Examining the role of IS affordances in enabling time critical clinical practices: an information processing perspective

Globally, the healthcare domain is seeing quality improvements through the adoption of Information Technologies in its delivery, processes and culture. Healthcare quality is further refined as technology allows for knowledge dissemination, informing existing practices across countries with minimal effort. However, what affordance does the introduction of technology offer in a time critical environment? In this paper, we present an ongoing case study of a decision support system deployment at The Alfred Hospital, in Melbourne, Australia. This work outlines the affordances in: i) the time critical Trauma Centre from an information processing perspective, and ii) clinician use of the Algorithm Designer component to enrich the supported system processes. We observe how information standards, synergy and renewal were developed between the system and the users, to reduce error rates. We present a preliminary model of the important role Information Technology plays in the context of the Trauma Centre practices.