Temporary Communication Infrastructures for Dynamic KM in the Complex and Innovative Environment of Palliative Care

Abstract

Research in Australia on the management of innovative practices in multidisciplinary palliative care teams reveals the central role of knowledge as an enabler of holistic care in an environment where sometimes little, apart from the result of the end of life process, is operationally predictable. While palliative care organisations provide, and regulators require, opportunities for formal exchange, recording and review of patient-based information and patient care processes; the members of care teams require and construct more frequent opportunities for the exchange of information and the generation and application of knowledge. Multidisciplinary patient care teams are resourced to and capable of constructing real-time temporary communication infrastructures between the team’s different disciplinary representatives, between teams as necessary and between teams and the organisation, for individual patient situations. This chapter describes the organisational capabilities and levers necessary for providing an environment within which these infrastructures can be created and the individual behaviours and team tools that are used in the process, based on a wide ranging literature review and the results of research interviews.