Site Selection

This dissertation began by identifying the need for research on the enabling and constraining capabilities of information systems. This study could therefore have been

conducted in any number of settings and was not constrained to a particular type of information system. The choice of healthcare as the contextual focus of this dissertation research is based largely on my background in healthcare both as a former clinician, as a registered Occupational Therapist, and as a vendor of health information systems. I have seven years of experience working with health information and communication systems in a variety of healthcare organizations including large urban hospitals, small rural medical centers, skilled nursing

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facilities, outpatient clinics, and doctor‟s offices. The systems that I worked with as a vendor were primarily designed to support nurse‟s communication and information needs in clinical settings and therefore in my selection of a research site I was particularly interested in studying nurse‟s use of health information systems.

Prior knowledge of and extensive experience within the research context is not essential to the conduct of a successful research study. However, that kind of knowledge and experience can facilitate a better appreciation for the kinds of issues that exist in the context, issues that are nascent to an understanding of the phenomena under study as well as the potential challenges that can be expected in collecting data about the phenomena of interest. I believe my experience as a clinician and as a vendor of health information systems uniquely positions me to conduct a study that investigates the influences of a health information system on clinician work practices in a healthcare setting.

As a vendor of health information systems, my territory covered parts of three

Midwestern states. In my search for an appropriate research site I engaged with contacts I had at various institutions in that region. Through those inquiries I was directed to a hospital that had implemented an electronic medical records (EMR) system throughout their entire facility in a very short period of time. The EMR system that had been implemented at this hospital was the EpicCare Inpatient Clinical System, which henceforth shall be known as “Epic”1

. I contacted the Director of Clinical Informatics at the hospital, which henceforth shall be known as “Urban

1

Epic Systems Corporation (Epic®) provides healthcare management software that integrates financial and clinical information across inpatient, ambulatory, and payer technology systems. Epic's software offerings include

scheduling and registration tools, billing and managed care administration applications, inpatient and outpatient core clinical systems, electronic medical records applications, and applications for managing hospital pharmacy,

emergency, surgery, radiology, laboratory, and intensive care departments. Citrix Consulting. 2005. "Epic Hyperspace Deployment on Metaframe Presentation Server Scalability Analysis," Citrix Systems, Inc., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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Hospital”, to acquire additional details and ascertain the hospital‟s openness to a research study of their Epic system.

I explained to the Clinical Informatics Director my intentions for the research; that I was a doctoral candidate conducting my dissertation research with the intention of studying the influences of a health information system on the work practices of clinicians. After describing my intended research, including my interest in focusing on nurse‟s work practices, the Clinical Informatics Director agreed that the Epic system at Urban Hospital would provide an appropriate context for my study and consented to support the research2. She then initiated requests for study permission from the Chief Information Officer (CIO), since the study fell within his domain of information systems, and the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), since the study would be focusing on nurse‟s use of the Epic system.

Upon approval from both the CIO and CNO for the study, I was informed that the hospital had its own Internal Review Board (IRB) that I would need to be in compliance with before I could begin data collection. I initiated the IRB process with both the hospital IRB and Georgia State University (GSU) IRB in April 2010, although the approval process had to be completed sequentially since the GSU IRB required approval from the hospital IRB before it would proceed. Approval from the hospital IRB was granted in May 2010 and final approval

2 _{The Clinical Informatics Director specifically inquired about my background and experience in healthcare prior to}

agreeing to support the study. This same line of inquiry was raised by other Urban stakeholders and informants during the study and, although I may have been able to secure the site regardless of my background, I do believe that my healthcare experience was instrumental in both helping to convince the Urban stakeholders of my ability to conduct the research and in building relationships with informants.

On a related note, an earlier opportunity for a study site had been made available to me with a group of physician‟s practices that had implemented an EMR. In discussing that opportunity with the site contact I was asked how much experience I had with physician practice operations. When my contact realized that my experience was primarily in acute care settings I was told that, while they might be able to accommodate me, she felt it would be a burden on them to bring me up to speed on their operations, as it is quite different from acute care, and that it would be better if I pursued my research in an acute care setting where my background and experience would allow me to operate with minimal hand holding from the organization.

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from the GSU IRB was granted in June 2010. Data collection was then scheduled for the following month.