Major Research Study Seeks Link Between Technology, Patient Outcomes

Does improved technology use directly result in improved patient outcomes?

Or...

Is the cause-and-effect relationship a myth, the truth being that better outcomes and cutting edge technologies simply tend to be found in the same, well-managed agencies?

And, ultimately...

As long as outcomes are good, does it matter?

Home care has longed to discover the existence of any empirical evidence behind these questions since electronic systems first expanded from the back office to clinician's hands. While many have taken sides, asserting their subjective choice of one answer over the other, reliable research has never been available to objectively settle on one position or the other. That may finally change this year.

A research group led by Carol Anderson, RN, and Laura Tuttle, RN, MBA, has announced that it has partnered with the members of the Home Care Information Technology Council to survey home care agency leadership and jointly publish results.

Anderson told HCAR, "The twin pillars of quality outcomes and financial performance improvement are the indicators of a successful healthcare organization. The ability to accurately measure quality outcomes and benchmark financial performance are critical to knowing whether an organization is moving toward or away from that success. In a world where government and private healthcare payers are poised to change rates and structures yet again, very likely inserting a pay-for-performance component, measurement will attain life-or-death status for most healthcare providers."

"Having noticed a positive correlation between software utilization and higher than average quality outcome indicators," Tuttle added, "we would like to test with research whether our anecdotal observations can be quantified."

They are proposing a three phase research project to analyze trends, perceptions and utilization patterns of electronic medical records (EMR) and other patient-centered technologies among hospice and home health programs. 

During Phase One of the project, home care providers of all types will be invited to complete a simple survey. Once the researchers have a sufficient number of participants that include standalone, hospital-affiliated, not-for-profit, Medicare-certified, Medicaid-focused and private duty home care agencies and hospices, they will create stratified categories of technology implementation, ranging from 100% paper to 100% paperless.

In Phase Two, nurses Anderson and Tuttle and their team will use a second questionnaire, interviews and Home Health Compare scores, where appropriate, to learn whether each agency's patient outcomes have been improving, declining or remaining about the same over time.

Phase Three, with a methodology yet to be determined, will delve deeper into the question of cause and effect.

The Home Care Information Technology Council (HITC) will underwrite some of the research expenses and provide guidance to the research team to help create the technology usage stratification categories, understand initial and ongoing software training practices and analyze results.

Home Care Automation Report will track the project's progress and provide periodic reports but the HITC web site will become the hub for information about how to participate in the project's initial activities. There, one will find updated information about participating in the study and how to access its results.

About the researchers
Carol Anderson, RN, BSN, CHPN and Laura Tuttle, RN, BSN, MBA, CLNC, currently conduct surveys for the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP). Both have served in the past as field nurses and administrators for home care agencies and hospices.

About HITC
Established in 1999, the Council (HITC) is made up today of leading home care and hospice technology companies. Vendors offering software applications, home telehealth systems, data analysis services, Information Technology consulting and educational services to home care and hospice providers can become Council members. Qualified new members are always welcome. Membership information is available at: http://homecaretechnology.com/about/index.html.

The HITC Mission Statement reads:
Information technology helps businesses of all types perform more effectively and operate more efficiently. Like their counterparts in other industries and healthcare market sectors, home care and hospice organizations rely on both established and evolving technologies to help them provide excellent patient care today and to maintain sufficient profitability to allow them to offer the same high level of care tomorrow.

Members of the Home Care Information Technology Council are home care and hospice technology companies that have joined forces to help raise industry awareness and understanding about the benefits of information technology. Our goal is to identify industry best practices; our tool of choice is education.

HITC’s magazines, seminars and web site do not seek to promote one member over another, or members over non-members. We are here to assist those individuals and organizations we admire most, those who provide services that enable our nation’s sick and elderly to remain in their own homes.