scholarly journals Healthcare delivery and information provision in bariatric surgery in Germany: qualitative interviews with bariatric surgeons

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Breuing ◽  
Nadja Könsgen ◽  
Katharina Doni ◽  
Annika Lena Neuhaus ◽  
Dawid Pieper

Abstract Background There are several healthcare professionals involved in health information provision regarding bariatric surgery, such as bariatric surgeons, nutritionists, and medical doctors in outpatient settings. Trustworthy health information supports patients in understanding their diagnosis, treatment decisions, and possible prognosis. Therefore, it is necessary to provide health information on bariatric surgery. This study has two distinct objectives. The first is to outline the delivery of healthcare regarding bariatric surgery in Germany. The second is to describe the information provision within healthcare delivery. Methods We conducted 15 semi-structured telephone interviews with bariatric surgeons between April 2018 and February 2019. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The interview guide consisted of four sections (information about the clinic/surgeon and surgical procedures, preoperative procedure, postoperative procedure, information needs). The transcribed interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis supported by MAXQDA software. Results The pre- and postoperative processes differed substantially between clinics. Additionally, every bariatric clinic had its own information provision concept. There were several cost-related issues the surgeons claimed to be relevant for patients, such as nutritional blood tests or postoperative psychotherapy. These issues were often caused by unclearness of responsibility within the medical disciplines involved. Conclusion Healthcare delivery in bariatric surgery in Germany is heterogeneous in terms of pre- and postoperative care. Therefore, preoperative information provision between the clinics differs. The impact of this heterogeneous healthcare delivery and information provision on patients’ information needs regarding bariatric surgery should be further investigated among patients and other healthcare professionals involved.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 117957272094708
Author(s):  
Linda Kristensson ◽  
Ann Björkdahl

Introduction: Stroke not only affects the stroke survivor, it also significantly affects their families. Given the important supportive role that relatives of stroke survivor have, they should receive information that helps them plan and cope with the new situation. The objective of the study was to explore how relatives to stroke survivors perceived the information provided by the stroke unit. Methods: This qualitative study was based on extensive semi-structured interviews with an inductive approach. A heterogeneous convenience sample of relatives to stroke survivor (n=14) was selected. Qualitative content analysis served to analyze the transcribed interview texts. Results: The content analysis yielded four categories, each with 2–3 subcategories. The overall theme was “to be acknowledged or not”: it encompassed the underlying meaning and the relationships between the categories. The four categories were as follows: shifting information needs; striving for information; lacking of continuity and structure; and taking part and being acknowledged. Conclusions: The study highlighted that the relatives of stroke survivors have a strong need for information and showed that the relatives experienced that they did not always feel satisfactorily informed and supported by the healthcare professionals in the stroke unit. A challenge for the healthcare professionals was to be able to give the right information at the right time and in the appropriate way. The study also showed that when the relatives were acknowledged and invited to participate in the rehabilitation process, they were less anxious of the discharge.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Watts ◽  
Scott Fernie ◽  
Andy Dainty

PurposeCorporate social responsibility (CSR) is a prominent topic of debate, and yet remains subject to multiple interpretations. Despite this ambiguity, organisations need to communicate their CSR activity effectively in order to meet varied stakeholder demands, increase financial performance and in order to achieve legitimacy in the eyes of clients and various stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to explore how CSR is communicated, and the impact such communication methods have on CSR practice. More specifically, it examines the disconnect between the rhetoric espoused in CSR reports and the actualities of the ways in which CSR is practiced.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative content analysis of 100 CSR reports published by nine construction contractors informed the design of qualitative interviews. In total, 17 interviews were then conducted with contractors and public body clients.FindingsStrategic ambiguity explains how contractors circumvent the problem of attending to conflicting stakeholder CSR needs. However, this results in a paradox where CSR is simultaneously sustained as a corporate metric and driver, whilst being simultaneously undermined in being seen as a rhetorical device. By examining this phenomenon through the lens of legitimacy, the study reveals how both the paradox and subsequent actions of clients that this provokes, act to restrict the development of CSR practice.Originality/valueThis is the first study to use the lens of legitimacy theory to analyse the relationship between CSR reporting and CSR practice in the construction industry. In revealing the CSR paradox and its ramifications the research provides a novel explanation of the lack of common understandings and manifestations of CSR within the construction sector.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Breuing ◽  
Nadja Könsgen ◽  
Katharina Doni ◽  
Annika Lena Neuhaus ◽  
Dawid Pieper

Abstract BackgroundObesity is a worldwide problem with different treatment options. Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for severe obesity; however, it leads to drastic changes (e.g., changes in everyday life and eating behavior) for patients, which may lead to information needs. Our aim was to identify the information needs of patients undergoing bariatric surgery and to explore the information provision within the healthcare process of bariatric surgery in Germany.MethodsWe conducted n=14 semi-structured telephone interviews between April 2018 and April 2019. The interview guide was designed prior to the interviews and consisted of 4 main sections (demographic information, pre- and postoperative healthcare provision, information needs). The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis with MAXQDA software.ResultsThere were unmet information needs with two factors (time: pre/postoperative and categories of information: general/specific) to be considered. Due to the patients’ description of information, we categorized information into general (different surgical procedures, general nutritional information) and specific (occurring simultaneously with a problem) information. Most patients felt well informed concerning general information. However, it was pointed out that it was not possible to provide complete information preoperatively, as the need for information only arises when there are postoperative (specific) problems. In addition, there seems to be a high demand for specific postoperative information regarding nutrition and nutrition-related problems. However, patients stated that postoperative nutritional counseling is not reimbursed by health insurance funds. The information conveyed in support groups and the exchange of experiences are highly valued by patients. However, some patients describe the information provided within the support groups as unfiltered, frightening or exaggerated.ConclusionOverall, there were unmet information needs. Reimbursement by health insurance funds could increase the use of postoperative nutritional counseling and thus serve existing information needs. Support groups enable an exchange of experiences and therefore offer low-barrier access to information. Cooperation between support groups and healthcare professionals in information provision could be an approach to improving existing information needs or to avoiding the development of information gaps. Furthermore, the development and implementation of a digital solution for (postoperative) information dissemination could be helpful.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashwag Alasmari ◽  
Lina Zhou

BACKGROUND Online Questioning and Answering (Q&A) sites have emerged as an alternative source for serving individuals’ health information needs. Despite the amount of studies concerning the analysis of user-generated content in online Q&A sites, there is an insufficient understanding of the effect of disease complexity on information seeking needs, and the types of information shared, and little research have been devoted to questions that involve multimorbidity. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate online sharing of health information at different levels of disease complexity. In particular, this study gains a deep insight into the effect of disease complexity in terms of information seeking needs, types of information shared, and stages of disease development. METHODS We first selected a random sample of 400 questions from each site. The data cleaning resulted in a final set of 624 questions, 316 questions from Yahoo Answers and 308 from WebMD Answers. We used a mixed data approach, including qualitative content analysis followed by statistical quantitative analysis. RESULTS The analysis of variance One Way ANOVA showed significant differences in the disease complexity (single versus multimorbid disease questions) only on two information seeking needs: diagnosis (F1, 622 =5.08, p=0.00), and treatment (F1, 622 =4.82, p=0.00). There were also statistically significant differences between the two levels of disease complexity when considering the stages of disease development, the general health stage (F1,622 =48.02, p=0.00) and chronic stage (F1,622 =54.01, p=0.00). Moreover, our findings showed significant differences among the two types of disease complexity on all types of shared information, demographic information (F1,622 =32.24, p=0.00), medical all (F1,622 = 16.75, p=0.00), medical diagnosis (F1,622 =11.04, p=0.00), as well as treatment and prevention (F1,622 =14.55, p=0.00). CONCLUSIONS The findings present implications for designing online Q&A sites to better support health information seeking. Future experimental studies should be conducted to verify these findings and provide effective health information from Q&A sites. CLINICALTRIAL


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Scott ◽  
Elisavet Andrikopoulou ◽  
Haythem Nakkas ◽  
Paul Roderick

Background: The overall evidence for the impact of electronic information systems on cost, quality and safety of healthcare remains contested. Whilst it seems intuitively obvious that having more data about a patient will improve care, the mechanisms by which information availability is translated into better decision-making are not well understood. Furthermore, there is the risk of data overload creating a negative outcome. There are situations where a key information summary can be more useful than a rich record. The Care and Health Information Exchange (CHIE) is a shared electronic health record for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that combines key information from hospital, general practice, community care and social services. Its purpose is to provide clinical and care professionals with complete, accurate and up-to-date information when caring for patients. CHIE is used by GP out-of-hours services, acute hospital doctors, ambulance service, GPs and others in caring for patients. Research questions: The fundamental question was How does awareness of CHIE or usage of CHIE affect clinical decision-making? The secondary questions were What are the latent benefits of CHIE in frontline NHS operations? and What is the potential of CHIE to have an impact on major NHS cost pressures? The NHS funders decided to focus on acute medical inpatient admissions as the initial scope, given the high costs associated with hospital stays and the patient complexities (and therefore information requirements) often associated with unscheduled admissions. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals to explore their experience about the utility of CHIE in their clinical scenario, whether and how it has affected their decision-making practices and the barriers and facilitators for their use of CHIE. The Framework Method was used for qualitative analysis, supported by the software tool Atlas.ti. Results: 21 healthcare professionals were interviewed. Three main functions were identified as useful: extensive medication prescribing history, information sharing between primary, secondary and social care and access to laboratory test results. We inferred two positive cognitive mechanisms: knowledge confidence and collaboration assurance, and three negative ones: consent anxiety, search anxiety and data mistrust. Conclusions: CHIE gives clinicians the bigger picture to understand the patient's health and social care history and circumstances so as to make confident and informed decisions. CHIE is very beneficial for medicines reconciliation on admission, especially for patients that are unable to speak or act for themselves or who cannot remember their precise medication or allergies. We found no clear evidence that CHIE has a significant impact on admission or discharge decisions. We propose the use of recommender systems to help clinicians navigate such large volumes of patient data, which will only grow as additional data is collected.


Author(s):  
R. Gnanabai

This chapter describes how health is the most precious component for the happiness and all-round development of human being in the society. Alongside this, information is an important resource for individual growth and survival. Therefore, a Health Information System (HIS) is a system for collecting/processing of data from various sources, and using the information for policy-making and management of health services. This chapter discusses health literacy and its association with health information needs and health information literacy, the status of women in India and their influence in the well-being of the family, and the impact of HIS. This chapter also proves that with enough data obtained from the women of Kanyakumari District in India, the government's policy needs to be directed towards women for the success of its health-care programmes.


Author(s):  
Patricia Whitley ◽  
Hossain Shahriar ◽  
Sweta Sneha

Through a literary review of recent research, this paper examines the mixed impact of health information technology (HIT) on patient care, medical errors, and the quality of healthcare delivery in selected hospital settings such as emergency departments. Specific technologies examined include the electronic health record (EHR), medical devices, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The paper identifies that some healthcare technologies are increasingly valuable in reducing medical errors, improving healthcare quality, and in producing better patient-centered outcomes. It also determines that technologies have complicated the delivery of quality patient care, increased the incidences of clinician burnout, and made receiving quality healthcare in America's hospital systems possibly less sure. The paper concludes with some suggestions for improving HIT's implementations and confirms the need for further evaluation of the impact of HIT in increasing patient safety and clinician well-being.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarentha Chetty ◽  
Varsha Bangalee ◽  
Petra Brysiewicz

Abstract Background The rapid progression of diseases and the complex, changing landscape of healthcare has increased the awareness that interprofessional collaboration is essential in ensuring safe and effective healthcare delivery. However, to develop a “collaborative practice-ready” workforce, organisations need to invest in the application of alternative approaches to the training of healthcare professionals. Purpose of the study To describe the perceptions of healthcare professionals attending an HIV interprofessional collaborative initiative at a non-governmental organization research site in South Africa and to provide suggestions regarding the improvement of this educational programme. Methods Focus group discussions (December 2018 to January 2019), were conducted on a purposeful sample (N = 21) consisting of healthcare professionals (clinicians, pharmacists, pharmacy assistants, and nurses), and clinical trial staff (recruiters, administrators, QC officers, psychologists, counsellors) based at a research site, who were invited to attend a continuing medical education initiative on the pathogenesis and treatment of HIV. Qualitative content analysis was carried out to identify meaning units, which were then condensed and labelled with a code. This was further grouped to form categories. Results Five categories emerged: learning something new, acquiring from each other, promoting company culture, needing company buy-in and teaching methods matter. Interprofessional collaborative learning improved technical capacity, work relationships and company culture. The diversity in learning needs of the different professionals requires a structuring of a curriculum to meet the needs of all. The success of this initiative requires company buy-in/investment and recognition from leaders and higher management with regards to time and resources. Suggestions for improvement included: formalizing the training, introducing more lectures and pitching each topic at different levels i.e. basic, intermediate or advanced, thus ensuring maximum benefit for all. Conclusion Inter-professional learning was perceived as highly valuable. This initiative has the potential to develop further but requires resources and company buy-in. All staff working (clinical and non-clinical) at the NGO site were represented in the interviews, thus ensuring a richer understanding of all perspectives relevant to the study site. The small sample size confined to a single research site, however, prevents these findings from being generalized and limits the applicability of its findings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (06) ◽  
pp. 869-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Cashin ◽  
Stephanie Daley ◽  
Molly Hebditch ◽  
Leila Hughes ◽  
Sube Banerjee

ABSTRACTBackground:There is a need to improve dementia education to prepare future generations of healthcare professionals to deal with the increasing challenges they will face. Time for Dementia is an innovative undergraduate education program for medical, nursing, and paramedic students in the south of England. Success of the program is dependent upon the participation of families (people with dementia and their carers). This qualitative study seeks to explore the motivation and experiences of the families taking part in the program.Methods:A topic guide was developed to understand factors influencing motivation and retention. A purposeful sample of participant families, who had at least 12 months of involvement in the program, were selected from a cohort of 282 families and were invited to take part in an in-depth qualitative interview. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis. This was subsequently refined in an on-going process of analysis aided by the use of Nvivo 11. Interviewing stopped when thematic saturation was reached.Results:Eighteen families took part in an in-depth qualitative interviews. Four themes were identified from the analysis. These themes were motivators, value to family, value to the person with dementia, and student factors.Conclusions:This study identifies underpinning factors that motivate families to join dementia education programs and the impact of such programs upon them. We found that engagement in such programs can have therapeutic benefits to participants, and do not cause harm. These findings can be used to strengthen recruitment and enhance family involvement in similar programs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 160-166
Author(s):  
Catharina Frank ◽  
Camilla Lindbäck ◽  
Christina Takman ◽  
Lena Nordgren

There is a lack of knowledge about healthcare professionals’ perspectives on rehabilitation in relation to heart failure. Still, collaboration between different professionals can impact patients. The purpose of this study was to describe healthcare professionals’ perceptions of their work with patients of working age with heart failure. The sample population consisted of six nurses, one physiotherapist and one cardiologist. One individual interview and two focus-group interviews were conducted. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Three descriptive categories were constructed: ‘the impact of heart failure on patients’ life situations’, ‘heart failure service’, and ‘patients’ process of returning to work’. To support patients, healthcare professionals need to find ways to combine patients’ personal needs with protocol-driven care.


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