Towards Distributed Sociotechnical System for Reporting Critical Laboratory Results

In healthcare domain, reporting of laboratory results by biomedical scientists to caregivers is a common practice. Many healthcare centres follow different kind of guidelines for reporting laboratory results for the purpose of improving the process. In this paper, we first analyze current procedure for reporting Critical Laboratory Results (CLRs) followed by North Estonia Medical Centre (NEMC) located in Estonia. We then identify weaknesses and argue that reporting of CLRs requires advanced mechanisms because a patient with CLRs is always in need of a prompt treatment or decisions on medication from the appropriate caregiver. We then critically analyze a problem of reporting CLRs to caregivers with the aim to support this process by appropriate sociotechnical system. We do this by using the approach of agent-oriented modelling. The analysis is followed by models for designing a distributed sociotechnical system for managing CLRs.