Analysing collaborative patient care solutions using activity theory.

Abstract

Collaborative Patient Care Systems have become increasingly popular in the last years as they enable patient-centric quality care delivery to ensue. However, past experiences have shown that technical systems in healthcare are often complex and if not implemented carefully, taking into consideration multiple stakeholder perspectives, they generally fail to realize their full capabilities. Hence, this paper aims to answer, how Activity Theory can facilitate the understanding of the benefits and challenges of a complex technology solution in healthcare. For this purpose, a case study is examined, in which a patient care system, implemented at a hospital in Australia, is mapped to an activity system. Further, problems of the system are uncovered and resolved by the application of an enhanced Activity Theory framework. The study’s outcome demonstrates that the introduced framework is an ideal tool to analyze and improve socio-technical systems in healthcare and helps to achieve their full potential.