A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Creator-Consumer Information Interaction Behaviors in Healthcare Documentation Systems

Abstract

The advent of electronic documentation systems has made it easy to generate and store vast amounts of information, and has enabled easy access to patient care information, so much so that they are now considered a critical infrastructure for supporting the cognitive tasks in healthcare work. But, electronic documentation systems are not without their share of problems. Accountability and liability requirements have made electronic information creation and documentation particularly challenging. Mandatory documentation requirements and templated electronic formats have increased the amount of information, but have not always resulted in reliable, useful, or meaningful information. Documentation systems have become rigid, offering little opportunity for healthcare providers to engage in meaningful conversations about the information, and to sense problem status without additional coordination. A particularly significant information interaction problem that we have identified from our field work in healthcare information modeling, which this paper focuses on, deals with what we term creator-consumer interaction behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to examine in-depth the problem of creator-consumer information interaction behaviors in electronic healthcare documentation systems. A creator-consumer interaction behavioral framework highlights satisficing behavior during creation and consumption of medical documentation, and the characteristics of the work system that may lead to satisficing on documentation tasks.