Thesis
Municipalities in Denmark are demanding obtainment of management information from their electronic care records (ECR) at an increasing rate, but at the same time they generally question the management information that can be obtained. This skepticism is partly related to whether the information is in fact valid, and partly to why it does not adequately cover the need for information.
Our approach to this project has therefore been searching, and not least exploratory, mainly because searching through the literature on the subject did not lead to clarification of the current problems that we wished to investigate.
Illumination of this problem in order to achieve a genuine and realistic view of the actual situation has therefore been achieved through an interview with KL (Municipalities’ Associa-tion) and through a nationwide survey – the latter including an electronic survey to all 98 municipalities, represented by one IT-coordinator from each municipality.
With a response rate of 88, 8 % our assumptions about problematic management informa-tion were confirmed. In fact, 50, 7 % of the responding IT-coordinators confirmed that man-agement information was indeed problematic or very problematic.

Background
This project investigates into one of the potential causes behind the problematic manage-ment information – one result shows that 55 % of the respondents fully agree or agree that the documentation seems pointless to the employees, who in turn do not document any-thing. Both national agencies and other operators stress the importance of the documenta-tion being perceived as meaningful, although no one defines what meaningful really is or how it is to be investigated into. We want to bring attention to the process of sense making in relation to documentation, i.e. data input and data output.

Method
Meaningfulness is uncovered through qualitative interviews, in which the Laddering method is used to guide and aid respondents reveal their values through the theory of Means-End Chain (MEC), and is then presented graphically in cognitive cards. The theoretical framework in which the analysis of the empirical data is placed is the theory of Sensemaking, which is supplemented by the theory of translation of organizational concepts in order to illuminate both nurses’ and controllers’ polarized sensemaking.

Results
Comparing the values of the two occupational groups, it is obvious that they are very differ-ent, and the theory of translation can partly explain the difference in regards to the imple-mentation of NPM (New Public Management) which led to a pervasive focus on the logic of economy. This logic does not take into account the complexity and diversity of the Public Sector.

Conclusion
It is possible through the MEC method, the Laddering technique, cognitive cards and Sensemaking to define meaningfulness in relations to data and documentation for both nurses and controllers in public elder care municipal elderly care.
The differences between the two occupational groups are substantial. To the controller data for billing and management information is what makes sense. To the nurses it is domain specific data, which is used within her own group that makes sense to her – which is one of the main clues as to why management information is problematic. This can be one of the main causes of the problems with management information.