A phenomenological perspective on clinical communication and interaction: The case of electronic health records

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people communicate in organisations.

The approach in doing this is based on two pillars. One being a philosophical phenomenological approach dealing mainly ethical questions concerning communication and interaction in designing and implementing electronic health records (EHR). The other is videoobservation of work procedures in hospitals because appropriate for unveiling tacit knowledge in an organisation.

The paper discusses the inappropriate design and implementation of actual EHR's in the Danish hospital system. Where the technology is based on hierarchical and economic structured managerialist thinking and doing, that eliminates the everyday knowledge of nursing staff and the patient.

The value of this paper that it lays forward the inappropriate paradigmatic thinking of hospital systems concerning communication and interaction in designing and implementing EHRs.