Conceptualisation of Socio-technical Integrated Information Technology Solutions to Improve Incident Reporting through Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: A Qualitative Study of Junior Doctors

Medical errors are common, especially within the acute healthcare delivery. The identification of systemic factors associated with adverse events and the construction of models to improve the safety of the healthcare system seems straightforward, this process has been proven to be much more difficult in the realism of medical practice due to the failure of the incident reporting system to capture the essential information, especially from the perspective of junior doctors. The failure of incidence reporting system has been related to the lack of socio-technical consideration for both system designs and system implementations. The main reason of non-reporting can be conceptualised through the motivation psychology model: Maslow's hierarchy of needs; in order to achieve a change in the socio-cultural domain for incident reporting. This paper presents a qualitative research methodology approach to generate contextual-rich insights into the socio-cultural and technological factors of incident reporting among junior doctors. The research illuminates the guiding principles for future socio-technical integrated information communication technology designs and implementations. Using Maslow's hierarchy of needs as the conceptual framework, the guiding principles aim to design electronic incident reporting systems which will motivate junior doctors to participate in the process. This research paper aims to make a significant contribution to the fields of socio-technical systems and medical errors management. The design and implementation of the new incident reporting system has great potential to motivate junior doctors to change the culture of incident reporting and to work towards a safer future healthcare system.