solvoll
Gunnar Hartvigsen

Keywords: Hospital communications systems; interruption management; workflow support; user requirements

Abstract:
Working in a hospital environment requires highly mobile personnel. To facilitate the increasing need for exchange of patient data between healthcare professionals, mobile communication devices are used. Mobile communication devices also increase the occurrence of inappropriate interruptions during clinical task performance. These interruptions have been related to decreased quality of clinical care. User requirements were elicited using a scenario-based approach. The results present insights into user requirements for an interruption management system for hospitals. Hospital workflow protocols were identified as a major source of interruptions. Suggestions by participants for managing these interruptions related to improving workflow using IT instead of merely preventing interruptions. We have shown that even though the hospital is an exceptionally demanding environment, the user requirements for interruption management concur with earlier findings in the broader fields of context aware interruption management and computer supported cooperative work.

Pages: 180 to 185

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2014

Publication date: March 23, 2014

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4359

ISBN: 978-1-61208-327-8

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Dates: from March 23, 2014 to March 27, 2014