Developing an information dashboard for healthcare professionals and their managers: A case study in a wellbeing services county
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Journal Title
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2023
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Accounting
Language
en
Pages
73 + 15
Series
Abstract
Public healthcare is facing severe challenges in developed countries due to increasingly aging population and growing longevity. This study addresses these issues by designing an information dashboard for healthcare professionals and their managers in a primary healthcare unit within a wellbeing services county. The study built on theory which suggested that active user involvement and top management support throughout the process as well as user training would mitigate the challenges stemming from accounting changes in public healthcare. Moreover, relative performance information was used as primary means to increase productivity. Cognitive fit model and color-coding served as a theoretical starting point for effective communication of the information. Employing qualitative methodology, including six semi-structured interviews and five project coordination meetings, the study reveals that top management support was perceived to be crucially important for the development of a new management accounting system, private relative performance information was felt to be an appropriate method to increase productivity in a primary healthcare unit, and that the main message of the provided information should be communicated through different datapoints for the information recipients as they did not necessarily have extensive prior knowledge of financial or productivity measures. The study contributes to the on-going discussion of improving productivity in public healthcare by providing practical insights for the use of management accounting systems in public healthcare. While the study is specific for primary healthcare in a wellbeing services county, its implications may be useful also for other similar contexts, such as other public healthcare units or organizations.Description
Thesis advisor
Malmi, TeemuKeywords
public healthcare, information dashboard, accounting change, relative performance information