Digitization of the prehospital emergency response: amPHI in Region Nordjylland
Student thesis: Master programme thesis
- Helle Bering
- Henriette Damgaard
- Peer Møller Hansen
3 year, Master of Health Informatics (Continuing education) (Continuing Education Programme (Master))
The task of implementing the electronic ambulance record, amPHI, in Region Nordjylland is the first of its kind in Denmark. So far, the collecting and passing on of patient related information has been taking place using paper records and verbal communication among the concerned staff.
The vision of the project management has been to create an electronical and universally usable tool for the staff in the pre-hospital emergency response. Thus, the interface between amPHI and EPJ should be situated between the ER and the rest of the hospital, so that EPJ never had to be implemented in the ER.
This study makes use of the semi structured interview. The informants represent the supplier, the customer and the users. The latter of the three are further divided into users in the ambulances and users in the ER.
The study establishes the fact that, in parts of the pre-hospital emergency response, the gathering and communicating of patient related data is still done using paper records and verbal communication. Using Aalborg Sygehus as the point of reference, the study proves that the project has been completed more than four years ago, and that amPHI has not been implemented as a universally usable tool in the ER. The statement of the study is that this lack of dissemination of amPHI in the pre-hospital response is caused by the political and tactical decisionmaking of the project management. These decisions have been made with the purpose of evading involvement of external stakeholders into the decision process.
The study furthermore shows that during the progress of the project no written documentation has been compiled, in the shape of halfway and final assessments, despite the fact that these assessments have been stated in the initial project plan to be made during the course of the project.
This project plan is the only written documentation available.
The project managers have declared that the completion of the project has been reached, and that amPHI has been taken into operation. At the same time they are apparently preparing the next phase of the project, which should be the implementation of amPHI in the entire pre-hospital emergency response. These apparently paradoxical signals implies a somewhat ambiguous positioning as to where in the course of implementation, the project management percieves their project to be situated.
The conclusion of this study is that amPHI still has the ability of reaching the status of a universally usable tool in the pre-hospital emergency response. But to be able for that to happen the project management should consider the so far unsolved tasks to be a separate process, dissociated from the project plan of the first amPHI project. This should be done to make sure that the coming project plan reflects the present state of the organization. There are too many unresolved issues in the old project, due to goals that have not been achieved and written documentation that has not been written. Furthermore the initial project plan is seven years old, and does not reflect the present state of the organisation.
In the new project plan it would not be sufficient to define the goals, it must also be made sure that the goals are reached, or that the targets are calibrated, if the goals change during the course of the project.
It is recommended that the new project plan takes into consideration the human and social aspects of implementing IT systems in healthcare. The conclusion of this study is that this has not been taken into consideration yet. It is also recommended that stakeholders are invited into taking part in the project, both on the user and the executive level.
Language | Danish |
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Publication date | 2008 |
Number of pages | 172 |
Publishing institution | Aalborg Universitet |