Cooperative Document Management

Publication Type

Working paper

Authors

Mareike Schoop

Year of publication

2000

Series/labeling

Aachener Informatik Berichte 2000-5

Healthcare is a multidisciplinary setting where professionals from several disciplines need to work together to maintain or improve the health of patients. In recent years, cooperation in healthcare has become more and more important for two reasons. The first reason is that the division of labour within healthcare has become more pronounced as patient care has become more complex with the introduction of new techniques and machines such as keyhole surgery or computer tomography. Today, nurses carry out actions that used to lie in the responsibility of doctors. For example, some nurses are allowed to give injections, nurses in hospital can decide when it is necessary to administer drugs prescribed by doctors. Some tasks previously carried out by fully qualified nurses have been taken over by auxiliary nurses or administrative staff, e.g. washing and dressing of patients, feeding patients, serving meals, requesting medical notes from patients’ GPs or hospitals etc. The second reason for the increased importance of cooperation in healthcare is that a more holistic approach to patient care is now taken. Patient care is no longer solely medical care but involves input from healthcare professionals coming from several disciplines.