Event Description
The demand for home care is growing due to an aging population living longer with multiple chronic diseases and preferring to remain in their homes instead of using facility-based care. Home care engages multiple care providers (e.g., physicians, nurses, therapists, social workers) to work together as a team in the patient’s home in care planning and provision. Admission to homecare represents a transition from one level of care to another (most often from acute care to community-based homecare) for over 11 million older adults per year. Electronic health records (EHR) play an important role in supporting the timely and efficient collection, transmission, and synthesis of information during home care patient care. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has twice funded our team to investigate whether EHRs help or hinder home care clinicians practice at the point of care. In our completed R21 study, we investigated barriers and facilitators to EHR use as intended. Our findings indicated that EHR had a positive impact on interdisciplinary communication; timeliness and completeness of documentation; and on some patient outcomes. However, clinician efficiency was negatively impacted and electronic exchange of information along transition in care was lacking. In our current R01 study, we are investigating EHR impact on skilled nursing admission decisions related to the plan of care. Findings from our research are: (1) of interest to clinicians who use EHRs in hospital as well as ambulatory settings; and (2) relevant to efforts to improve transitions in care and decrease unplanned hospital readmissions.
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