Balancing Tradition and Transcendence in the Implementation of Emergency- Department Electronic Whiteboards

We report from a case study of the implementation of an electronic whiteboard system at two emergency departments at Danish hospitals. The purpose of the whiteboards is to support the clinicians in maintaining an overview of the patients at the departments. The electronic whiteboard system was designed in collaboration with clinicians from the departments. Compared to existing dryerase whiteboards, the electronic whiteboards present more information and allow some automated updating. Based on observations supported by interviews we describe how tradition and transcendence were balanced in the implementation of the whiteboards at the two emergency departments. The electronic whiteboards were initially configured to resemble the dry-erase whiteboards and then gradually reconfigured and extended through an improvisational process, along with changes in the clinicians’ work practices.