Understanding the Current State of Health Information Exchange in Long-Term Care Homes
Abstract
Research Questions: The research questions within this thesis aimed to examine the current state of health information exchange (HIE) processes within the Canadian long-term care (LTC) setting and identify opportunities to improve these processes through the proliferation of health information technology (HIT).
Methods: The first study undertook a scoping review following Levac et al’s. approach to the methodology. Next, an interpretive study using semi-structured interviews and Hsieh and Shannon's conventional content analysis methodology was undertaken.
Findings: The scoping review highlighted that effective HIE processes are susceptible to variations in HIT resources, workload, and social and organizational cultures. The findings of the interpretive study describe common breakdowns in HIE processes and identifies opportunities to connect fragmented information flows through HIT proliferation.
Significance: We recommend accelerating the implementation and adoption of HIT to facilitate intra- and inter-organizational HIE for direct-care providers, to strengthen the efficiency of HIE processes, and to improve the safety and quality of care within the LTC sector.