Procedures and collaborative information seeking: A study of emergency departments

Abstract

Information seeking is a central and inherently collaborative activity in the emergency department (ED), which is the common entry point to hospitals for nearly all acute patients. In this paper, we investigate how ED clinicians' collaborative information seeking (CIS) is shaped by the procedures that they follow in the ED. Based on observations in two Danish EDs, we identify four procedures prominent to how CIS is accomplished: the triage procedure, the timeouts, the coordinating nurse, and the recurrent opportunities for information seeking at the whiteboard. We then discuss how CIS activities are impacted by these procedures and the challenges to effective CIS in these settings. We conclude with some thoughts about future studies of CIS in healthcare settings.