Information architecture for healthcare organizations: the case of a NHS Hospital in UK

Tan, C., Liu, K. and White, E. (2013) Information architecture for healthcare organizations: the case of a NHS Hospital in UK. In: Thirty Fourth International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2013), 15 - 18 December 2013, Milan, Italy.

Abstract/Summary

Healthcare organizations are known for their complex and intense information environment. Healthcare information is facilitated via heterogeneous information systems or paper-based sources. Access to the right information under increasing time pressure is extremely challenging. This paper proposes an information architecture for healthcare organizations. It facilitates the provision of the right information to the right person in the right place and time tailored to their requirements. It adapts an abductive reasoning research approach. Organizational semiotics serves as its theoretical underpinning, guiding the data collection process through direct observation in the ophthalmology outpatient clinics of a UK hospital. It results the norm and information objects that form the information architecture. This is modeled by Archimate. The contribution of the information architecture can be seen from organizational, social and technical perspective. It clearly shows how information is facilitated within a healthcare organization, reducing duplicated data entry, and guiding the future technological implementation.