Supporting collaboration in multidisciplinary home care teams.
Collaboration is an important part of healthcare delivery. However, in home care, collaboration is difficult due to the mobility and schedule variability of the workers. In this paper, we investigate the difficulties inherent in home care collaboration. We present the results of a study carried out with home care clinicians in Saskatoon District Health, and identify five areas of collaboration that are difficult for home care workers: scheduling, information dissemination, information retrieval, short-term treatment coordination, and long-term treatment planning. We present recommendations for incorporating support for each of these areas into point-of-care clinical information systems that provide access to shared patient records. Finally, we discuss general design approaches for incorporating this type of support, including the need for workers to maintain awareness of the activities of others, and the need to integrate communication with the presentation of the health record.
Pinelle
David
D
Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Gutwin
Carl
C
D003142:Communication; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008134:Long-Term Care; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling