Asking questions: information needs in a surgical intensive care unit

Even in the information-rich environment of hospitals, health-care providers face challenges in addressing their various information needs. Through a study of a patient-care team in a tertiary care Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), we expanded our understanding of health-care providers' information needs in two important ways. First, the study focused on a patient-care team instead of individual health-care providers. Second, information needs were examined in a particular organizational setting, the SICU, which had not been previously studied. We found that organizational information was extremely important to SICU team members. Furthermore, the first resource that team members utilized was not electronic or paper but rather human: another team member.