Supporting Hospital Inter-departmental Coordination of work with Electronic Whiteboards

We present an ethnographic study of the organizational aspects of the use of an electronic whiteboard (EW) system implemented in a Danish hospital located in Nykøbing Falster (NFH) . The EW system had originally been developed for the emergency department (ED), but had later been extended to the entire hospital, and the study was conducted about 10 months after that time. The study focuses on coordination regarding inter-departmental ordering of surgical operations via the EW system. The research question asked whether clinicians experienced impacts or consequences, and the challenges in this respect. The results of the study show that the EW system had been configured and use of it organized in a manner that facilitates support of inter-departmental coordination. We identify, describe and discuss the challenges related to the difficulty of accommodating the heterogeneous practices and demonstrate the complexity of organizing cooperative work using artifacts and technology across organizational units.