Summary
Objectives: This paper describes differences in the way general practitioners in Denmark, The
Netherlands and Great Britain make codes fit into the local conditions under which
they work.
Methods: An ethnographic study method has been used to collect data in Dutch, British and
Danish general practices.
Results and Conclusions: The paper argues that what counts as “accurate data” is locally constructed. As codes
are produced in local networks of human and technological actors, the way accuracy
is constructed is dependent on the extra work that is carried out (by actors inside
the clinic as well as outside of it). On the basis of differences between coding practices
and classification systems the paper discusses how inherent tensions between coding
for primary and secondary purposes can be solved. The paper concludes that instead
of evaluating data in terms of how accurate they are in general, they should be looked
at in terms of pertinence to specific research questions.
Keywords
Diagnostic codes - classification systems - general practice - electronic patient
record - localization - accuracy - ethnography
