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Health Information Management: Integrating Information Technology ...

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214 EVALUATION OF PCISS<br />

unclear which makes it impossible to draw valid conclusions. It may also be that<br />

though the parameters used in the evaluation do not show any impact,<br />

professionals or patients do perceive a difference (on parameters not measured).<br />

Third, the object of evaluation often steadily changes. Because of staff or<br />

workflow changes, software modification, training sessions, etc., the information<br />

system may change and be in the end markedly different from what it was at the<br />

beginning of the study. In addition, for many applications it is generally difficult<br />

to make statements about the success or failure of a system immediately after the<br />

implementation phase, because it often takes years for systems to have its<br />

maximum impact. It takes time for work processes to find an optimal equilibrium<br />

with the new system, for conceptual, design and implementation errors to be<br />

repaired, and so forth. This is called the ‘evaluation paradox’: although it is<br />

desirable to get evaluation results as soon as possible so that one can decide on<br />

following steps (e.g. adjustments or aborting the system), it is often impossible to<br />

generate ‘final’ results within short time.<br />

CASE STUDY<br />

The EPR case study illustrated the problem of not presenting results as<br />

accessible for the client or the commission. Instead of a clear and practical<br />

guidance in the form of recommendations, a large report was delivered<br />

with different kinds of results—ranging from mainly descriptive material<br />

about the way health care professionals work (many hundreds of pages!) to<br />

short technical reviews, e.g. on the robustness of the system. As we already<br />

said, the results were impossible to triangulate. Subsequently, it was left to<br />

the client to search through and identify the salient points (which of course<br />

was unrealistic). Furthermore, the report was delivered after major<br />

decisions about future EPR initiatives were made.<br />

The results of the PDMS case illustrated the differences in perception of<br />

success of the system between and even within groups of stakeholders, for<br />

example regarding time investment in the system. Though the system made<br />

several manual activities superfluous (like making and checking the 24<br />

hours-list, or copying the medication list and the nursing orders list to<br />

every new bed chart), these activities were normally conducted during the<br />

nightshift and the gained time remained therefore unnoticed for the<br />

dayshift. Also, because of readability and automatic storage of prescriptions,<br />

the use of the PDMS on one location (the ICU ward) saved time on another<br />

(the pharmacy connected to the ICU ward). Bringing such issues to light is<br />

often crucial to prevent mutual frustrations to fester.

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