Implementation of an IT system in a hospital trust

This article presents a case study of IT implementation in a hospital trust which highlights the problems between clinicians and management in the UK health service. Using the work of Strauss et al., it analyses the different meanings attached to the implementation of IT and how they impact upon the actions of stakeholders. The conclusion is that there is a gap between government policy and organizational practice in the NHS, and that managerialist prescriptions for using IT in that context are insufficiently sophisticated and unlikely to have the consequences their authors intend.