Page - 122 - in Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics - Knowledge Base for Practitioners

Junior Doctor Communication Systems and the Deterioration Communication Management Theory Janet LIANG a,1 , Jim WARREN a , Martin ORR b and Karen DAY a a The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand b AUT University Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand Abstract. Inadequate communication is a factor in suboptimal junior doctor management of deteriorating ward patients. Junior doctors’ information and communication technology (ICT) systems are not the sole cause or cure for this. However, junior doctors are already dissatisfied with existing technologies for general hospital communication. The Deterioration Communication Management Theory (DCMT) provides a means to approach these issues by uniting two themes: 1) factors affecting the properties of ICT used to communicate to junior doctors; and 2) factors affecting junior doctor interpretation of communication about deteriorating hospital patients. ICT factors include how the combination of physical devices and mode of usage affect user perception of system reliability and efficiency. Junior doctors interpret clinician communication about patient deterioration in terms of risk, which is affected by their contextual responsibility and experience. Perceived risk and contextual experience in turn affects their communication efficiency. Combining these themes gives more options to explain junior doctor communication in this clinical context and to design ICT systems to improve it. Keywords. Clinical deterioration; Smartphone; Text messaging, Patient safety, Hospital communication systems Learning objectives After reading the chapter, the reader should be able to: 1. Understand the drivers for improvement of hospital junior doctor communication systems, both in general use and in the context of the deteriorating ward patient. 2. Critique the present status of hospital organizational level interventions to improve clinician communication about deteriorating ward patients. 3. Compare different theories used for hospital communication systems and especially those suitable for group communication. 4. Interpret how communication systems can be applied within a hospital setting, and contribute to the design of new systems. 1 Corresponding Author: Janet Liang, E-mail: jlia002@aucklanduni.ac.nz Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics P. Scott et al. (Eds.) © 2019 The authors and IOS Press. This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). doi:10.3233/SHTI190117 122