Establishing a Core Health Record; A Case Study from Norwegian Healthcare

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become important for many public services as they seek to become more efficient and effective. Authorities in Norway have since 1997 formulated strategic plans for ICT in healthcare, striving to obtain seamless care and funding in varying degree have been allocated in order to achieve results. In this chapter we present several initiatives concerning the establishment of a core health record in order to reveal the effects of running ICT projects at a governmental level. The study adheres to an interpretive research approach. Empirical data was collected through project participation, document studies, interviews and observations. We found that the consequences of the authorities‟ influence in the information system domain in Norwegian healthcare seem to separate the users from the system developers to an ever-increasing extent. We also found that reforms in the hospital sector have created a powerful ICT organization in the hospital sector; this organization seems to set the agenda within ICT in Norwegian healthcare, which also includes the GPs and the municipality sector.