The Electronic Patient Record as an Organisational Artefact

The research effort on Electronic Patient Records (EPR’s) has rapidly increased in the last decade. Much of this research focussed on standardisation and technical realizations. We will describe such a research effort in this paper, and evaluate its success. Our main finding is that the lack of success of this specific research effort is mainly due to its technological bias. Although standards (both conceptual and technical) are important prerequisites for the realisation of an EPR, organisational issues are decisive for success. The role played by these organisational issues will be illustrated by analysing the findings of the case study presented in the paper. We will argue that research on EPR’s should be more focussed on the role of an EPR as an organisational artefact that co-ordinates the work of health care professionals, in order to lead to successfull implementations.