Presentation
Characterization and Severity Assessment of Barriers to Consultant Information Gathering in Cross-Institutional Referrals
SessionPoster Session 2
Event Type
Poster
TimeWednesday, October 12th4:30pm - 5:30pm EDT
LocationPoster Gallery
DescriptionCross-institutional specialty referrals are characterized by multiple time-consuming, complex infor-mation gathering tasks where a care coordination or communication failure is associated with nega-tive outcomes (e.g., delayed care, repeated testing, frustration). The consultant care team must re-quest, retrieve, receive, and process relevant patient information prior to the consultation appoint-ment. In this study, consultants and referrers participated in semi-structured interviews focused on understanding the information flow and information needs throughout the referral process. Barriers to consultant information gathering were identified and characterized by their severity and root work system factor as described by SEIPS 2.0. A majority of these barriers were associated with tools and technology, and eight barriers had severe or catastrophic severity. These barriers included lack of usability, timely access to all relevant medical records, and knowledge regarding what information is available to be found. The implications of these results and their role in guiding future intervention are discussed.
Authors
Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development Center for Health Information