Appl Clin Inform 2015; 06(02): 248-266
DOI: 10.4338/ACI-2014-12-RA-0113
Research Article
Schattauer GmbH

Preparing Nursing Homes for the Future of Health Information Exchange

G.L. Alexander
1   University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
,
M. Rantz
1   University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
,
C. Galambos
1   University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
,
A. Vogelsmeier
1   University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
,
M. Flesner
1   University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
,
L. Popejoy
1   University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
,
J. Mueller
1   University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
,
S. Shumate
2   Primaris, Columbia, Missouri
,
M. Elvin
3   Professional Services, Iatric Systems, Inc.
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Correspondence to:

Gregory L. Alexander
Associate Professor
University of Missouri
Sinclair School of Nursing
Columbia MO 65211

Publication History

received: 11 December 2014

accepted: 27 February 2015

Publication Date:
19 December 2017 (online)

 

Summary

Objective: Our purpose was to describe how we prepared 16 nursing homes (NHs) for health information exchange (HIE) implementation.

Background: NH HIE connecting internal and external stakeholders are in their infancy. U.S. initiatives are demonstrating HIE use to increase access and securely exchange personal health information to improve patient outcomes.

Method: To achieve our objectives we conducted readiness assessments, performed 32 hours of clinical observation and developed 6 use cases, and conducted semi-structured interviews with 230 participants during 68 site visits to validate use cases and explore HIE.

Results: All 16 NHs had technology available to support resident care. Resident care technologies were integrated much more with internal than external stakeholders. A wide range of technologies were accessible only during administrative office hours. Six non-emergent use cases most commonly communicated by NH staff were: 1) scheduling appointments, 2) laboratory specimen drawing, 3) pharmacy orders and reconciliation, 4) social work discharge planning, 5) admissions and pre-admissions, and 6) pharmacy-medication reconciliation. Emerging themes from semi-structured interviews about use cases included: availability of information technology in clinical settings, accessibility of HIE at the point of care, and policies/procedures for sending/receiving secure personal health information.

Conclusion: We learned that every facility needed additional technological and human resources to build an HIE network. Also, use cases help clinical staff apply theoretical problems of HIE implementation and helps them think through the implications of using HIE to communicate about clinical care.

Citation: Alexander GL, Rantz M, Galambos C, Vogelsmeier A, Flesner M, Popejoy L, Mueller J, Shumate S, Elvin M. Preparing nursing homes for the future of health information exchange. Appl Clin Inf 2015; 6: 248–266

http://dx.doi.org/10.4338/ACI-2014-12-RA-0113


 


Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work.


Correspondence to:

Gregory L. Alexander
Associate Professor
University of Missouri
Sinclair School of Nursing
Columbia MO 65211