Identification and management of information problems by emergency department staff

Patient-care teams frequently encounter information problems during their daily activities. These information problems include wrong, outdated, conflicting, incomplete, or missing information. Information problems can negatively impact the patient-care workflow, lead to misunderstandings about patient information, and potentially lead to medical errors. Existing research focuses on understanding the cause of these information problems and the impact that they can have on the hospital's workflow. However, there is limited research on how patient-care teams currently identify and manage information problems that they encounter during their work. Through qualitative observations and interviews in an emergency department (ED), we identified the types of information problems encountered by ED staff, and examined how they identified and managed the information problems. We also discuss the impact that these information problems can have on the patient-care teams, including the cascading effects of information problems on workflow and the ambiguous accountability for fixing information problems within collaborative teams.