Post date: Dec 14, 2010 7:36:30 PM
Special Issue on Organizational Design and Engineering in Healthcare
The International Journal of Organisational Design and Engineering (IJODE) and its associated workshops (IWODE09, IWODE11) welcomes submissions for a special issue on Organizational Design and Engineering in Healthcare Information Technology.
See the call for paper details on the IJODE website. Deadline is June 15, 2011.
Guest Editors:
Dr. Nelson King, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Dr. Ronald Batenburg, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
The worldwide trend in healthcare has been to look to Healthcare Information Technology (HCIT) for a solution. Yet two recent reviews of the electronic health record (EHR) literature show that all is not well especially with respect to the alignment of organizational design and the engineered artifact. Niazkhani et al (2009, p. 546) concluded "When put in practice, the formal, predefined, stepwise, and role-based models of workflow underlying CPOE systems may show a fragile compatibility with the contingent, pragmatic, and co-constructive nature of workflow.” Two of the findings of Greenhalgh et al (2009, p. 767) were “while secondary work (audit, research, billing) may be made more efficient by the EPR, primary clinical work is often made less efficient” and “the EPR may support, but will not drive, changes in the social order of the workplace”. In addition, Fontaine et al (2010) concluded from a systematic literature review in primary care that “The potential for HIE to reduce costs and improve the quality of health care in ambulatory primary care practices is well recognized but needs further empiric substantiation “.
Just as in enterprise resource planning (ERP) adoption, healthcare organizations (HCOs) expect HCIT to shape their organization design through the embedded workflow engineered most often from a mechanistic worldview. Oftentimes the contingencies and exceptions aren’t accounted for leaving the blame to fall upon the usual reasons for HCIT failure (e.g., poor implementation, lack of training, resistance). Organizational Design and Engineering (ODE) takes the position that the “either-or” mindset must be replaced with a more holistic view of designing the organization and artifact. The complex interplay between organization and engineering, oftentimes intangible, requires a multi-disciplinary approach to solve the challenge of the social and technological world of healthcare being inextricably linked to healthcare policy.
The special issue seeks contributions from the spectrum of disciplines that are involved directly in HCIT or broader healthcare fields that implicitly rely on HCIT (e.g., policies for care coordination). These contributions must have both the elements of organizational design and an engineered artifact regardless of research discipline. These might address theoretical, empirical and design-based studies on medical- technical infrastructures, tools and applications, health information behavior, or cost/benefits, policy, as well as social implications. HCIT’s are broadly defined to include technologies in clinical informatics, E-health, M-Health, consumer health, public health, and health policy.
Fontaine, P., Ross, S.E., Zink, T., and Schilling, L.M. 2010. "Systematic Review of Health Information Exchange in Primary Care Practices," J Am Board Fam Med (23:5), pp. 655-670.
Greenhalgh, T., Potts, H.W.W., Wong, G., Bark, P., and Swinglehurst, D. 2009. "Tensions and Paradoxes in Electronic Patient Record Research: A Systematic Literature Review Using the Meta-narrative Method," Milbank Quarterly (87:4), pp. 729-788.
Niazkhani, Z., Pirnejad, H., Berg, M., and Aarts, J. 2009. "The Impact of Computerized Provider Order Entry Systems on Inpatient Clinical Workflow: A Literature Review," Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (16:4), pp. 539-549.
All papers will be peer reviewed and should conform to IJODE publication standards. Methodological and theoretical pluralism (empirical or theoretical work, quantitative or qualitative research, design science, prototypes ...) is welcomed by IJODE