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BMC Health Services Research
Published in: BMC Health Services Research 1/2024

Open Access 01-12-2024 | Research

Digitally-mediated coordination in healthcare: the effects of teleconsultation on doctor-to-doctor relational coordination

Authors: Mattia Vincenzo Olive, Luca Gastaldi, Mariano Corso

Published in: BMC Health Services Research | Issue 1/2024

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Abstract

Background

Digitalization transforms the way in which interdependent work is coordinated, especially in healthcare settings. This work deepens the effect of teleconsultation use on health professionals’ coordination. For this aim, we rely on Relational Coordination Theory (RCT), which explores coordination as an interactive process among group participants within the context of task interdependency.

Methods

We collected data through an online survey administered to Italian specialist doctors between March and April 2023. 489 complete answers were gathered. Hypotheses have been tested through Structural Equation Modelling.

Results

We found that teleconsultation frequency of use has a positive and significant effect on both components of relational coordination, confirming our hypotheses.

Conclusions

Theoretically, this research contributes to our understanding of the effect of digitally mediated coordination mechanisms on relational coordination. In practice, we shed light on the organizational implications of telemedicine under a novel perspective, focusing on the role of professional interactions in digitally mediated work and providing useful elements for the organizational design of telemedicine.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
Although our survey was not site-specific, we have accounted for the variety of organizational contexts where respondents work in our analysis. Specifically, we incorporated control variables to reflect the type of organization where each doctor is employed. These include binary variables for different types of public and private healthcare organizations, such as local health authorities, hospitals, research hospitals, other public organizations (e.g., social security institutions) and other private organizations (e.g., insurance companies).
We tested our model while controlling for these factors, but our findings remained consistent even when these additional variables were included in the analysis. Therefore, we made the decision to maintain a more parsimonious model in our presentation of the results.
 
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Metadata
Title
Digitally-mediated coordination in healthcare: the effects of teleconsultation on doctor-to-doctor relational coordination
Authors
Mattia Vincenzo Olive
Luca Gastaldi
Mariano Corso
Publication date
01-12-2024
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Health Services Research / Issue 1/2024
Electronic ISSN: 1472-6963
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10726-5

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