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Procedures and Collaborative Information Seeking: A Study of Emergency Departments

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Collaborative Information Seeking

Part of the book series: Computer Supported Cooperative Work ((CSCW))

Abstract

Information seeking is a central and inherently collaborative activity in the emergency department (ED), which is the common entry point to hospitals for nearly all acute patients. In this paper, we investigate how ED clinicians’ collaborative information seeking (CIS) is shaped by the procedures that they follow in the ED. Based on observations in two Danish EDs, we identify four procedures prominent to how CIS is accomplished: the triage procedure, the timeouts, the coordinating nurse, and the recurrent opportunities for information seeking at the whiteboard. We then discuss how CIS activities are impacted by these procedures and the challenges to effective CIS in these settings. We conclude with some thoughts about future studies of CIS in healthcare settings.

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Acknowledgements

The research project of which this study is part was devised, planned, and conducted by the first author and Jesper Simonsen in collaboration. We are grateful to the healthcare region, Region Zealand, and to the vendor of the electronic whiteboards, Imatis, for making this project possible and for the collaboration we have had during the project. The project has received funding from Vækstforum Sjælland and Innovasjon Norge. Jesper Simonsen and Arnvør á Torkilsheyggi made part of the observations that form the data for the analysis in this study. The second author’s participation in this paper was made possible through a grant from NSF IIS #0844947. Special thanks are due to the ED clinicians, who have been accommodating toward our observations and other empirical activities in spite of their busy schedules.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal School of Library and Information Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Morten Hertzum

  2. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Madhu Reddy

Authors
  1. Morten Hertzum
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  2. Madhu Reddy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Morten Hertzum .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm University, Department of Computer and System Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden

    Preben Hansen

  2. Rutgers University, School of Communication & Information, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Chirag Shah

  3. GESIS - Leibniz-Institut for Social Sciences, Department of Knowledge Technologies for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany

    Claus-Peter Klas

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Hertzum, M., Reddy, M. (2015). Procedures and Collaborative Information Seeking: A Study of Emergency Departments. In: Hansen, P., Shah, C., Klas, CP. (eds) Collaborative Information Seeking. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18988-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18988-8_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18541-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18988-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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