Digital displacements in patient-professional relations: Four modes of organizational patient involvement
Journal of Health Organization and Management
ISSN: 1477-7266
Article publication date: 29 May 2018
Issue publication date: 3 July 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relational consequences of electronic patient records based on co-produced data from pregnant women’s IT supported self-reporting. The analysis unfolds how the clinical encounter between patient and professional is reconfigured in the digitized society.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a grounded theory analysis based on observations and interviews in an antenatal care unit. The study draws on empirical material generated through observations of the clinical encounters between pregnant women and midwifes, interviews with managers and midwifes, field notes and policy documents.
Findings
The author argues that the use of technology and co-produced data displace tasks and relations between healthcare professional and patient. The analysis shows that four modes of organizational patient involvement are enacted: involvement in administrative tasks, involvement in professional resistance, individualized involvement, and homogenized involvement of patients that tends to categorize the pregnancy roughly as either “normal” or “abnormal.”
Originality/value
This study contributes to qualitative research in digitization and patient involvement in health organization studies by showing how digital technology distributes the midwife’s autonomy, tasks and knowledge about the patient with both intended and unintended consequences. The argument goes beyond the prevalent prescriptive approaches to e-government and co-production, instead providing a critical analytical perspective on the promises of delivering efficient and patient-centered healthcare.
Keywords
Citation
Pors, A.S. (2018), "Digital displacements in patient-professional relations: Four modes of organizational patient involvement", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 603-617. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-10-2016-0193
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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