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Software-related challenges in Swedish healthcare through the lens of incident reports: A desktop study
Pan, D.
Pan, D.
Publication Date
2023
End of Embargo
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© 2023 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the Creative Commons CC-BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Peer-Reviewed
Yes
Open Access status
openAccess
Accepted for publication
2023-09-08
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Department
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Additional title
Abstract
To identify a subset of software issues occurring in daily Swedish healthcare practice and devise a set of local solutions to overcome the challenges.
Methods: A sample of 46 incident reports was collected from one of Sweden's national incident reporting repositories, ranging from June 2019 to December 2021. The reports were first subjected to an algorithm to identify if they were health information technology-related incidents and were analysed using an existing framework, i.e., the Health Information Technology Classification System, to identify the software-related incidents. The incidents associated with software issues were then subjected to thematic analysis, in which themes were extracted and presented under the category assigned by the existing framework used.
Results: Of 46 reports, 45 (with one exception) were included using the algorithm. Of 45 incidents, 31 software-related incidents were identified using the classification system. Six types of software issues were identified, including software functionality (n = 10), interface with other software systems or components (n = 10), system configuration (n = 7), interface with devices (n = 2), record migration (n = 1) and increased volume of transactions (n = 1). Each issue was further categorised into different themes; for example, software interface-related problems were grouped into ‘two patients being active in the system simultaneously’ (n = 6) and ‘transfer of patient information’ (n = 4).
Conclusions: The study provided some insights into software issues and relevant consequences. A set of local solutions were devised to overcome the present challenges encountered in Swedish healthcare in their daily clinical practice. Systematic identification and characterisation of such software challenges should be a routine part of clinical practice for all major health information technology implementations.
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Published version
Citation
Rahman Jabin MS and Pan D (2023) Software-related challenges in Swedish healthcare through the lens of incident reports: A desktop study. Digital Health. 9: 1-15.
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Article