Perceived effectiveness of clinical pathway software: A before-after study in the Netherlands

Satisfaction with clinical pathway implementation versus job performance of clinicians: empirical evidence on the mediating role of work engagement from public hospitals in Sichuan, China

BACKGROUND

The job performance of clinicians is a clear indicator of both hospital capacity and the level of hospital service. It plays a crucial role in maintaining the effectiveness and quality of medical care. Clinical pathways are a systematic method of quality improvement successfully recommended by broader healthcare systems. Since clinicians play a key role in implementing clinical pathways in public hospitals, this study aims to investigate the effect of the satisfaction of clinicians in public hospitals with clinical pathway implementation on their job performance.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study design was used. Questionnaires were administered online. A total of 794 clinicians completed the questionnaires in seven tertiary public hospitals in Sichuan Province, China, of which 723 were valid for analysis. Questionnaires contained questions on social demographic characteristics, satisfaction with clinical pathway implementation, work engagement, and job performance. Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.

RESULTS

The satisfaction of clinicians in public hospitals with clinical pathway implementation was significantly positively correlated with work engagement (r = 0.570, P < 0.01) and job performance (r = 0.522, P < 0.01). A strong indirect effect of clinicians' satisfaction with clinical pathway implementation on job performance mediated by work engagement was observed, and the value of this effect was 0.383 (boot 95%CI [0.323, 0.448]).

CONCLUSION

The satisfaction of clinicians in public hospitals with clinical pathway implementation not only directly influences their job performance, but also indirectly affects it through the mediating variable of work engagement. Therefore, managers of public hospitals need to pay close attention to clinicians' evaluation and perception of the clinical pathway implementation. This entails taking adequate measures, such as providing strong organizational support and creating a favorable environment for the clinical pathway implementation. Additionally, focusing on teamwork to increase clinicians' satisfaction can further enhance job performance. Furthermore, managers should give higher priority to increasing employees' work engagement to improve clinicians' job performance.

Improved guideline adherence in oncology through clinical decision-support systems: still hindered by current health IT infrastructures?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Despite several efforts to enhance guideline adherence in cancer management, the rate of adherence remains often dissatisfactory in clinical routine. Clinical decision-support systems (CDSS) have been developed to support the management of cancer patients by providing evidence-based recommendations. In this review, we focus on both current evidence supporting the beneficial effects of CDSS on guideline adherence as well as technical and structural requirements for CDSS implementation in clinical routine.

RECENT FINDINGS

Some studies have demonstrated a significant improvement of guideline adherence by CDSSs in oncologic diseases such as breast cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma as well as in the management of cancer pain. However, most of these studies were rather small and designs rather simple. One reason for this limited evidence might be that CDSSs are only occasionally implemented in clinical routine. The main limitations for a broader implementation might lie in the currently existing clinical data infrastructures that do not sufficiently allow CDSS interoperability as well as in some CDSS tools themselves, if handling is hampered by poor usability.

SUMMARY

In principle, CDSSs improve guideline adherence in clinical cancer management. However, there are some technical und structural obstacles to overcome to fully implement CDSSs in clinical routine.

Stakeholders barriers and facilitators for the implementation of a personalised digital care pathway: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVE

A prerequisite for patient-centredness in healthcare organisations is offering patients access to adequate health information, which fits their needs. A personalised digital care pathway (PDCP) is a tool that facilitates the provision of tailored and timely information. Despite its potential, barriers influence the implementation of digital tools in healthcare organisations. Therefore, we investigated the perceived barriers and facilitators for implementation of the PDCP among stakeholders.

DESIGN

A qualitative study was conducted to acquire insight into perceptions of the stakeholders involved in the implementation of a digital care pathway in three diverse patient groups.

SETTING

This study is part of the PDCP research project in a large academic hospital in the Netherlands.

PARTICIPANTS

Purposive sampling was used to recruit internal stakeholders (eg, healthcare professionals, employees of the supporting departments) and external stakeholders (eg, employees of the external PDCP supplier). In addition, existing semistructured interviews with patients involved in pilot implementation (n=24) were used to verify the findings.

RESULTS

We conducted 25 semistructured interviews using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Content analyses yielded four themes: (1) stakeholders' perceptions of the PDCP (eg, perceived usefulness); (2) characteristics of the individuals involved and the implementation process (eg, individuals express resistance to change); (3) organisational readiness (eg, lack of resources); and (4) collaboration within the organisation (eg, mutual communication, multidisciplinary codesign). The main barriers mentioned by patients were duration of first activation and necessity for up-to-date content. In addition, the most facilitating factor for patients was user-friendliness.

CONCLUSION

Our findings emphasise the importance of gaining insights into the various perspectives of stakeholder groups, including patients, regarding the implementation of the PDCP. The perceived barriers and facilitators can be used to improve the PDCP implementation plan and tailor the development and improvement of other digital patient communication tools.

Effects of Organizational Atmosphere and Organizational Practice on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Toward Diffusion and Utilization of Hepatic Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Among Physicians

Background

Promoting technology diffusion and utilization is a key measure to address the great disparity in technical capacity within integrated health systems. However, even the effectiveness and appropriateness regarding technology has been widely recognized, its diffusion and utilization are still stagnant. The mechanisms that influence the technology from being recognized to being widely applied in practice remain largely unknown.

Purpose

Taking hepatic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) as an example, this study aimed to investigate the comprehensive influencing mechanism of organizational atmosphere and organizational practice on the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward diffusion and utilization of hepatic CEUS in the medical alliance.

Methods

Based on the integration of organizational ready for change (ORC) and knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP), a structured questionnaire was developed. A multistage random sampling method was applied to investigate physicians who directly use CEUS working at the liver disease-related departments of sampled health institutions. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to verify the proposed hypotheses, and determine the relationship between the factors.

Results

In total, 292 physicians were included. SEM results demonstrated that knowledge influenced both attitude and practice, while attitude positively predicted practice. Organizational practice and organizational atmosphere associated positively with each other. Organizational atmosphere positively affected the physicians' attitude toward CEUS diffusion and utilization (β = 0.425, p < 0.001), while organizational practice positively affected corresponding knowledge (β = 0.423, p < 0.001) and practice (β = 0.275, p < 0.001). Additionally, there was a partial mediating effect between organizational practice and physicians' CEUS diffusion and utilization behavior.

Conclusion

By verifying the influencing mechanism of organizational atmosphere and organizational practice on the physicians' KAP of hepatic CEUS diffusion and utilization, this study benefit tailoring strategies for promoting technology diffusion and utilization within medical alliance. It is recommended to develop an organizational atmosphere of advocating technology innovation, establish organizational support mechanism (SM) with multiple concrete supporting countermeasures, and so on.

Facilitating the Implementation of Standardized Care Plans in Municipal Healthcare

Standardized care plans have the potential to enhance the quality of nursing records in terms of content and completeness, thereby better supporting workflow, easing the documentation process, facilitating continuity of care, and permitting systematic data gathering to build evidence from practice. Despite these potential benefits, there may be challenges associated with the successful adoption and use of standardized care plans in municipal healthcare information practices. Using a participatory approach, two workshops were conducted with nurses and nursing leaders (n = 11) in two Norwegian municipalities, with the objective of identifying success criteria for the adoption and integration of standardized care plans into practice. Three themes were found to describe the identified success criteria: (1) "facilitating system level support for nurses' workflow"; (2) "engaged individuals creating a culture for using standardized care plans"; and (3) "developing system level safety nets." The findings suggest success criteria that could be useful to address to facilitate the integration of standardized care plans in municipal healthcare information practice and provide useful knowledge for those working with implementation and further development of standardized care plans.

Human Factors and Organizational Issues in Health Informatics: Innovations and Opportunities

OBJECTIVE

Human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) frameworks and methods are becoming embedded in the health informatics community. There is now broad recognition that health informatics tools must account for the diverse needs, characteristics, and abilities of end users, as well as their context of use. The objective of this review is to synthesize the current nature and scope of HF/E integration into the health informatics community.

METHODS

Because the focus of this synthesis is on understanding the current integration of the HF/E and health informatics research communities, we manually reviewed all manuscripts published in primary HF/E and health informatics journals during 2020.

RESULTS

HF/E-focused health informatics studies included in this synthesis focused heavily on EHR customizations, specifically clinical decision support customizations and customized data displays, and on mobile health innovations. While HF/E methods aimed to jointly improve end user safety, performance, and satisfaction, most HF/E-focused health informatics studies measured only end user satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

HF/E-focused health informatics researchers need to identify and communicate methodological standards specific to health informatics, to better synthesize findings across resource intensive HF/E-focused health informatics studies. Important gaps in the HF/E design and evaluation process should be addressed in future work, including support for technology development platforms and training programs so that health informatics designers are as diverse as end users.

What factors predict physicians' utilization behavior of contrast-enhanced ultrasound? Evidence from the integration of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Technology Acceptance Model using a structural equation modeling approach

BACKGROUND

The promotion of early diagnosis is undoubtedly effective in reducing the burden of disease. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a diagnostic technology for liver cancer, but its implementation faces some challenges. Understanding the influencing factors of CEUS utilization is crucial for its successful implementation. However, such research is rare. The aims of this study were to investigate the status of CEUS utilization and its predictors in China.

METHODS

Through multistage random sampling, a cross-sectional study design was conducted among physicians in charge of direct use of CEUS working at liver disease-related departments of sampled health institutions. To access the potential influencing factors of physicians' CEUS utilization, a structured questionnaire was developed based on the theoretical model, which was developed by integration of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Structural equation modeling was used to verify the proposed hypotheses, and analyze the relationship and mechanism between the factors.

RESULTS

A total of 309 physicians were enrolled. The mean score of utilization behavior was 2.04 (SD = 1.07), and 37.22% above the mean. The favorable fitting results demonstrated that the integration of TAM and TPB was an acceptable model. SEM results also identified physicians' intentions to use CEUS was directly associated with utilization behavior (β = 0.287, P < 0.001). Attitude (β = 0.272, P < 0.001), subjective norm (β = 0.172, P = 0.013), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.491, P < 0.001) and perceived usefulness (β = 0.108, P = 0.027) significantly influenced physicians' intentions. Besides, subjective norm (β = 0.065, P = 0.021), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.141, P = 0.003), and perceived ease of use (β = 0.022, P = 0.033) indirectly affected physicians' CEUS utilization.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings provide a reference for understanding the factors associated with physicians' utilization of CEUS. Additionally, the proposed measures such as building innovative and incentive environment, providing high quality and adequate training, etc., will help promote the utilization of CEUS, thereby increasing the detection rate of liver cancer, and improving the survival rate and the quality of life for liver cancer patients.