Study: Health IT's impact on long-term care uncertain
A recent study examining the effects of introducing health IT in long-term care found that nursing home residents responded positively to health IT, but no significant care improvements were realized, according to a recent article published online in the Journal of Aging and Health.
Karl Pillemer, PhD, from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and colleagues evaluated the impact of implementing a comprehensive health IT system on resident clinical, functional and quality of care outcome indicators as well as measures of resident awareness and satisfaction with the technology.
Using a prospective, quasi-experimental study design, the researchers directly assessed 761 nursing home residents In 10 urban and suburban nursing homes in the New York City area. The treatment group included 428 residents and the comparison group 333 included residents
“The system allowed for scheduling and mobile capture of assessments, interventions and treatments, as well as online entry of progress notes by discipline. It further allowed for real-time reporting of sentinel events, quality indicators and quality measures,” the authors wrote. “Secure, wireless and ‘ruggedized’ PDAs for use by [nursing assistants] and nurses allowed access to resident records at any location on the job and enabled staff to enter orders or chart information at bedside or anywhere in the facility.”
Conversion of the facility from paper to electronic records took an average of three months, and all systems were fully operational during the evaluation period, added the authors.
“The study findings actually support health IT in long-term care, given that we didn’t find major effects on residents, and because residents were positive about the health IT implementation," Pillemer stated.
Nearly three-quarters (70.8 percent) of the resident respondents agreed that handheld devices helped staff to better manage their care, the report noted. “A similar percentage (72.8 percent) reported that they were pleased that staff use the handheld devices to better track and manage care.
“Finally, residents were asked to rate changes in their care since the introduction of health IT in the facility. The majority (62.2 percent) felt that the care had stayed the same, and 30.6 percent believed that it improved; only 7.1 percent felt that it had declined. Thus, from the resident perspective, use of the computerized technology does not appear overall to have led to resident dissatisfaction or poor communication.”
“The absence of effects on most indicators is encouraging for the future development of HIT in nursing homes,” the authors concluded, although the single negative finding suggests that further investigation on possible impact on resident behavior is needed.
Karl Pillemer, PhD, from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and colleagues evaluated the impact of implementing a comprehensive health IT system on resident clinical, functional and quality of care outcome indicators as well as measures of resident awareness and satisfaction with the technology.
Using a prospective, quasi-experimental study design, the researchers directly assessed 761 nursing home residents In 10 urban and suburban nursing homes in the New York City area. The treatment group included 428 residents and the comparison group 333 included residents
“The system allowed for scheduling and mobile capture of assessments, interventions and treatments, as well as online entry of progress notes by discipline. It further allowed for real-time reporting of sentinel events, quality indicators and quality measures,” the authors wrote. “Secure, wireless and ‘ruggedized’ PDAs for use by [nursing assistants] and nurses allowed access to resident records at any location on the job and enabled staff to enter orders or chart information at bedside or anywhere in the facility.”
Conversion of the facility from paper to electronic records took an average of three months, and all systems were fully operational during the evaluation period, added the authors.
“The study findings actually support health IT in long-term care, given that we didn’t find major effects on residents, and because residents were positive about the health IT implementation," Pillemer stated.
Nearly three-quarters (70.8 percent) of the resident respondents agreed that handheld devices helped staff to better manage their care, the report noted. “A similar percentage (72.8 percent) reported that they were pleased that staff use the handheld devices to better track and manage care.
“Finally, residents were asked to rate changes in their care since the introduction of health IT in the facility. The majority (62.2 percent) felt that the care had stayed the same, and 30.6 percent believed that it improved; only 7.1 percent felt that it had declined. Thus, from the resident perspective, use of the computerized technology does not appear overall to have led to resident dissatisfaction or poor communication.”
“The absence of effects on most indicators is encouraging for the future development of HIT in nursing homes,” the authors concluded, although the single negative finding suggests that further investigation on possible impact on resident behavior is needed.