Online Patients in an Offline Health Care Sector: Are Hospitals Ready for Electronic Communication With Patients?

摘要

Surgery cancellations are undesirable in hospital settings. In order to reduce elective surgery cancellations at the University Hospital of North Norway, the eTeam-Surgery project studied the pre-operative planning to determine if part of the planning process could be moved from the hospital to the patient at home - through electronic collaboration. This paper discusses the actual readiness for electronic communication between patients and hospitals. In order to approach the readiness for electronic communication, the method section is divided in two parts. The first part consists of a documentary study of the most recent health reform in Norway, focusing on the readiness for using IT within the health care sector. In the second part, an in-depth empirical study of the pre-operative planning process at the hospital, is described. The results are reported in three analytical categories, according to the findings: a) Norwegian health policy; b) Health care workers at the hospital; c) The hospital as an entity. The authors' conclusion is that while Norwegian health policy strongly promotes electronic collaboration, and health care workers are ready to use new tools, the hospital, as an entity, is not yet ready for electronic communication between patients and the hospital.