Informatics in Primary Care (BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT)
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Use of information on the shared customers of healthcare services to support care pathway planning
Get PDFObjective To describe information concerning the use of more than one type of institutional social welfare and healthcare service during one year.
Design A record linkage study based on nationwide administrative registers.
Setting The National Hospital Discharge Register covering the whole of Finland in 1995, 1997 and 1999.
Subjects The total Finnish population of 5.1 million.
Main outcome measures Discharges of the same individuals from different types of services.
Results The percentage of patients/clients using more than one type of service in 1995 and 1999 varied from 21% to 68%, depending on the type of service. High and increasing figures were found in organisations taking care of the elderly and people with multiple problems in primary healthcare institutions.
Conclusions The level of integration in the Finnish social welfare and healthcare system is high and seems to be increasing, especially in health centres. Within one year a client uses many kinds of inpatient services. This may at best represent a functioning system of care pathways and at worst mean overlapping work and lack of coordination. This information is of great importance to senior officers in care pathway planning
The Primary Care National electronic Library for Health (NeLH-PC): a pilot of information-centred knowledge management for primary care - www.nelh-pc.nhs.uk
Get PDFIntroduction: The NeLH-PC (Primary Care National electronic Library for Health) was created as part of the NHS information strategy. It is designed to deliver knowledge to primary care. The rationale for developing this library as a knowledge management tool and where it sits within the science of knowledge management are described.
Method: Focus groups were used to define the questions that arise in primary care that the NeLHPC should be seeking to answer. The Primary Care Library is subject to a cyclical programme of continuous improvement.
Results: A site has been developed to meet users' needs and levels of expertise.NeLH-PC attracts from 500 000 to in excess of 800 000 hits per month.
Conclusions: NeLH-PC provides an exemplar of how a limited range of knowledge management tools is utilised. More investment is needed if a broader range of tools is to be provided. Greater integration is required with educationalists and other information and knowledge services if the library's full potential is to be realised
The confidence and competence of community nurses in using information and communications technology and in accessing clinical evidence through electronic libraries and databases
Get PDFIntroduction Little is known about the confidence and competence of community nurses in using information and communications technology. This survey set out to explore this issue.
Method A questionnaire survey was sent out in the latter half of 2001 to all community nurses in a London community trust. The questionnaire also provided the opportunity for free-text comments.
Results In total, 402 community nurses received questionnaires and 106 (26%) responded. Over half of the respondents felt they were not confident to use email and only just under half the Internet. Nearly a quarter lacked either the skills to use a keyboard or mouse. Less than 10% felt confident or very confident to use online sources of evidence.
Conclusions Even taking into account the low response rate, a large proportion of community nurses lack the confidence and basic competencies to enable them to function effectively in a health service pledged to electronic operation by 2005
Age and gender user differences of a touch-screen kiosk: a study of kiosk transaction log files
Get PDFMore and more health information is provided to the consumer in a digital form but research on who actually accesses and uses this information is unclear. This research identifies age and gender user differences of a touch-screen health kiosk. In a departure from previous research, extensive use is made of electronically recorded user transaction files. In all 1378 user sessions covering 17 039 page views were analysed for this study. This research forms part of a research project funded by the Department of Health.
Men accounted for about 53% of use but this hides an important gender difference: additionally women under 15 are significant under-users of such facilities. Qualitative research is needed to clarify the relationship. Further, it was found that those aged over 75 were not making use of kiosk content pages when compared to other age groups
Overview of the PACS procurement project within South West London
Get PDFPicture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) as the future of radiology is generally accepted, but the challenge is how to deliver this technology to meet the needs of the changing NHS and support evolving patient care packages. Within South West London there is also the challenge of affordability: PACS is not a cost-neutral solution and requires substantial funding support from both secondary and primary care. It is to overcome these issues that a new approach has been taken within South West London. The six service providers have formed a consortium to procure a single sectorwide PACS system to meet the needs of the sector as a whole and deliver the system at the most affordable cost. The project is still in its early stages but, to date, all of the providers are working together and the procurement process is under way. Remaining challenges include funding the project following Shifting the Balance of Power changes, the networking to support the project, and patient identification within a multi Patient Administration System/Radiology Information System (PAS/RIS) environment.
Trends in data recording by general practice teams: an analysis of data extracted from clinical computer systems by the PRIMIS project
Get PDFData quality is a vital attribute in determining the usability and productivity of electronic patient records systems. Evidence is presented that suggests that primary healthcare teams participating in a project offering training and support in the use of information systems have succeeded in achieving improvement in the quality of the data accumulated in their computerised records systems