Title: Provider information and resource foraging in healthcare delivery

Authors: Sandra K. Garrett, Barrett S. Caldwell, Patricia R. Ebright

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering; Human Factors and Ergonomics Research Institute, Clemson University, 130-C Freeman Hall, Clemson, SC 29634-0920, USA. ' School of Industrial Engineering/Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, 315 N Grant St, #228D, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2023, USA. ' School of Nursing, Indiana University, 1111 Middle Drive NU 412, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA

Abstract: The objective of this research was to develop an empirically supported language for describing strategies and processes that healthcare providers utilise to obtain, share and use resources during healthcare delivery. A combination of observational data from clinical providers and reviews of prior literature in the resource foraging domain have resulted in an improved theoretical framework of multidimensional resource foraging. Results of the literature review indicate that existing theories of resource foraging and previous medical literature on taxonomies of healthcare provider tasks are insufficient to describe the demands and requirements for team-based, event-driven, healthcare task coordination. This improved framework provides a significant advance in both the methodology and measurement of resource foraging, and patient care task coordination among providers across a range of healthcare settings.

Keywords: healthcare delivery; resource acquisition; medical practice; ambulatory care; team coordination; knowledge sharing; allocation strategies; language; terminology; observational data; clinical providers; multidimensional foraging; taxonomies; provider information; resource foraging; event-driven coordination; task coordination; teams; patient care; hospitals; collaborative enterprises; collaboration; healthcare systems; systems engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCENT.2010.038359

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise, 2010 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.381 - 393

Published online: 01 Feb 2011 *

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