Summary
Objectives: Hospital information systems (HIS) are the hospital’s nervous system. The HIS are
mostly grown over several years, dedicated to specific needs and comprise individual
workarounds. Changes to such complex systems may cause a variety of different negative
side-effects. In order to understand the nature of incorrect communication in integrated
HIS, a concise structured categorization of common communication problems and their
reasons is essential. The objective of this paper is to present such a categorization,
its development and verification.
Methods: We used a combined approach for the development of the error categorization: We started
with a qualitative content analysis on available literature in PubMed. In order to
ensure the validity and completeness of the results, we chose the method of problem-centered
expert interviews.
Results: The resulting categorization of communication problems is represented as a five-level
hierarchy. It comprises 81 problems that are related to the electronic communication.
Further, it contains in total 229 entries that are either the reasons of these problems
or recommendation for avoiding the problems.
Conclusion: To our knowledge there is no similar summary that concisely summarizes common communication
problems and also refers to their underlying reasons. Equivalent content is mostly
published in experience reports that just concentrate on single aspects. We used the
details of such references in order to compile our categorization – it thus can be
regarded as an intersection of relevant experiences. The categorization can raise
a basic awareness on potential problems and supports the understanding of the underlying
reasons. An evaluation in a real environment must prove whether the content of the
categorization is correct.
Keywords
Classification - HIS management - systems architecture - information system
