scholarly journals How Can Home Care Patients and Their Caregivers Better Manage Fall Risks by Leveraging Information Technology?

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dari Alhuwail ◽  
Güneş Koru ◽  
Eun-Shim Nahm
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Fall Risk ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health It ◽  
Physician Practices ◽  
Fall Risks

Objectives: From the perspectives of home care patients and caregivers, this study aimed to (a) identify the challenges for better fall-risk management during home care episodes and (b) explore the opportunities for them to leverage health information technology (IT) solutions to improve fall-risk management during home care episodes. Methods: Twelve in-depth semistructured interviews with the patients and caregivers were conducted within a descriptive single case study design in 1 home health agency (HHA) in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Results: Patients and caregivers faced challenges to manage fall risks such as unmanaged expectations, deteriorating cognitive abilities, and poor care coordination between the HHA and physician practices. Opportunities to leverage health IT solutions included patient portals, telehealth, and medication reminder apps on smartphones. Conclusion: Effectively leveraging health IT could further empower patients and caregivers to reduce fall risks by acquiring the necessary information and following clinical advice and recommendations. The HHAs could improve the quality of care by adopting IT solutions that show more promise of improving the experiences of patients and caregivers in fall-risk management.

scholarly journals Identifying Home Care Clinicians’ Information Needs for Managing Fall Risks

2016 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 211-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dari Alhuwail ◽  
Güneş Koru
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Fall Risk ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Weight Bearing ◽  
Home Health ◽  
Health It ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Fall Risks

SummaryTo help manage the risk of falls in home care, this study aimed to (i) identify home care clinicians’ information needs and how they manage missing or inaccurate data, (ii) identify problems that impact effectiveness and efficiency associated with retaining, exchanging, or processing information about fall risks in existing workflows and currently adopted health information technology (IT) solutions, and (iii) offer informatics-based recommendations to improve fall risk management interventions.A case study was carried out in a single not-for-profit suburban Medicare-certified home health agency with three branches. Qualitative data were collected over a six month period through observations, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. The Framework method was used for analysis. Maximum variation sampling was adopted to recruit a diverse sample of clinicians.Overall, the information needs for fall risk management were categorized into physiological, care delivery, educational, social, environmental, and administrative domains. Examples include a brief fall-related patient history, weight-bearing status, medications that affect balance, availability of caregivers at home, and the influence of patients’ cultures on fall management interventions. The unavailability and inaccuracy of critical information related to fall risks can delay necessary therapeutic services aimed at reducing patients’ risk for falling and thereby jeopardizing their safety. Currently adopted IT solutions did not adequately accommodate data related to fall risk management.The results highlight the essential information for fall risk management in home care. Home care workflows and health IT solutions must effectively and efficiently retain, exchange, and process information necessary for fall risk management. Interoperability and integration of the various health IT solutions to make data sharing accessible to all clinicians is critical for fall risk management. Findings from this study can help home health agencies better understand their information needs to manage fall risks.

scholarly journals Examining Fall Recurrence Risk of Homebound Hispanic Older Adults Receiving Home Care Services

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Guillermina R. Solis ◽  
Jane Dimmitt Champion
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Home Health Care ◽  
Fall Risk ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Home Care Services ◽  
Recurrence Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Risk Of Fall

Introduction: Unintentional falls and injuries is a major problem among older adults and the fourth cause of death in the United States. A previous fall event doubles the risk of recurrence and lessens the person’s quality of life. Hispanic older adults have higher rates of disability and lower independent functioning due to poor medical health and risk for fall recurrence. Most fall studies focus on fall risk with few studies on fall recurrence in older adults receiving home health care services unrelated to fall incident. Method: A descriptive pilot study of 30 homebound Hispanic older adults receiving home care services who reported a fall within 3 months was conducted by a multidisciplinary team to evaluate risk of fall recurrence. Results: A heightened risk for fall recurrence was identified with high number of chronic illnesses, high intake of medications, vision problems, and prevalence of urinary incontinence. Conclusion: Findings highlight significant number of intrinsic factors for fall risk recurrence and injuries in a Hispanic older adults population that is homebound and receiving home care services. A multidisciplinary evaluation and culturally appropriate interventions to lessen the risk of fall recurrence are recommended.

scholarly journals Managing the patient safety risks of bottom-up health information technology innovations: Recommendations for healthcare providers

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Sujan
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Health Information Technology ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Health It ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Patients At Risk

Health information technology (IT) offers exciting opportunities for providing novel services to patients, and for improving the quality and safety of care. Many healthcare professionals are already improving services through the development of numerous bottom-up local health IT innovations. Such innovations from the ground up are to be welcomed, but healthcare providers are struggling to develop processes for managing the risks that come with the introduction of health IT into clinical processes. I argue that too often the main strategy appears to be one of organisational ignorance. This puts patients at risk, and it threatens the successful adoption of health IT. I recommend that healthcare providers focus on strengthening their processes for organisational learning, promoting proactive risk management strategies, and making risk management decisions transparent and explicit.

Journaling among home care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A promising method for qualitative data collection

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502110648
Author(s):  
Julia I Bandini ◽  
Julia Rollison ◽  
Jason Etchegaray
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Home Care Workers

Qualitative methods that capture individual lived experiences throughout rapidly changing circumstances are particularly important during public health emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic has put home care workers at risk as they provide vital services in homes to individuals with chronic conditions or disabilities. Using a 6-week journaling process in which we enrolled participants at different points, we sought to examine experiences of home care workers ( n = 47) in the United States in New York and Michigan during April–July 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our methods for data collection and analysis were guided by a general qualitative approach as we aimed to examine the weekly perspectives and lived experiences of home care workers. We asked individuals to respond to our journaling prompts weekly to capture their reflections in “real time.” To better understand home care workers’ perspectives on journaling and the broader external context in which they provided care, we triangulated our data with interviews with home care workers ( n = 19) and home health agency representatives ( n = 9). We explored the feasibility of a rolling journaling process during an unprecedented public health emergency, characterized by rapid changes and uncertainty in day-to-day life, and reflect on lessons learned to guide future research on journaling for data collection, particularly for marginalized workers during public health crises, when events are evolving rapidly.

scholarly journals A needs assessment of health information technology for improving care coordination in three leading patient-centered medical homes

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 815-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua E Richardson ◽  
Joshua R Vest ◽  
Cori M Green ◽  
Lisa M Kern ◽  
Rainu Kaushal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Health Information Technology ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Care Coordination ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health It ◽  
Patient Centered ◽  
Patient Centered Medical Homes ◽  
Medical Homes ◽  
Current Health

Abstract Objective We investigated ways that patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) are currently using health information technology (IT) for care coordination and what types of health IT are needed to improve care coordination. Materials and Methods A multi-disciplinary team of researchers conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with 28 participants from 3 PCMHs in the United States. Participants included administrators and clinicians from PCMHs, electronic health record (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) representatives, and policy makers. Results Participants identified multiple barriers to care coordination using current health IT tools. We identified five areas in which health IT can improve care coordination in PCMHs: 1) monitoring patient populations, 2) notifying clinicians and other staff when specific patients move across care settings, 3) collaborating around patients, 4) reporting activities, and 5) interoperability. To accomplish these tasks, many participants described using homegrown care coordination systems separate from EHRs. Discussion The participants in this study have resources, experience, and expertise with using health IT for care coordination, yet they still identified multiple areas for improvement. We hypothesize that focusing health IT development in the five areas we identified can enable more effective care coordination. Key findings from this work are that homegrown systems apart from EHRs are currently used to support care coordination and, also, that reporting tools are key components of care coordination. Conclusions New health IT that enables monitoring, notifying, collaborating, reporting, and interoperability would enhance care coordination within PCMHs beyond what current health IT enables.

Technology Innovations for Better Fall Risk Management in Home Care

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 15-20
Author(s):  
Güneş Koru ◽  
Dari Alhuwail ◽  
Onimi Jademi ◽  
Uchenna Uchidiuno ◽  
Robert J. Rosati
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Fall Risk ◽  
Technology Innovations

scholarly journals Opportunities for the use of health information technology to support research

JAMIA Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-325
Author(s):  
Teresa Zayas-Cabán ◽  
Jonathan S Wald
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Health Information Technology ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Biomedical Research ◽  
Data Access ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Data ◽  
Health It ◽  
Electronic Health

Abstract In the last decade, expanding use of health information technology (IT) across the United States has created opportunities for use of electronic health data for health services and biomedical research, but efforts may be hampered by limited data access, data quality, and system functionality. We identify five opportunities to advance the use of health IT for health services and biomedical research, which informed a federal government-led, collaborative effort to develop a relevant policy and development agenda. In particular, the health IT infrastructure should more effectively support the use of electronic health data for research; provide adaptable technologies; incorporate relevant research-related functionality; support patient and caregiver engagement in research; and support effective integration of knowledge into practice. While not exhaustive, these represent important opportunities that the biomedical and health informatics communities can pursue to better leverage health IT and electronic health data for research.

Business: The Electronic Health Record: Front Line Experience

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-22
Author(s):  
Rosemary Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Electronic Health Record ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Record ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Electronic Health

National legislation is in place to facilitate reform of the United States health care industry. The Health Care Information Technology and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) offers financial incentives to hospitals, physicians, and individual providers to establish an electronic health record that ultimately will link with the health information technology of other health care systems and providers. The information collected will facilitate patient safety, promote best practice, and track health trends such as smoking and childhood obesity.

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