Holomua Project-Improving Patient Hand-Offs in Hawaii

Project Details -
Completed

The ultimate goal of the Holomua Project is to increase patient safety, quality, and continuity of care during transitional care for vulnerable populations in Hawai'i, based on the Project Principles of: Patient First; Togetherness/Unity of Stakeholders; Community Based; Respect for People; Vision Oriented and; Involvement. This goal was proposed to be achieved by improving the flow of information between patient/family, community health centers, and hospitals using health information technology (health IT). The target population was vulnerable patients who experience transitional care between two federally qualified community health centers (CHCs), Kokua Kalihi Valley and Kalihi Palama Health Center, and two tertiary care organizations, Hawai'i Pacific Health and The Queen's Medical Center. Vulnerable patients include but are not limited to the economically disadvantaged, Native Hawaiians, immigrants, homeless, uninsured, underinsured, and the undocumented. This project focused on an evaluation with the purpose of providing reliable information to make operational decisions about the progress of the planning process. The main result of this evaluation was the creation of a comprehensive and well-developed implementation plan. The implementation plan aims at the successful implementation of a health IT solution to problems with transitional care. The focus of the Holomua Implementation Project will be refining and/ or creating policies, procedures, and communication processes that will facilitate the exchange of information between transfers and creation of a master visit registry (MVR), reflects the organizational, clinical, information systems and community priorities identified by the Holomua planning work groups.