Skip to main content

Local sociotechnical system development in the NHS National Programme for Information Technology

Journal of Information Technology volume 22, pages 257–264 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The National Programme for Information Technology is implementing standard electronic healthcare systems across the National Health Service Trusts in England. This paper reports the responses of the Trusts and their healthcare teams to the applications in the programme as they are being implemented. It concludes that, on the basis of the data available, it is likely that the emergent behaviour of healthcare staff will serve to minimise the impact of the systems. The paper looks at the opportunities within the programme to undertake local sociotechnical system design to help staff exploit the opportunities of the new electronic systems. It concludes that there are opportunities and offers one case study example in a Mental Health Trust. However, it concludes that there are many aspects of the technical systems themselves and also of the approach to implementation, that limit the opportunities for local sociotechnical systems design work.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  • Abdelnour-Nocera, J.L. (2005). The Social Construction of Usefulness, Doctoral Dissertation, Open University, Milton Keynes.

  • BBC (2006). GPs Dissatisfaction with IT System, 30th May 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5028762.stm.

  • Bell, J. (2007). ‘PCT's still only halfway to choose and Book target', Health Service Journal, Thursday, April 5, http://www.hsj.co.uk/healthservicejournal/search.do?dispatch=showPage&pageid=12278&page=1.

  • Clark, L. (2006). Trust Feels Pain of IT Roll-Out, Computer Weekly, 7th November 2006, http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/11/07/219625/trusts-feel-pain-of-nhs-it-roll-out.htm.

  • Cherns, A.B. (1976). The Principles of Socio-Technical Design, Human Relations 29: 783–792.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cherns, A.B. (1987). Principles of Socio-Technical Design Re-visited, Human Relations 40(3): 153–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, T. (2007). NHS Security Dilemma as Smartcards Shared, Computer Weekly 8: 30th January 2007, http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/01/30/221461/nhs-security-dilemma-as-smartcards-shared.htm.

  • Collins, R., Braim, M. and Heathfield, H. (2005). Choose and Book: Lessons from the Barnsley Early Adopter Project, British Journal of Healthcare Computing & Information Management 22(2): 30–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, B. and Dawe, N. (2002). Evaluation of the Impact of a PACS System on an Intensive Care Unit, Journal of Management in Medicine 16(2/3): 199–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eason, K.D. (1996). Understanding the Organisational Ramifications of Implementing Information Technology Systems, in M.G. Helander, T.K. Landauer and P.V. Prabhu (eds.) Handbook of Human–Computer Interaction, Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 1475–1495.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eason, K.D. (2005). Exploiting the Potential of the NPfIT: A local design approach, British Journal of Healthcare Computing & Information Management 22(7): 14–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairley, M. (2005). Editorial: The need to be needed, British Journal of Healthcare Computing & Information Management 22(5): 3–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardstone, G., Hartswood, M., Proctor, R., Slack, R. and Voss, A. (2004). Supporting Informality: Team working and integrated care records, in Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (Chicago, IL), pp. 142–151.

  • Klein, L. (2001). What is the Experience of Living and Working at the Implementation Sites?, Section in: Manchester Centre for Healthcare Management et al. Research evaluation of NHS EPR/ICWS Pilot Sites. www.disco.port.ac.uk/ictri/projects/EPR_pilot_eval.htm.

  • Medix (2004). Media UK plc survey (Q558) of doctor's views about the National Programme for IT, http://www.medix.to/Q558.pdf.

  • Milan, J. (2005). The NPfIT in London: A case study, British Journal of Healthcare Computing & Information Management 22(2): 26–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orlikowski, W. (2000). Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A practice lens for studying technology in organisations, Organisation Science 11(4): 404–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinch, T. and Biker, W. (1987). The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts, in W. Biker, T. Hughes and T. Pinch (eds.) The Social Construction of Technological Systems, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 17–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice, A.K. (1958). Productivity and Social Organization; The Amedabad Experiment, London: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trist, E.L., Higgin, G.W., Murray, H. and Pollock, A.B. (1963). Organizational Choice, London: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Bayswater Institute, London, UK

    Ken Eason

  2. Loughborough University, London, UK

    Ken Eason

Authors
  1. Ken Eason
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ken Eason.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Eason, K. Local sociotechnical system development in the NHS National Programme for Information Technology. J Inf Technol 22, 257–264 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000101

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000101

Keywords

  • NpfIT
  • National Health Service
  • sociotechnical systems design
  • electronic healthcare systems
  • implementation
  • minimum critical specification