Studies in health technology and informatics
-
Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
A pilot study exploring the clinical benefits when using a Mobile Clinical Assistant, the Motion C5 in medical wards.
Hand held computers and point of care devices have been identified as tools that can support more efficient safe care delivery. This paper describes a pilot which evaluates this technology for usage by the nursing and the wider clinical team. ⋯ The findings were reviewed qualitatively, and thematically analysed. The pilot highlighted significant benefits, the support of the delivery safer more effective care to patients in NHS Lothian.
-
Integrated care pathways, a fine-grained form of medical guideline including the explicit recording of any deviation, or 'variance', have been perceived by some as overly prescriptive, limiting clinical freedom and promoting 'cookbook medicine'. However, feeding the results of the analysis of variance back into the development of a pathway could be an effective way of capturing evidence from practice. This paper summarizes research into the development and use of ICPs, and includes some initial findings from a qualitative study involving clinicians that have helped develop or have used ICPs professionally.
-
Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Understanding the impact on intensive care staff workflow due to the introduction of a critical care information system: a mixed methods research methodology.
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a complex and dynamic tertiary care environment that requires health care providers to balance many competing tasks and responsibilities. Inefficient and interruption-driven workflow is believed to increase the likelihood of medical errors and, therefore, present a serious risk to patients in the ICU. ⋯ Little objective research, however, has investigated these assertions. This paper reports on the design of a research methodology to explore the impact of a CCIS on the workflow of Respiratory Therapists, Pediatric Intensivists, Nurses, and Unit Clerks in a Pediatric ICU (PICU) and a General Systems ICU (GSICU) in Northern Canada.
-
Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
A standard operating protocol (SOP) and minimum data set (MDS) for nursing and medical handover: considerations for flexible standardization in developing electronic tools.
As part of Australia's participation in the World Health Organization, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) is the leading federal government technical agency involved in the area of clinical handover improvement. The ACSQHC has funded a range of handover improvement projects in Australia including one at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH), Tasmania. The RHH project aims to investigate the potential for generalizable and transferable clinical handover solutions throughout the medical and nursing disciplines. ⋯ It considers the implications of these standardized operating protocols and minimum data sets for developing electronic clinical handover support tools. Significantly, the paper highlights a human-centred design approach that actively involves medical and nursing staff in data collection, analysis, interpretation, and systems design. This approach reveals the dangers of info-centrism when considering electronic tools, as information emerges as the only factor amongst many others that influence the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical handover.
-
Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Enhancement of interoperability of disaster-related data collection using Disaster Nursing Minimum Data Set.
Data collected by nurses have the potential to aid in the disaster response if the necessary information can be extracted. The Disaster Nursing Minimum Data Set is proposed to strengthen the interoperability of information and data sharing between agencies to improve relief services to individuals and communities affected by a disaster. This study will examine disaster-related data elements need to be collected by all relief agencies to facilitate interoperability and secondary use of data for research and disaster management.