Care Coordination Enabled by Health Information Technology: What Will It Take?

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Project Details -
Completed

Health information technology (IT) has the potential to eliminate delays and redundancies in health care by supporting new models of team-based care coordination. The proposed objectives for Stage 3 Meaningful Use (MU) provided a blueprint for sharing information through the electronic health record (EHR) to facilitate care coordination. This project assessed the feasibility and measurability of the proposed care coordination objectives. The care coordination objectives included dashboards to track patient referrals in real time, a care transition record, and electronically notifying care teams of significant patient health care events.

The specific aims of this project were as follows:

  • Assess the technical feasibility and clinical acceptance of the proposed MU Stage 3 objectives for care coordination in diverse practice settings. 
  • Identify organizational and contextual factors that distinguish practices with a higher versus lower level of implementation of EHR functionality and clinical workflows for care coordination envisioned by the proposed MU Stage 3 objectives. 
  • Explore methods for measuring and reporting on implementation of the proposed MU Stage 3 objectives.

A mixed-methods study was conducted at 13 outpatient practices. Researchers found that care coordination activities were limited, and the EHR was infrequently used to support care coordination. Practices with non-clinical staff assigned to care coordination activities were more likely to electronically conduct care coordination activities. Compared to urban practices, rural or suburban practices had greater implementation of care coordination activities. The researchers concluded that most practices will need financial and technical support to optimally use electronic care coordination tools in the EHR.