Table 2.
Table 2. Theme 2—Changes to Work Practices: Representative Observations and Quotations from Interviews
| Categories | Observation or Quotation |
|---|---|
| Category 1: Work process changes | “Once the system is in place it can affect the behaviour of physicians…you sequence work differently if you are waiting for something on the computer you go and do something else.” [Hospital A ED physician interview] |
| “Work is different depending on the physician, the patient and the circumstances.” [Hospital A hematology ward observation] | |
| Category 2: Physicians work differently | “Physicians work differently … some write notes whilst talking to the patient and some write notes after examining the patient … it depends on how much they want to retain in their memory or rely on their memory.” [Hospital A ED physician interview] |
| “Some of the physicians use a personal list of patients and some use the Emergency Department list of patients.” [Hospital A ED observation] | |
| “Physicians work differently and the system should be flexible to allow for these differences.” [Hospital A ED physician interview] | |
| Category 3: System speed | “System speed is the important thing—it is the number one thing in terms of physicians’ compliance.” [Hospital A ED physician interview] |
| Category 4: Time | “Need computers at the bedside for ordering to work … otherwise it takes too much time.” [Hospital A hematology ward observation] |
| “Ordering can be time consuming because of the clinical nature of the patients and the type of orders and the volume of the same orders repeated every few days for one patient.” [Hospital A hematology ward observation] | |
| “Ultimately it slows you down … if I am just a physician seeing patients then it is not better, it is not a better system for freeing up physicians to do clinical stuff.” [Hospital B ED physician interview] | |
| Category 5: New work processes (verification of test results) | “Computerized test verification of results is a better and safer system for handling verification of test results.” [Hospital A ED physician interview] |
Abbreviations: ED = Emergency Department.