Att dela information. En fallstudie av en akutmottagnings förbättringsarbete
The purpose of this paper is to examine information sharing in a hospital organization that is undergoing reorganization. The aiming is to make all employees at all levels actively involved in business development in order to create a smooth and, from a patient?s perspective, adequate emergency care. The paper suggests that the theory of social capital can explain the complexity of what motivate and what promote individuals to share information. The method used in the paper is the case study, focusing on detecting, interpreting and gaining insight on how information shares in an emergency department. The author has deliberately chosen an organization that is in a midst of a change process, and the purpose of the paper is to answer the following questions: (1) what motivates individuals to share information and (2) which factors promote the sharing of information. The study shows that information shares widely within each improvement team at the clinic. However, the degree of interaction and sharing of information between the improvement groups and the emergency clinics as a whole is low. Furthermore, the social capital of the emergency department has shown to be strong, whereas there is a lack of trust between the emergency department and other groups in the organization, which the paper suggests relates to a weaker social capital among the latter. The suggestion made in the paper is that the emergency department establishes forums for the other employees, where they can express their opinions and discuss their concerns over new working practices.