ICOA Seminar: Explaining resistance to information and communication technology: the case of municipal home care in Denmark

The paper studies the implementation of “the online home care” IT project in Copenhagen municipality, which was supposed to both increase the quality of care and cut its costs. The study analyses the causes of the nurses’ resistance to the project that led to its failure. The paper explains the nurses’ resistance by a combination of two factors: (1) substantial power of the IT unit and lack of involvement of either nurses or their unit leaders into the project; (2) organizational implications of the new technology that aimed at minimizing the time the nurses spend in-office. The study points at the importance to adjust the information and communication technology to the daily work flow of healthcare professionals, which can only be achieved by involving the front line employees into IT projects. The paper suggests that further research is needed to establish how the reduction of communication between nurses influences the quality of care for the patients.