A Temporal Perspective on Electronic Medicine Management Work

Abstract

Poor communication between professionals across levels of care regarding patients’ medication can lead to errors. Norway has invested in several electronic initiatives to improve collaboration in medicine management. This study elaborates on collaborative electronic medicine management work in specialist and primary care, asking what the problems with electronically shared medicine information are and how they can be solved. Based on community of practice as a method, three focus group discussions were arranged with healthcare professionals in 2022 and 2023. One theme was selected: the mismatch between the medication list in the discharge summary and the medication list before hospitalization. The analysis illustrates that this mismatch is connected to temporality in the patient’s illness trajectory, their medicines, and the professionals’ work related to this temporality. Overall, this paper contributes to sociotechnical perspectives on eHealth practices, focusing on structures and collaborative work processes. New eHealth initiatives offering digital tools for medicine management must take the temporal structures of medicine management work into account.