Pharmacy Interweaving Safety Within Hospital Health Information Technology
Lichtner, V.; Westbrook, J.I.; Franklin, B.D.
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 252: 105-111
2018
ISSN/ISBN: 1879-8365 PMID: 30040691 Document Number: 695074
Research on the impact of hospital technology on medication safety usually focuses on prescribing and administration. Less is known about the pharmacy-related processes of reviewing, ordering and dispensing medications and how technology supports this work. We carried out a qualitative exploratory study of a hospital in England (UK) with the aim of gaining insight into processes of digitalisation. We found that hospital pharmacy staff perform safety work with technology aiming to prevent harm, such as 'scaffolding' people's thinking processes, or linking-up unintegrated systems. Their work seems to 'interweave' safety in between others' medication activities, but they do so sometimes struggling with technological deficiencies.