Obstacles Experienced by Care Managers in Managing Information for the Care of Chronically Ill Patients

"It closes the gap when the ball is dropped": patient perspectives of a novel smartphone app for regional care coordination after hospital encounters

BACKGROUND

Despite the broad adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) for inpatient and outpatient care, and wide availability of EHR-linked portals, these tools are not always effective in informing primary care teams about patients' emergency department (ED) visits or inpatient admissions, leading to persistent gaps in care coordination. The objective of this study was to understand how patients with limited patient portal use in a safety net setting engaged with a smartphone app that used location tracking to detect and notify care teams about patients' hospital use in order to stimulate care coordination and follow-up care.

METHODS

We recruited English- and Spanish-speaking adults at high risk of hospital use from a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). The app detected when patients visited the hospital and asked them to confirm a hospital visit. When confirmed, the app notified the primary care team about the visit, and the care team followed up with patients according to the FQHC protocols for care coordination. We collected qualitative data on app experience from participants who used the app for four months and used a general inductive approach to identify recurring themes.

RESULTS

Participants generally reported a positive app experience, as it helped solve the problem of poor follow-up care. "I liked the goal of the app…Ultimate goal of it was comforting", recounted one participant when describing her app experience. Participants thought the app push notifications could be refined and the app itself could be modernized. Participants also suggested improvements to the push notifications they received from the app and the visit information they entered into the app for care teams to receive. Some participants also suggested improvements to the FQHC's care coordination workflows facilitated by the app, like an immediate connection to the patient's primary care team.

CONCLUSIONS

The app was well received by low-income patients at high risk of ED/inpatient visits. Future research is needed to determine feasibility of implementation in other settings.

An investigation of the information technology needs associated with delivering chronic disease care to large clinical populations

BACKGROUND

The growing number of individuals with complex medical and social needs has motivated the adoption of care management (CM) - programs wherein multidisciplinary teams coordinate and monitor the clinical and non-clinical aspects of care for patients with chronic disease. Despite claims that health information technology (IT) is essential to CM, there has been limited research focused on the IT needs of clinicians providing care management to large groups of patients with chronic disease.

OBJECTIVE

To assess clinicians' needs pertaining to CM and to identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks associated with the delivery of CM to large groups of patients with chronic disease.

METHODS

A qualitative study of two HIV care programs. Methods included observations of multidisciplinary care team meetings and semi-structured interviews with physicians, care managers, and social workers. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the data.

RESULTS

CM was perceived by staff as requiring the development of novel strategies including patient prioritization and patient monitoring, which was supported by patient registries but also required the creation of additional homegrown tools. Common challenges included: limited ability to identify pertinent patient information, specifically in regards to social and behavioral determinants of health, limited assistance in matching patients to appropriate interventions, and limited support for communication within multidisciplinary care teams.

CONCLUSION

Clinicians delivering care management to chronic disease patients are not adequately supported by electronic health records and patient registries. Tools that better enable population monitoring, facilitate communication between providers, and help address psychosocial barriers to treatment could enable more effective care.

Care coordination for chronically ill patients: Identifying coordination activities and interdependencies

Care coordination is important for chronically ill patients who need assistance from a variety of healthcare professionals especially when they transition through different care settings. There has not been a clear definition of care coordination and its associated activities. This paper provides a two-dimension framework of care coordination for chronically ill patients: 1) coordination activities (i.e. communication and monitoring) and 2) interdependencies (i.e. flow, shared resources, simultaneity). We used this framework in a qualitative content analysis of 12 interviews with healthcare professionals involved in coordinating care of chronically ill patients. We identified a total of 258 care coordination activities and developed categories and sub-categories using the constant comparative method. The first category of care coordination activities involves communication with flow or shared resources interdependencies or both. This category includes arranging services and equipment for the patient, exchanging information about patient transition to different care settings, reporting errors and resolving them, and helping the patient with appointments and transportation. The second category involves monitoring, sometimes combined with communication, with flow or shared resources interdependencies or both. This category includes reviewing medications and services and detecting errors, reviewing patient symptoms and following up if needed, and scheduling follow-up to review patient status. The last category involves communication with simultaneity interdependency. This category involves talking in the same location and developing a plan of care, people exchanging information at the same time, and scheduling delivery of medications/services to correspond with patient arrival home. Finally, we identified characteristics of health information technology that can support these various care coordination activities.

Technology barriers and strategies in coordinating care for chronically ill patients

Care managers who coordinate care for chronically ill patients in hospitals and outpatient settings use multiple health information technologies for accessing, processing, documenting, and communicating patient-related information. Using a combination of 41 interviews and observations of 15 care managers, we identified a range of technology-related barriers experienced by care managers (total of 163 occurrences). The barriers are related to (lack of) access to information, inadequate information, limited usefulness and usability of the technologies, challenges associated with using multiple health IT, and technical problems. In 43% of the occurrences, care managers describe strategies to deal with the technology barriers; these fit in three categories: nothing/delay (9 occurrences), work-arounds (32 occurrences), and direct action at the individual, team, and organization levels (29 occurrences). Our data show the adaptive capacity of care managers who develop various strategies to deal with technology barriers and are, therefore, able to care for chronically ill patients. This information can be used as input to work system redesigns.

Exploring multiple working arrangements in Norwegian engineering, procurement, and construction industry from a middle manager and supervisor perspective: A sociotechnical system perspective

With a scarcity of research on multiple working arrangements, the aim of the paper is to contribute empirical data from a Norwegian engineering, procurement, and construction enterprise that shed light on the challenges and benefits of a 14-21 working arrangement in itself and in relation to other working arrangements. We combine a sociotechnical system perspective with systematic content analysis using QSR NVivo, which reveals organizational complexity comprised of indirect, direct, positive, negative, and mutual interplays between various aspects of the enterprise, including processes and outcomes. We find that the 14-21 working arrangement, in combination with other factors of the work system, sets the premises for work processes and outcome factors that are both beneficial and challenging to individuals and the organization. We also find that work process factors, such as work and information flow as well as follow-up and facilitation, depend on the presence of, and dynamic coordination and communication among, individuals across the organization. This in turn requires a support network, work groups, and supervisors to be on the same working arrangement.