Care Transition Patient Experience Study With Electronic Tool

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

UNKNOWN

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

240 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2018-02-02

Study Completion Date

2020-06-30

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

Patients being admitted to hospital are becoming more complex and they often require a team of health professionals (doctors from different disciplines, nurses, and allied health professionals) working together to meet their needs. Effective communication among this team and with patients is essential to providing high quality patient-centered care. Care Connector is an electronic tool that was developed to help health professionals communicate about patient care with each other. It also incorporates best practice whenever possible (such as the used of Patient Oriented Discharge Summary \[PODS\] developed at University Health Network) during care transitions. We want to understand whether using electronic tools can address the communication issues faced by patients/families, and whether they impact on repeat visits to the Emergency Department or the hospital after discharge. In this study, we will be asking patients and families who have recently been discharged from hospital to describe their experience with communication and care transitions through a brief telephone survey. All of them will be discharged from units where Care Connector was used. However, some of the units would have used the PODS feature while others will not. A small group will also be invited to participate in an in-depth telephone interview. The results of this study will be used to improve Care Connector and to enhance communication and patient experience in general.

Related Clinical Trials

Explore similar clinical trials based on study characteristics and research focus.

Intervention to Improve Shared Decision Making Among Seniors With Dementia, Their Caregivers and Healthcare Providers

NCT02956694

Dementia Professional-Patient Relations Professional-Family Relations +1 more

COMPLETED NA

Dementia Prevention Internet-Based Intervention: Randomized Controlled Trial and Knowledge Translation

NCT06911047

Dementia Prevention

WITHDRAWN NA

Optimizing Hospital-to-home Transitions for Older Adults With Stroke and Multimorbidity

NCT04278794

Stroke

COMPLETED NA

Evaluation of "My Tools 4 Care" for Family Caregivers of Persons With Dementia

NCT02428387

Family Dementia

COMPLETED NA

Patient Priorities Care Among Persons Living With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

NCT06001775

Dementia Mild Cognitive Impairment

COMPLETED NA

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

In this mixed methods study, we examine how electronic tools impact patient/family experience of communication in hospital and care transitions from hospital to home. Care Connector is an electronic interprofessional communication and collaboration platform initially designed to address communication challenges faced by interprofessional care team. It has been augmented to support care transitions through a care transition module (that include the generation of provider-facing discharge summary and PODS). This study examines the impact of this care transition module on patient/family experience of in-hospital communication and care transitions. The quantitative component is a controlled study where baseline data is collected on 4 medicine wards. The care transition module is then introduced to 2 of the 4 medicine wards (intervention) while the other 2 (control) wards continue to operate without the explicit use of the care transition module. Data is then collected again on all 4 wards to understand impact of patient/family experience, as well as objective outcomes of ED visits and re-admission within 30 days. A number of care transition process measures will also be obtained. In the qualitative component, we will interview patients/families, as well as healthcare providers to understand how technology can or cannot address these issues.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Care Transition Communication

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

NON_RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Care Connector care transition module will be rolled out at 2 of 4 wards (intervention) while the other 2 wards will have usual care

Primary Study Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Intervention

Two of the 4 Medicine wards will have implemented the care transition module of Care Connector

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Care Connector care transition module

Intervention Type OTHER

Care Connector is an electronic interprofessional communication and collaboration tool. Its features include Physician Sign-Out, documentation, interprofessional care planner, messaging, and flow planner. The newest module is a care transition module which allows physicians to electronically generate discharge summaries as well as incorporation of allied health recommendation, but also will pull information into the PODS (Patient Oriented Discharge Summary) format designed by University Health Network. This results in a patient friendly discharge instruction sheet that can be provided to patient. The intervention arm will have access to the care transition feature, while the control wards do not.

Control

Remaining 2 of 4 Medicine wards will use all other aspects of Care Connector (except for care transition module)

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Care Connector care transition module

Care Connector is an electronic interprofessional communication and collaboration tool. Its features include Physician Sign-Out, documentation, interprofessional care planner, messaging, and flow planner. The newest module is a care transition module which allows physicians to electronically generate discharge summaries as well as incorporation of allied health recommendation, but also will pull information into the PODS (Patient Oriented Discharge Summary) format designed by University Health Network. This results in a patient friendly discharge instruction sheet that can be provided to patient. The intervention arm will have access to the care transition feature, while the control wards do not.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

1. General medical patients cared for and discharged by the Hospitalist service
2. Be 18 years of age and above
3. Length of stay for hospitalization is at least 48 hours
4. The discharge destination is home (with or without support), or retirement home
5. Has the cognitive ability to, or has a substitute decision maker (SDM) (if patient is not capable) able to, provide informed consent for this research study
6. Can be contacted by telephone up to 30 days post discharge
7. Able to respond to survey questions over telephone (assistance from family member or other caregiver at the time of telephone survey is permitted)

4. Died in hospital
5. Unable to give informed consent due to language barrier and lack of suitable assistance from family members and/or caregivers and/or SDM (if patient is not capable)
6. Cannot be contacted by telephone after discharge
7. Unable to respond to telephone survey questions for any reason (e.g. hearing impairment, language barrier) and lack of availability of family members and/or other caregivers willing and able to provide assistance

Exclusion Criteria

1. Discharged from a non-Medicine ward (e.g. medicine patient bed spaced to a surgical ward) or from the Emergency Department directly
2. Previously participated in this study (in case of re-admission)

Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No