Note: The following articles address HIT and care coordination from different perspectives and in different situations. Select from this list the articles that are most interesting or relevant for you.
· Bates, D. W. (2015). Health information technology and care coordination: The next big opportunity for informatics? Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 10(1), 11–14.
. Identifies specific gaps in care coordination today, presents a framework for better coordinating care using HIT, then describes how specific technologies can be leveraged. Also discussed are the need to build and test specific interventions to improve HIT-related care coordination tools, and the key policy steps needed to accomplish this.
· Kravitz, R. L. (2015). Caring for the complex patient: The next hurdle for information technology is care coordination. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 30(8), 1043–1044.
. Asks whether technology is the answer to delivering care at the highest quality at the lowest cost.
· NewsEx. (2014). Patents; “method and system for automated healthcare care coordination and care transitions” in patent application approval process. (2014). Information Technology Newsweekly, 670.
. A news release containing information about a patent application for a method, computer-readable medium, and system for coordinating health care services.
· Piscotty, R. J., .Kalisch, B., & Gracey, T. A. (2015). Impact of healthcare information technology on nursing practice. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 47(4), 287–293.
. Examines whether nurses’ perceptions of the impact of health care information technology on their practice mediates the relationship between electronic nursing care reminder use and missed nursing care.
· Richardson, J. E., Vest, J. R., Green, C. M., Kem, L. M., Kaushal, R., and the HITEC Investigators. (2015). A needs assessment of health information technology for improving care coordination in three leading patient-centered medical homes. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 22(4), 815–820. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jamia/ocu039
. An investigation of ways that patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) are currently using health information technology (IT) for care coordination and what types of health IT are needed to improve care coordination.
· Rigby, M., Georgiou, A., Hyppönen, H., Ammenwerth, E., de Keizer, N., Magrabi, F., & Scott, P. (2015). Patient portals as a means of information and communication technology support to patient-centric care coordination – the missing evidence and the challenges of evaluation: A joint contribution of IMIA WG EVAL and EFMI WG EVAL. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 10(1), 148–159.
. Discusses the potential contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enable patient-centric and coordinated care. Explores the role of patient portals as a developing ICT tool, assesses the available evidence, and describes the evaluation challenges.
· Saillour-Glenisson, F., Duhamel, S., Fourneyron, E., Huiart, L., Jean, P. J., Langlois, E., . . . Salmi, L. R. (2017). Protocole of a controlled before-after evaluation of a national health information technology-based program to improve healthcare coordination and access to information. BMC Health Services Research, 17, 1–11.
. Examines the role of HIT in improving health care coordination and access to information for health care providers, patients, and the population.
· Wodarski, J. S., & Green, P. D. (2015). Health information technology: An expanded care coordination in rural Tennessee. Social Work In Public Health, 30(5), 431–442.
. Examines the efficacy of HIT in a substance abuse treatment program.
Preparation
As the senior care coordinator in your organization, your manager has asked you to examine and report on how care coordination can generate cost savings, improve outcomes, enhance the collection of evidence-based data, and improve health care quality. She would like you to compile cost savings data in a well-organized spreadsheet and present your key findings in an executive summary.
Note: Remember that you can submit all, or a portion of, your draft spreadsheet and executive summary to Smarthinking for feedback, before you submit the final version for this assessment. However, be mindful of the turnaround time of 24–48 hours for receiving feedback, if you plan on using this free service.
Requirements
Determine how care coordination can reduce costs. Compile your cost savings data in a spreadsheet, using Microsoft Excel or suitable application of your choice. Your spreadsheet should contain at least four cost-saving elements that you will discuss in your executive summary. Identify the cost saving element, current costs, and anticipated savings.
If you elect to use an application other than Excel, check with your instructor to avoid potential file compatibility issues. Report key findings from your analysis in an executive summary.
Executive Summary Format and Length
Format your executive summary using APA style.
· Use the APA Style Paper Template, linked in the Required Resources. An APA Style Paper Tutorial is also provided (linked in the Suggested Resources) to help you in writing and formatting your executive summary. Be sure to include:
. A title page and reference page. An abstract is not required.
. A running head on all pages.
. Appropriate section headings.
