Health care categories have politics too: Unpacking the managerial agendas of electronic triage systems

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

While investigating the resistance to the electronic triage system, ETRIAGE, at the emergency department of British Columbia Children's Hospital, we revisit the well-known CSCW-debate about THE COORDINATOR concerning the politics of standardized categories. Examining the history as well as the design of ETRIAGE, we reveal four basic assumptions about triage work in emergency departments, which are reflected in the design of the ETRIAGE application and related to the managerial agenda of controlling costs in hospitals. We find that ETRIAGE has an embedded surveillance-capability, which challenges the professional authority of nurses' work and removes discretion from the individual. We argue that the resistance towards ETRIAGE should be understood in terms of experienced nurses' disputing the assumptions about their professional practice that are embodied within such systems rather than general resistance to change or resistance to technology.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationECSCW 2007 - Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Number of pages20
PublisherKluwer Academic Publishers Group
Publication date2007
Pages371-390
ISBN (Print)9781848000308
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2007
Event10th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, ECSCW 2007 - Limerick, Ireland
Duration: 24 Sep 200728 Sep 2007

Conference

Conference10th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, ECSCW 2007
LandIreland
ByLimerick
Periode24/09/200728/09/2007
SeriesECSCW 2007 - Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

ID: 285806708